how many miles do i need to walk a day to loose 50 pounds

[townsendge]

need to loose 50 pounds 

[SteveH · Accepted solution]

I think that might be the wrong question. It's not a matter of how many miles you walk, it's a matter of how many calories you eat compared with the calories you burn.

Your fitbit will track the calories you burn each day. If you eat less calories than this then you will lose weight. The bigger this "deficit" the more weight you will lose. The more you walk the more calories you burn and the bigger the deficit.

As a guide, if you eat 500 calories less than you burn each day then you will lose 1 pound in a week; if you eat 1000 less then you will lose 2 pounds etc

The best way to manage this is to log all the food and drink you consume into fitbit so it can keep track and let you know how you are doing. You can even set up a weight plan where you tell fitbit how much you want to lose each week.

Sorry this isn't the straightforward answer you were looking for but the more you walk the more you will be able to eat and still lose weight (providing you eat less than you burn)

[betpchem · Accepted solution]

I agree with everything Steve said. Just one word of caution - you cannot reduce your eating to much or your body will go into "starvation mode" and slow your metabolism. So it is better to lose weight in small chunks over a longer period of time than to try to lose it all at once. Remember you did not gain your weight overnight, you can't lose it overnight either. 

[slysam · Accepted solution]

I agree with other posters. Just adding, increasing activity can help you with this goal and with general health. The classic formula for weight loss is "eat less" (than you were eating when you gained weight or maintained a weight you don't like) and "move more" (than you were). But I am a big beleiver in people starting wherever they are with activity and gradually easing up. Sometimes if someone goes from being sedentary to say 20,000 steps they end up with sore muscles, feeling tired, swollen feet, sore joints, etc. and are not able to sustain the change. It is a lifestyle change not a race. 

Also, you can lose weight with no additional activity and just with diet. Some people can lose a little weight with no diet change and just increased activity (I can lose about 10 pounds if I was inactive for several months, but it is a slow loss where my weight just creeps down a little here and there). But generally people have the best results if they focus on diet and also work on improving their activity and fitness. But there isn't a set walk x miles and lose y weight. If you are not yet at 10,000 steps a day, I think that is generally a good goal to work towards. 

[missesfishes · Accepted solution]

I agree with all the above posters as well. I have been using the Fitbit tracker since Feb and have lost 23lbs.

My calorie intake is at 1200 to 1400 per day. I walk 6-8 miles per day and burn an average of 2300 cals per day (sometimes 2500). Recently I adjusted my steps to 15,000 per day. A good average is 10,000.

Educate yourself with labels.  You can learn alot about what works best for you and your body. 

[townsendge]

thanks for the info

[Jabrat]

Burn more calories - that was it for me - 2,500 or more a day - eat about 1200 calories - the weight loss over a year's time equals - 50 pounds lost !

[Heybales]

Great job on loss.

I am curious on the great results though.

Was it average through the whole year having over a 1000 calorie deficit? (burn 2500, eat 1200)

Because that should have resulted in 2 lbs weekly easily. You've gotten 1 lb weekly on average. That's a huge difference. Even if it did start out at 2, that means it's ended much smaller at the end.

But, if you suppressed your metabolism by what studies have shown is about 20-25% max, then the math works out much better.

Just suggesting that our OP do a reasonable deficit for them, which is likely not over a 1000 calorie deficit that ends up not being that big anymore.

[missesfishes]

Heybales :

I read your post and in regards to "my" personal weight loss and calorie intake I am now on the slow side of where I would like to be. I am thinking of lowering my cal intake to the 1000 per day and continueing my daily routine of 7-9 miles per day. I would like to lose 35 more lbs by the end of August and I think it's possible. 

Do you have any suggestions??

[whome]

@missesfishes - Looks like Haybales reply was in response to Jabrat's 1 yr loss - not yours - I had the same thoughts when I saw her post -- Haybales will probably respond in a while 

Good luck to all

Craig

[Heybales]

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@missesfishes wrote:

Heybales :

I read your post and in regards to "my" personal weight loss and calorie intake I am now on the slow side of where I would like to be. I am thinking of lowering my cal intake to the 1000 per day and continueing my daily routine of 7-9 miles per day. I would like to lose 35 more lbs by the end of August and I think it's possible. 

Do you have any suggestions??

---

whome was correct, I should have included quote like this.

So think about this in your case - if you have indeed surpressed your system to the max like my posted example, shown by the fact your weight loss amount no longer matches the deficit you are supposedly taking, but it did before - play out the end game of continued loss and maintenance level.

Every 10 lbs you'll lose about 76 calories in TDEE just because you are moving less mass around, less mass to spend energy on, ect.

So to keep losing then, you'll have to also eat 76 less calories.

35 lbs to go, or 3.5 x 76 = 266 smaller TDEE then what you appear to have right now.

Not what the Fitbit reports, because if you suppressed, it doesn't know, it's still reporting calorie burn on best estimates of full-burning system.

So do the math with your own results. If you have 2 weeks of exact figures even better, 14 days.

Average eaten daily + (Weight loss x 3500 (assuming only fat loss, may be bad assumption sadly) / 14 days) = calculated TDEE

So say you lost 1 lb in that time and ate on avg 1350.

1350 + (1 x 3500 / 14) = 1350 + 250 = 1600 TDEE at this point.

So to lose what should normally be reasonable 1.5 lbs weekly, or 750 deficit, would be eating 850.

Or 1 lb weekly is 1100.

Can you adhere and sustain that and even less as weight loss drops?

How about when you reach maintenance?

So minus about 260 = 1340 TDEE at goal weight doing the same amount of exercise as now.

So want to eat that low at goal weight - could you sustain and adhere to that to keep from gaining weight back? That effect is exactly why so many yo-yo diet - that and burning off muscle mass which makes it easier to gain and harder to lose next time around.

So you replace all my example figures with your actual stats, and some of that story may change, but figure 250 minimum drop in TDEE at goal weight, about 75 per 10 lbs lost. You can work out what the TDEE would be at each weight point going down.

Now, you may not want to eat that much less, so you could increase calories on average that much daily.

But still think about that, whatever calorie eating level with whatever level of exercise - required for weight loss and then for maintenance.

Sick week and no exercise - must eat less or you gain fat.

Vacation week with less exercise and more eating - will gain fat.

This is why big deficits backfire almost always, and why maintenance is so hard for so many.

[missesfishes]

@whome I didn't think Heybales comment was for me.. It did however draw my attention.

@heybales thank you for the responce. I'll surely do the math and see what I need to. 

[Diane65]

I agree with the other posters but it is not just all about walking need to do a bit of weight lifting too use the muscles 

I personally walk 100,000 steps a week about 10km a day and do weights twice a week, little bit by little bit the weight is starting to move off.

Good luck