Walking

[Elena]

Hello, everyone,

I'm Elena, BMI 41, on the Atkins diet for a month, with a weight loss of about 10 kgs.
As I am currently out of work, I am devoting a lot of my time to improving my health, including lots of walking every day. We're talking 7 hours or so every day...
My question to you guys is, has anyone heard of anyone doing similar amounts of exercise, being of such a large size? According to an exercise calculator I've found on the internet, I am spending 4500 calories through my walking, which means that my expenditure should exceed my intake by about 3000 calories each day. I know this is no exact science, but I would like to believe that I'll have extra results from my effort.
Anyway, I've decided to devote all my time until the end of June, (When I go back to work) to making the hardest effort possible.
There's 70 days until July and during these days nothing will get me off the diet or exercise. When the weather is bad I'm walking indoors. (You should see me, I'm walking 3 meters towards the TV, then reversing back three meters, while watching film after film.... I can feel my gluteus maximus gaining strenght every day...lol)

Anyways, hopefully I can come back to this website with some amazing results.

Good luck to you all out there!!

Elena

[Leonie]

Woah Nellie- 7 hours a day??? That's a damn lot of walking.

I rerally admire your commitment. It's all I can do some days to do 1 hour.

But...you could save your legs and your shoes a lot of wear and tear by cutting your walking time and your calories- you can maintain the same calorie defecit by expending and intaking less. This way when you can't do as much exercise as you are now you don't have to adjust your whole program to suit, as that will be a big adjustment.

Congrats on your weight loss- you have a great attitude, and I'm sure we will benefit a lot by having you on the site :).

[Moonie]

That is certainly a lot of walking, I also admire your commitment Nellie.
The most I walk is 30-45 minutes a day. Some days if it is raining I too do the indoors thing. I start in my lounge walk through the house to the games room, walk around the pool table and back to the lounge and around the table there. two laps takes a minute:D
Congratulations on your progress so far, start a diary and post your progress, listing your calories, carbs, and what foods you are mainly eating. It helps to be able to look back on it;)

[sanuk]

Hi Elena,

Last year my partner and I did a trek in Nepal, we walked about 6 hours a day, at high-ish altitude (up to 4000m). The walking was really slow and relaxed so we never really felt like we were doing hard exercise but it was amazing how much ground we could cover in a day, as well as going up and down some really big ridges. The trek was about 15 days.

We ate like absolute PIGLETS the entire time, and Nepal being Nepal, it was mostly carbohydrate (breads, rice, lentils and potatoes), vegetables and fat. In countries like that with bugger all refrigeration and sanitary meat processing, it is pretty hard to consume lots of protein, especially when you are really off the beaten path.

We both dropped about 8 kilograms in the month we were there and felt absolutely fantastic.

The point is, I guess, its the total calorie excess or deficit that leads to weight loss or weight gain.

So if you can afford the time to do such an amount of exercise, and you are really enjoying it, and you are wearing good quality footwear so you are not getting any injuries or other problems - go for it!

My only other comment would be that sooner or later you may find that you don't have the time or inclination to walk 7 hours a day and you will then have to adjust your diet accordingly if you wish to continue to shed body fat or maintain a body fat level you are happy with. Perhaps when you do stop walking so much per day, you should gradually reduce it, rather than go "cold turkey".

For anyone else out there who wants to have a fantastic life experience and lose some body fat at the same time, I can highly recommend a trekking holiday!

[Alies]

Hi Elena.

Congratulations on the weight loss and resolve.

I wonder if that much walking will give you huge leg muscles? Maybe you could mix it up a bit?

What sort of work will you be returning to? Will you be able to keep moving?

I'm full of questions...:D

[Sherrie]

My dad used to do that to us when I was a kid!, he'd have us up at 6am and we'd be out hiking *all day* every Christmas holidays. Nothing fancy like Nepal ofcourse but places like the Flinders Rangers, Grampions etc...

Lots of fun!

If you enjoy it go for it Elena!, I am pretty sure Jesper posted once that it was only physically possible to lose around 1.5kgs of actual fat per week so don't expect to lose much more then that a week but it would be great for fitness!

Just make sure you eat sensibly and listen to your body for any signs of over doing it.