As I've said before, I was never a couch potato. I used to walk, did some basic pilates and even was a gym regular for a bit before having kids.
I remember during that active gym phase, I never lost weight. I felt my endurance increase, but my weight didn't change. I can only look back now and realize that I probably overestimated how much exercise I did and ate too much food in response. One of my favorite tidbits of information about losing weight is how people underestimate their calories burned during exercise.
If I go to the gym now and have a fantastic workout, I burn approximately 600 calories in an hour. A decent workout is somewhere around 400-500 calories. However, a walk around my neighborhood for an hour only burns about 150.
One of my favorite apps on my phone is Map My Run. I love to record what I'm doing and see the calorie burn for the day. Yesterday, my family took our bikes to the beach and went for a ride. I recorded our ride home and it was just under 3 miles and according to the computer analysis, I burned about 130 calories each way.
In my opinion, the walking is good for a basic activity level, keeps the ticker going, but it's not going to facilitate significant weight loss. I do like to mix walking in to my routine for the social benefits and the benefit of giving my body different forms of exercise. And, my dogs love to walk with me, so it's good for them too.
Next up - how I learned to run.