Is walking alone enough to assist in the weight loss process and to keep toned?

Knee and elbow problems keep me from doing any rigorous exercise and I hesitate to join Curves, etc. because of my limitations.

Does anyone JUST walk and have success?

Yes yes yes yes yes walking works. I was my happiest and losing my weight the quickest when I was walking 3 miles a day. Woohooo gotta get back to it.

I go to curves and skip 4 of the machines because of my back and knees.

I don't walk as much as I should but I do do curves. I have for the ast 2 weeks gone 4 and 5 days. On my off days I just go on the boards that they have and jog in place and move my arms. It gets me out of the house and I feel accountable to the people there.

I have only heard wonderful things about walking so if that is all you can do go for it and you will have great success. I just don't want you to think you can't go to curves if you can't use all of the machines.

good luck

Hey Ginger, hang in there. Walking is a really good start.

The more you do, and lose, the more you will feel like doing,

don"t get discouraged.

When I began my journey fifteen months ago, I couldn't walk

a block without stopping and my knees screaming at me.

For the first eight months, thats all I did, just a little walking,

maybe a mile three times a week. Now that I have reached my

goal, I feel better than I have in years. I walk still three times

a week about two miles, bike, and now play adult soccer.

You will get there! Be patient grasshopper. I did....

Fifteen months post op, 200 pounds lost, Starting BMI of 54,

now 24. 70 inches total gone, and I'm high on life.:clap2:

Walking is great exercise.

Contrary to popular opinion: You can not target fat on your body. It does not matter which muslces you exercise as far a weight loss and fat reduction is concerned. Have you ever noticed that the Olympic track stars have toned arms? No flab!

Is walking alone enough to assist in the weight loss process and to keep toned?

Walking with a friend is better than walking alone.

I walk for my exercise. I am not into anything else as far as exercise goes. In fact, I just finished my walk.

Shawn

Shawn...obviously walking is working for you, based on your total weight loss. Way to go!!

Do you find you are getting toned with just walking, ie. no flabby arms, belly, etc.?

I haven't done anything but walk yet because arthritis and just plain ol' being heavy and outta shape.....but I'm proud to be able to walk a mile now!! I keep reading that strength training is important but maybe I can talk myself into some of that later when I get over feeling like an alien at the gym.

I feel that I am toned. Although, I do have looser skin than I like. Whether you end up w/flabby skin depends upon your genetics, how much weight you've lost, and possibly how fast.

Muscle toned...skin alright!

Shawn

I think walking is a good start but really isn't enough, you just don't burn many calories walking. Jogging, lifting weights, swimming, more active stuff works better, or the elliptical is better too. It's a good start though.

I think its a great start. My DH and I have a great routine going where he walks with Eliza in the jogger and I jog beside him. Because he's bigger and taller than me he can walk much faster, I simply cant keep up with him. So he's walking at the same speed I'm running, lol. Which goes to show that if you really put the effort into walking (not just strolling) you can really get a workout - he wore the heart rate monitor the other night and was up at around 155 and we did 8km in under an hour - that's 5 miles.

However, I'm the one jogging - and for me proportionally its more work than he's doing - because I"m smaller, less muscular and female. I've surpassed walking now, even though I've gotten much much fitter over the past year, my maximum walking pace has not increased, physiologically, I simply cannot do more than about 6.5 kms per hour or my gait starts to suffer and I hurt my back. I have to break into a run at that point. Now, walking full pelt at my absolute fastest, I cant get my heart rate above about 130, which for me is not even a workout. I can workout comfortably now in the 160's, as I'm used to running.

BUT - I didnt start out that way. I started slowly and just increased slowly and steadily. I had really bad ankle problems, it would have been dead easy to say "oh, I cant run" and never feel I had to but over time, the running has greatly increased the strength I have in that leg and rebalanced it with my other leg, and plenty of stretching has increased the range of motion - so a high impact, injury prone sport like running has actually improved the musculoskeletal problems I had.

I walk for an hour about 4 times a week...and have been loosing on average about 3.3 lb a week. However, over winter I stopped walking (due to weather...and i admit procrastination!) and guess what? .... I stopped loosing weight...for six months I stayed stagnant...now I have started walking again low and behold the weight is comming off as before.

Walking is fabulous. Especially if you have never been particularly active.

I have also found that FOR ME - the Eliptical machine is even better because it is a pretty much zero impact exercise - it's like treading Water, or a slow jog without the pounding. Burns LOTS of calories but causes NO damage.

My first time on the eliptical was only 2 minutes. I then worked up to 5, and then ten, etc.

Now, about 9 months later, I can go 30 minutes and my knees have improved dramatically.

For back pain - you have to do abdominals - crunches, machines, whatever. It sucks - but it works.

Good luck!!

I've been walking 2.5 - 3.5 miles 4x week. I'm enjoyed a steady weight decline and benefitting greatly from having been banded. Before surgery, walking to the mailbox was a chore. I'm planning on staying with walking, varying pace and distance as necessary to keep from straining the feet, ankles, knees, hips and lower back. I highly recommend starting with walking. Get a digital pedometer to gauge how far and fast you're going and what the calorie burn is. It's a great motivator.

Regular leisure walking is not enough. Walking briskly and in intervals of fast, slow, intermediate pace is good and will be very beneficial to your health, as well as aid you in weightloss. If you do join a gym, I suggest the Elliptical (low impact on the knees) but you are able to have an actual "cardio" workout on it without killing your joints.

Swimming - low to no impact on the knees and very therapeutic

Yes, there's a very big distinction between leisure walking and fitness walking. Fitness walking is every bit as hard as jogging - in fact I started jogging because I couldnt hack the walking. It was too hard on my body - the exaggerated gait etc, I'd do my back every time. But in terms of getting the heart rate up and burning fat walking very briskly is fantastic.

In my recent 10km race, I paced myself jogging against a lady who must have been 70 walking - I couldnt catch her unless I put on a pace I couldnt maintain. She was moving every bit as fast as I was.

THAT kind of walking is all you'd ever need to do. But like jogging it takes building up to it and I find the problem with it is I dont maintain the pace, I keep finding I've slowed down.