Exercising and becoming a ‘gym rat’, as gym fanatics refer to it, has been popular in recent years. Do you know when the gym is at its maximum capacity? It usually occurs at the start of the new year or in the months leading up to summer. I mentioned the beginning of the year because many people make resolutions to start working out in the new year. Now, a number of individuals would stop going to the gym because, while they wanted to be healthy, going to the gym and lifting weights was not their strong suit. However, going to the gym to get that summer body is more of a challenge than a resolution, so individuals tend to continue to their workout routine.
Now that we’ve established that not everyone is or wants to be a ‘gym rat’, I’ll tell you something I’ve been saying for years: you don’t have to go to the gym to keep healthy. Walking is one of the methods to keep fit and manage your weight. I am not the only one who believes that walking is an excellent approach to staying fit. According to Thomas Jefferson, “walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very far.” Many minds are curious, so someone asked on the renowned website Quora, “Can walking help you lose weight?” Out of the many responses, Cosmina Ratiu stood out to me. So I’d be using Cosmina’s story to answer certain questions.
Question: I’ve heard walking can help, but how much walking does it actually take to lose weight? Is there a specific amount of time or distance I should aim for?
Cosmina: “I started walking to university. I had done this in my first year too, but back then I was living somewhere else, which involved climbing hills on the way. Now, it was all flat. But it was about 1.5 hours each way, which meant at least 3 hours of walking a day. I was usually trying to walk as fast as I could at least for a portion, because I was timing it and entered a competition with myself on that.
If you go from 0 to 10000 steps, something will change. But it takes time, and it won’t give fast results, or even anything mind-blowing. What is a plus is that, in at least some cases I know, starting to regularly walk can get you more interested in other forms of exercise, that before you couldn’t get yourself to do.”
Question: Can I lose weight just by walking, or do I need to change my diet too?
Cosmina: “It takes quite a lot of walking, paired with a decent at least diet and lifestyle. Also, I cannot attest to how long it will work, and how other things come into play, because my weight gain is usually quite weird (probably partly hormonal).
So let us move back to my last year of bachelor’s, when it all started. I was already having a pretty good diet, and was unknowingly following intermittent fasting (I had done so all my life, before knowing what it was, as did my whole family). I was quite stressed, which usually makes me gain weight quickly without any additional changes, but this time it felt different (different good in the moment, but it was different bad long term).”
Question: What are some healthy snacks or meals I can eat before or after my walks to fuel my body and optimize weight loss?
Cosmina: “On top of this, I was eating my own home cooked food, as always. And I was drinking loads and loads of tea (usually green or black tea, flavoured) that I was making myself at home. It was flavoured, but I didn’t sweeten it, I usually don’t sweeten tea. I had a 1.5 liter container, and two 800ml bottles, all filled in the morning. I wasn’t always drinking it all, but I would go through at least a part.”
While walking can play a huge role in living a healthy lifestyle, it still has its disadvantages that Cosmina can attest to. “In this context, I did lose weight. But i also lost a lot of time. At the time, it was all time away from the sources of my struggles, and time I had to lose. It meant I had to work on uni work all night, and in breaks, and early in the morning, this not getting much sleep. But it also meant I had at least 3 hours of alone time, with music, mindlessly walking the same route,” Cosmina said. Finally, it’s better to schedule your walking session around times when you know you’ll be available so that you don’t take time away from activities that are important to you.
