Mark Stone

In addition to bicycling/diet (WW) to lose weight I've been walking also. I've done both, but primarily cycling, for the entire year since my wife and I started WW and I like walking very much. Anybody else use walking in addition to bicycling? I go out for an hour of aerobic walking two or three times a week in addition to 4 or 5 days a week of cycling. I really don't know if it helps with weight loss when added to bicycling, though I assume it does.

indyfabz

Anything that burns more calories than an alternative activity (e.g., walking vs. sitting at home watching TV) can contribute to weight loss. During the week, I don't walk specifically for exercise, but I do walk regularly. During the colder months, I usually walk to work. That comes to about 3.5 miles round trip. I often walk to eat lunch in a park, which adds at least another .5 miles round trip. I am a fast walker, so I would bet I burn more calories walking to and from work than I do riding. Unlike a bike, legs don't have gears to make them more efficient.

I ocasionally do organized hikes in the fall and winter. Just did about 6 miles last Sunday. The GF and I see a fair amount of movies. During colder months, we often combine the bus and our feet to get to dinner, walk to the theater and then walk all or part of the way home. Could come to as many as 5 miles when all is said and done. If it's nice out and/or we are going somewhere more formal, we may walk the entire distance, which could come to 6 or more miles.

I like living in a walkable city. Beats the hell out of driving, paying for parking and then trying to find parking when we get home.

Neil_B

It can't hurt.

I hike myself, which is a variation of walking. In fact, I prefer walking and hiking to riding much of the time.

Mark Stone

A lot of times I enjoy walking more, also. It seems a little less stressful battling traffic .

PhotoJoe 

Mrs. PJ and I are "training" (and I use that term VERY loosely!) for a Tri in Feb. We are trying to walk/run 4 mornings a week. Right now, she's struggling with the running part, but increases a little every week. I'm finding running to be much more difficult without the hamstring than cycling. We went to Disneyland on Saturday and by the end of the day I could hardly walk my right leg hurt so bad. Just tells me what I need to work on. And Mrs. PJ is finding the weight loss increased by adding walking to the "cycling-only" exercise program we were on.

Mr. Beanz

Gina and I used to walk the local trail where I ride MTB. 5 mile dirt loop with maybe 1500 ft of gain. We also walked uphill then back down the local avenue. It's a 4%-6% grade doing 4 milesor so couple times a week really makes one feel good when getting back on the bike. IMO it helps an awful lot with the aerobic base.

We've been wanting to walk during the week but the holdiays are taking up much of our mid week walking time right now.

DTSCDS

My cross-training consists of riding up hills as far as I can, then walking the rest. "Cross-training" is a much more civilized description than "walk of shame."

IBOHUNT

Currently 'jogging', and I use that term loosely, along with getting my butt kicked by kettlebells, battling ropes, and grader tires.

skilsaw

Yes it can! I have a hill that I climb, and if I don't pace myself, my knees shake, and I feel like puking. I know people say, "No pain, no gain" but I'm taking it easy on the hill, walking at a speed I can maintain. This includes rest stops to catch my breath.

rumrunn6

I started my weight loss / body transformation with only walking. 10 min a day. then I just kept cranking it up a notch with whatever I could and eventually was going wild with running, swimming, weight training & cycling.

did you know that you burn the same # of calories walking a mile as you do running a mike? it just takes longer.

do anything you can to keep your metabolism up every day.

TrojanHorse

I think my weight loss trajectory (which has largely been flat since the summer) is always better when I walk at least a half hour a day like I did in the spring. My dog agrees.

I had to drive way far to the office this morning and couldn't walk my dog like I usually do - you should have seen the look on her face. Upset, confused, distressed... all in one puppy face. Poor girl.

RichardGlover

Walking is great for you. Like running, however, you can easily fall to the "three toos" - ESPECIALLY if you're a cyclist.

What's the three toos? "Too Much, Too Soon, and Too Fast."

Your feet and ankles need time to build up. Tiny stabilizer muscles and tendons that get taxed when you run or walk a lot. In people who aren't athletic at all, they can easily build up their cardiovascular system and leg muscles faster than the stabilizers and tendons. It's a real danger that might not show until after a month or two of activity.

Because you're a cyclist, your cardio-vascular system AND your leg muscles are probably in much better shape than if you weren't a cyclist - so those will not hold you back. The downside is that you can walk or run much further and longer than your feet and ankles can handle. Cycling doesn't build up your feet or ankles, so you have to force yourself to hold back from what the rest of your body is absolutely convinced it can do. Weight trainers that only use stabilized weights (e.g. machines instead of free weights) can have similar issues.


Watch for any pain in your feet or ankles. A little bit of pain on the top of your foot, above your arch, for example, is quite possibly a warning that you're about to get a stress fracture in one of the tiny bones in your foot. It happened to me; it's happened to my wife. Trust me: You don't want to be sidelined from any activity because you have to wear a plastic boot for six weeks, only to have to spend even MORE time building up those muscles again.

Keep up the walking - it's GREAT for you - but listen to your body. Pain is not weakness leaving the body - it's often an early warning that you're overtaxing your body's current abilities.