Walking for speed or distance or both?

[lfrazier]

I have had my fitbit for about a month and a half now and am really enjoying it.  I am using it in conjunction with Weight Watchers online and have linked my fitbit to my activity tracker. 

My routine has been to walk six day a week for a distance of 4.28 miles a day.  Given that I am pretty sedentary during the day this insures that I get my 10,000 steps.  I have this routine down to about 1:20 in time now.  That would make my pace about 3.25 miles an hour.  I bought a kindle book "Towards 10,000 steps a day".  The program that it suggests you start with has a starting pace of 4 miles an hour for 15 minutes.  That seems like a pretty good clip for me.  I am 5'8 and 312 lbs (down from 339 when I started WW).  My question is should I cut back on my distance and see how long I can keep the pace up or keep doing what I am doing and slowly try and increase the pace?  Or a combination of both?  What has worked for you for weight loss?

[LewWagner]

Some times, I run but not crazy fast.  Just to get back into the swing of running.

Most times, however, I'm into trail hiking for at least an hour or three over uneven trails at about 3-3.5 mph.

I try to get in at least 5-7 miles walked a day, but lately as I've reached my target weight, I'm doing an average of 9.7 miles.

[Heybales · Accepted solution]

Keep separate the fact weight loss is about eating less than you burn, that's it.

So if you want to eat more, then burning more calories is the solution.

As far as health benefits, I'd suggest it will take a while for your walking to NOT be a workout to get benefit from. Eventually, but not for a long while.

Your pace should automatically increase as you find it easier. Actually, slower or faster than 3.5 is best, as 3.5 mph is most efficient speed walking, meaning less calorie burn per time spent.

http://www.exrx.net/Aerobic.html

That would also suggest that if 3.25 gets much easier and you can increase, increase to intervals of 4 mph for 30-60 seconds, with going back to 3.25 to recover. Repeat.

Now that will give better health benefit, cardio benefit, and workout benefit.

[lfrazier]

I never use any of my activity points.  I bought the fitbit to increase the speed of my weight loss.  I was averaging 1-2 lbs a week on Weight Watchers and since I started using the fitbit I have been averaging 3+.  The link you provided was interesting.  It's hard to wrap my brain around the idea that a slower speed can burn more calories.  I think I will try keeping my current pace with the push you suggested until I can comfortably maintain a speed of four miles an hour for the walk. 

Thank you

[Colinm39]

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@Heybales wrote:

Keep separate the fact weight loss is about eating less than you burn, that's it.

So if you want to eat more, then burning more calories is the solution.

As far as health benefits, I'd suggest it will take a while for your walking to NOT be a workout to get benefit from. Eventually, but not for a long while.

Your pace should automatically increase as you find it easier. Actually, slower or faster than 3.5 is best, as 3.5 mph is most efficient speed walking, meaning less calorie burn per time spent.

http://www.exrx.net/Aerobic.html

That would also suggest that if 3.25 gets much easier and you can increase, increase to intervals of 4 mph for 30-60 seconds, with going back to 3.25 to recover. Repeat.

Now that will give better health benefit, cardio benefit, and workout benefit.

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@lfrazierYou are doing a wonderful job with your weight loss and to add to @Heybales post, I would suggest you do some research on Interval training which can be applied to anything, walking, running, stationary bike and rowing machines and the researches are seeing a massive benefit with weight loss and cardio fitness.

This Mayo Clinic link is fairly basic but I have found this type of thing beneficial. It gets my heart rate up over the fat burning area briefly and I can achieve more in less time.  When walking I will do my walking at about 3.5 mph, then for a brief time I swing into 15 seconds of fast, followed by 30 seconds of slow. Because I walk at about 130 steps/minute I just count 30 steps then 60 steps and when you get the rhythm the 30 seconds feels very slow. I might do that for 5 minutes and then resume walking for awhile.. I'm 75 and it helps

When I talk Interval Training I'm not into High Interval Training.

[Heybales]

Here's one study on it. And since the High in HIIT is relative, your max push is your max push. You get fitter, it'll be higher. But same benefits can be derived.

http://www.exrx.net/FatLoss/HIITvsET.html

"The High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) group performs sprints while the Endurance Training (ET) group performed a more traditional aerobic protocol, throughout the remaining 15 weeks. Both groups progressed in intensity. At the conclusion of the study, the HIIT group lost over 3 times as much subcutaneous fat as the ET group despite expending less than half as many calories. For every calorie expended during HIIT, there was a nine fold loss of subcutaneous body fat, as compared to the ET group."