Fat - Be - Gone

[Atlanticmike]

Week one weigh in - (9/30/2021)

Starting weight - 224
Current weight - 223

A few very brief things - Then I will post my number again in one week.

Not really disappointed by the one pound loss but I am a little disappointed. I did not walk every day, I walked 3 times, at night, for the week and I walked approximately 1 mile each time at a very modest pace.

Remember that at this point, calorie reduction is the key, more so than the walking. Watching what’s on your plate has the greatest impact at the start. Low-intensity activities are going to help you achieve your goal but they’re initially a smaller component of reducing waist size.

Walking establishes a good habit and a healthier cardiovascular system, which in turn primes you for overall success in meeting your longer-term weight loss goals. So, don’t stop walking, but don’t worry too much about time or distance yet. Your comfort with and desire for activity will naturally increase as you continue.

I totally disagree. In my experience, if a person is used to being stationary day after day, exercise is the #1 thing they can do. I've seen many people keep eating exactly the same and add a daily exercise routine and lose a lot of weight the first week. Walking 5 to 7 miles a day, or 1 to 1.5 hours can improve your overall health tremendously. If the person is motivated and sets a goal of walking 2 hours a day for a whole month, losing 15 pounds the first month is possible without changing their diet. A 20 to 30 minute walk will help your overall health, but I've never seen someone lose weight by walking for twenty minutes a day.

[Atlanticmike]

So...the fact that you haven't been asked what, if any, underlying health conditions you have, your age, whatever meds you might be on.

Is the very reason why hot shot over there needs to stop asking questions like this:

How much time does it take you to walk a mile?

On it's face, that seems to be a benign question and yet, I have seen him make claims on this board regarding health/fitness without regard to age, health conditions, age, medications or even gender.

Those particulars matter.

Stop being a ding-a-ling Snooki. I knew enough about ceeboo to ask him that question. I've said in previous post just start walking, doesn't matter how fast at first. Walking is one of the best exercises you can do. Most people start a walking routine and give up because they don't see instant results. But a daily walking routine to lose weight should always be for at least 60 minutes minimum. If you can make it 90 to 120 minutes the results will be that much quicker. There's a guy that walks the track down the street from me that was huge and his ankles had swollen up, can't remember from what health condition, but he had to wear special socks that put pressure on his lower legs so he could walk. He's lost a lot of weight and he walks for at least 120 minutes a day, rain or shine, hot or freezing. At first, he walked a 26 minute mile. Now he walks a 21 minute mile. He probably won't get much faster because of his age and health conditions, but he has made huge improvements. Diet had stayed the same.

[canpakes]

I totally disagree. In my experience, if a person is used to being stationary day after day, exercise is the #1 thing they can do. I've seen many people keep eating exactly the same and add a daily exercise routine and lose a lot of weight the first week.

Exercise is absolutely essential. I think you’re misreading that post, though. I’m saying that starting a walking program should not be depended upon alone to yield the fastest results. Caloric reduction is quicker, and for some folks, easier than trying to suddenly start a fitness routine.

Case in point - if I go out and walk 10,000 steps (between 4 -5 miles), I’ll burn as many calories as I can replace by eating one of these in 2 minutes:



So, in two minutes, I can totally nullify a good day’s walking exercise.

That’s why caloric decrease is easier to begin with, especially for folks who have been sedentary. It’s easier to simply not eat the Hostess Apple Pie than it is to go out and walk 5 miles. Takes a whole lot less time to not eat something, than exercise, too. The key here is to maximize the impact of these early dietary steps without burning out the person from imposing unrealistic expectations and time commitment from relying on exercise alone.

Now, imagine if Ceeboo doesn’t eat his daily Hostess Apple Pie (apologies, Ceebs; I’m not saying that you do this!) and walks 5 miles? Bonus speedier waistline reduction. : ) But on a busy day, or a rainy or snowy one, he can also skip his walking routine and not suffer for it as long as he compensates by eating a bit less on that day.

And, the two should be tied together, in a person’s mind. If a new dieter views a food choice in terms of how long it will take to walk off, as example, it really puts into focus just how much of a difference those small choices make.

A 20 to 30 minute walk will help your overall health, but I've never seen someone lose weight by walking for twenty minutes a day.

This part of your post seems to contradict the other parts, so I’m guessing there’s a typo in here somewhere.

[canpakes]

Most people start a walking routine and give up because they don't see instant results.

And that’s exactly my point. You’re not going to ask someone who has always been sedentary to start walking 5 miles a day. They’re going to start slow, and if they’re trying to lose weight along with becoming more fit, then their caloric reduction will be the primary driver of weight loss.

[Physics Guy]

People who are hundreds of pounds overweight, and yet manage to keep walking five or ten miles every day, may lose a few pounds a week just doing that. It won't be because walking has any special effect that isn't shown by calorie counts, though. It will be because for a person of that weight walking that far is as hard—and burns as many calories—as for a person who is only twenty or thirty pounds overweight to run a half-marathon every day. Walking five miles with a two-hundred-pound pack on your back isn't light exercise.

I also think there may be more social stigma attached to overeating than to under-exercising. If I lost a lot of weight by stopping myself from eating ice cream every night, I can imagine being embarrassed enough about my ice cream habit that I would prefer to explain my weight loss as being from walking. And it's also easy to kid yourself about how unimportant those few moments of snacking must have been compared to the hours of walking. So if an anecdote about weight loss really sounds thermodynamically impossible, I may suspect there was more calorie reduction involved in reality than there was in the story.

[Atlanticmike]

I totally disagree. In my experience, if a person is used to being stationary day after day, exercise is the #1 thing they can do. I've seen many people keep eating exactly the same and add a daily exercise routine and lose a lot of weight the first week.

Exercise is absolutely essential. I think you’re misreading that post, though. I’m saying that starting a walking program should not be depended upon alone to yield the fastest results. Caloric reduction is quicker, and for some folks, easier than trying to suddenly start a fitness routine.

Case in point - if I go out and walk 10,000 steps (between 4 -5 miles), I’ll burn as many calories as I can replace by eating one of these in 2 minutes:



So, in two minutes, I can totally nullify a good day’s walking exercise.

That’s why caloric decrease is easier to begin with, especially for folks who have been sedentary. It’s easier to simply not eat the Hostess Apple Pie than it is to go out and walk 5 miles. Takes a whole lot less time to not eat something, than exercise, too. The key here is to maximize the impact of these early dietary steps without burning out the person from imposing unrealistic expectations and time commitment from relying on exercise alone.

Now, imagine if Ceeboo doesn’t eat his daily Hostess Apple Pie (apologies, Ceebs; I’m not saying that you do this!) and walks 5 miles? Bonus speedier waistline reduction. : ) But on a busy day, or a rainy or snowy one, he can also skip his walking routine and not suffer for it as long as he compensates by eating a bit less on that day.

And, the two should be tied together, in a person’s mind. If a new dieter views a food choice in terms of how long it will take to walk off, as example, it really puts into focus just how much of a difference those small choices make.

A 20 to 30 minute walk will help your overall health, but I've never seen someone lose weight by walking for twenty minutes a day.

This part of your post seems to contradict the other parts, so I’m guessing there’s a typo in here somewhere.

Not a typo. In my experience, most people who walk 20 to 30 minutes aren't doing it to lose weight. Does a 30 minute walk burn calories, yes, but overall you need to be walking at least an hour, and 90 minutes is the perfect amount of time if you're interested in losing weight. I know plenty of people who will walk at least five miles a day because they have to do low impact exercise. Five miles isn't that hard to do.

[canpakes]

Not a typo. In my experience, most people who walk 20 to 30 minutes aren't doing it to lose weight. Does a 30 minute walk burn calories, yes, but overall you need to be walking at least an hour, and 90 minutes is the perfect amount of time if you're interested in losing weight. I know plenty of people who will walk at least five miles a day because they have to do low impact exercise. Five miles isn't that hard to do.

I average about 5 - 6 miles a day. It’s a rare occasion that I would do over 10. But a 20-30 minute walk is still a mile or more, and it’s still burning the same number of calories as the next mile after it, so it all adds up. That short a time spent walking might burn 150+ calories right there if you’re moving at a decent clip, so at 5x a week, this is about a pound a month, 12 pounds a year.

You may be right about some folks just out for that casual half-hour stroll. It might be just to settle their stomach after dinner. It might be to stay active for keeping osteoporosis at bay. But no matter what, it’s still burning some calories. Every little bit helps.

[Atlanticmike]

Not a typo. In my experience, most people who walk 20 to 30 minutes aren't doing it to lose weight. Does a 30 minute walk burn calories, yes, but overall you need to be walking at least an hour, and 90 minutes is the perfect amount of time if you're interested in losing weight. I know plenty of people who will walk at least five miles a day because they have to do low impact exercise. Five miles isn't that hard to do.

I average about 5 - 6 miles a day. It’s a rare occasion that I would do over 10. But a 20-30 minute walk is still a mile or more, and it’s still burning the same number of calories as the next mile after it, so it all adds up. That short a time spent walking might burn 150+ calories right there if you’re moving at a decent clip, so at 5x a week, this is about a pound a month, 12 pounds a year.

You may be right about some folks just out for that casual half-hour stroll. It might be just to settle their stomach after dinner. It might be to stay active for keeping osteoporosis at bay. But no matter what, it’s still burning some calories. Every little bit helps.

Like I said, yes you're still burning calories walking for 20 to 30. I'm talking about walking for weight loss like ceeboo is trying to do. He's trying to lose 30 lbs. When trying to lose that much weight 20 minutes a day isn't going to get you the results most people want. 20 to 30 minute run, yes! But a 20 minute walk, usually no. Walking is an excellent exercise, I'm sure you know what I mean when I say it takes 15 minutes to just get warmed up while walking at our age. Once someone hits their ideal goal weight 20 minutes a day is a great way to maintain with the correct diet for most people.

[canpakes]

And it's also easy to kid yourself about how unimportant those few moments of snacking must have been compared to the hours of walking.

No doubt.

If the fellow on the left decides to alter his diet simply by adding a plain bagel with cream cheese each day, then in two years he’ll become the fellow in the photo on the right.

That’s over 60 pounds in just two years. Actual guy, actual experiment. He did it in a shorter time frame on purpose, but the end result would look the same.




Yeah, he’s probably sucking in his gut in the ‘fit’ photos, but there’s still a significant difference. It’s way too easy to let this happen.

[canpakes]

Like I said, yes you're still burning calories walking for 20 to 30. I'm talking about walking for weight loss like ceeboo is trying to do. He's trying to lose 30 lbs. When trying to lose that much weight 20 minutes a day isn't going to get you the results most people want. 20 to 30 minute run, yes! But a 20 minute walk, usually no. Walking is an excellent exercise, I'm sure you know what I mean when I say it takes 15 minutes to just get warmed up while walking at our age. Once someone hits their ideal goal weight 20 minutes a day is a great way to maintain with the correct diet for most people.

No worries; we can probably get Ceeboo moved past walking and into HIIT within a year. : D

I don’t know about ‘warm up’. I’m out the door and at speed pretty much within a few seconds. I don’t run much except up stairs as I want my knees to last a long, long time. I probably have nothing to worry about but I’ve run across enough older runners with knee problems to make me think about the effects of this over time.