Does walking help enough with weight loss?

[Mila]

I have always heard about people losing a lot of weight by just cutting back on what they eat and walking 30 to 45 minutes 5 days a week. I don't know anyone personally who has had great success with this. I know for a friend of mine, she had managed to lose 15 pounds in 2 months but has been the same weight since, not able to lose anything beyond that 15. It seems like she has hit a deadened or something. 

[James]

Well assuming that the diet stays the same and the only change went from not walking to walking then yes this will provide some benefit until your body is used to the stimulus. Over time walking that same 30 - 45 minutes is going to take less effort so your caloric burn will slowly go down (diminishing returns). 

So it seems like your friend hit a wall. This happens all of the time in fitness and happens to everyone. There will always be a plateau at some point which is why we have a few training variables we have control over to make sure that we continuing to add more training stress to the routine. 

Here is what we can control:

Frequency
Duration
Intensity 

So assuming your friend still has weight to lose they should likely increase the duration of their workout. Frequency at 5 days a week is a pretty good number. Once they get to the max amount of time they can dedicate then they will need to start upping the intensity (power walking, running).  

[Scarlett]

I think walking something like 2.5 miles per hour only burns off 150 to 200 calories in 40 minutes depending on your weight. You can easily eat something small that will counteract that effort. Walking makes a difference if you are very overweight or walking longer distances/more challenging walks. I know walking at an incline can boost your burn 20%. 

[Stacey]

Yes and no. It can often be enough to see weight loss for a lot of people but if they don't eat less or eat healthier, the weight loss will be minimal. If you eat your recommended calories for the day and walk, you will lose weight. If you eat below the recommended calories, you will lose even more weight. Regardless of her not losing weight, being active is still very beneficial and she should keep at it.