Losing Weight By Walking Success Stories

Ever since bad knees forced Susie to retire and move in with Becky and her husband, the sisters had shared a home office where they’d surf the web and plan adventures for their golden years.

Of course, at over 325 pounds each and in constant pain, they had limited options — unless they made changes. “Read what I sent you, ” urged Susie. “It sounds doable.” A lover of all things sparkly, Susie had stumbled on a free weight loss site called SparkPeople and decided it was fate. Becky wasn’t so sure. “No diets, ” she insisted. “I refuse to starve ever again.” Susie bit her lip.

She thought. Suddenly, Susie had an idea: “Tell me what you want to eat, and I’ll find a way to make it healthy.”

Weight Loss Story:

Susie was the more hopeful one on that spring day in Wisconsin, but she understood how Becky felt. Both had battled extra pounds their whole lives, enduring failure after failure. Susie recently looked into gastric bypass but couldn’t even manage to lose 35 pounds to qualify.

So different, in fact, that the site calculated she could have 2, 200 calories a day. Was it too much? She read posts from other dieters; they seemed to be happily succeeding. So Susie put her doubts aside.

In the days that followed, Susie experimented with lightened-up chili, casseroles, and pot roast. She typed it all into her food log, which tracked calories and helped make sure her meals had enough energizing nutrients like protein and fiber. By the time Becky signed up for her own account, the pair were down an easy 12 pounds each. Becky was officially excited. Eyes shining, she turned to her sister and asked: “Should we try exercising?” Susie grimaced. “I can barely walk 30 feet, ” she said. So it was Becky’s turn to be the problem-solver.

Weight Loss Success Stories: Before And After Transformations

Thought Susie, whose hips were now as bad as her knees. Still, Becky’s enthusiasm was contagious. They set out. By the end of the driveway, Susie’s lower half was on fire. “I have to go back, ” she said. Becky made it to the end of the block before collapsing beside her sister. “Let’s try to go a little farther each day, ” Becky panted. Susie just sighed.

Later that night, they told their oldest sister, Karen, what had happened. “Do you still have Mom’s old canes?” Karen asked. “They might help Susie.” Becky fished them out of the garage; using two at once, Susie made it half a block. Then Becky had a light-bulb moment: She’d gotten a job at Lands’ End, and they were offering employees a great deal on Nordic walking poles. Might the poles help more than canes? The sisters watched a video online and decided yes. Becky bought two pairs, and as soon as the sticks were in their hands, the movement felt natural. That day they made it four blocks! “I didn’t have pain in my hips or even my knees, ” Susie marveled afterward.

Block by block, Susie and Becky extended the distance they covered in their neighborhood, passing landmarks like a school, church, and hospital. People saw their walking poles and asked, “Are they worth it?” The sisters answered: “Absolutely!” The poles not only relieved pain but also helped them stay balanced and stand taller so they could step farther and faster. “It’s really so much easier than regular walking, ” Susie marveled.

Weight Loss Tips From People Who Lost 100 Pounds Or More

By the time the women could walk two miles, they felt gleeful — which made them extra-motivated to eat well. As pounds and health issues steadily disappeared, one day it hit Susie: “I turned to my sister and said, ‘We’re actually going to make it this time, aren’t we?’” The answer soon became clear: Susie lost 186 pounds in about two years while Becky ultimately shed 187 pounds. Becky got rid of her asthma inhaler and CPAP machine; Susie got off cholesterol medication and hasn’t felt hip pain since.

But look at us! We turned everything around just by eating food we enjoy and using gentle exercise.” Susie, 71, agrees: “Take one easy step at a time, ” she says. “You won’t believe how far you can go!”

Experts agree walking works best paired with a nutrient-dense, portion-controlled diet. To make it easy, Becky and Susie used SparkPeople’s free tools to keep calories at 1, 800–2, 200 daily. Want to follow their lead? We’re sharing some of SparkPeople’s most popular ideas to inspire you. Always get a doctor’s okay to try any new diet or workout.

Lose Weight Walking With Tips From 14 Weight Loss Success Stories

BREAKFAST: Make an omelet with three egg whites, half a cup of veggies, one-fourth cup of cheese, cooking spray, and seasoning to taste.

LUNCH: Brush eggplant with two teaspoons olive oil and season. Top with two tablespoons of pizza sauce and one-quarter cup of mozzarella. Bake at 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

DINNER: Broil a quarter pound of tilapia with one tablespoon of butter and seasoning to taste. Serve with half a cup of veggies and half a cup of brown rice.

Success Stories Using Walk At Home

Use left and right arrow keys to navigate between menu items. Use right arrow key to move into submenus. Use escape to exit the menu. Use up and down arrow keys to explore. Use left arrow key to move back to the parent list.In 2010, Thomas, a restaurant owner who was overweight at the time, decided to go outside and explore the trails near her home in Virginia.

“My legs didn’t hurt, I felt like I did something, and more importantly, I felt good, my body felt good and that is what made me want to get back out, ” Thomas told NBC News BETTER.

Thomas, 47, also changed her eating habits. She gradually began to lose weight, she says — about three pounds a month. Over time, she lost about 50 pounds.

Pound Weight Loss From Walking

“I was never really an athletic person, but I had this self concept that is just wrong, ” she says, “which is that there are athletic people who can do things and then there’s you, and just because I’m not a competitive athlete does not mean that I can’t be athletic.”

To make sure she walked every day, Thomas, who lives in Richmond, Virginia, incorporated walking into her daily routine, like walking to the grocery store.

Thomas says she doesn’t track how much she walks or how many calories she burns. For her, walking is about getting outdoors and enjoying where your legs take you.

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When you’ve been sedentary for a long time, the idea of signing up for a big race, or an intense gym class can be overwhelming, says Thomas.

Instead of committing to a gym, she committed to a promise: every day, she would do some kind of physical activity, whether going for a walk or riding her bike.

“And on the days I wasn’t feeling great, I had to fulfill the minimum, and that’s still my promise, that’s still what I do, ” she says.

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“There was a point where I was out walking and thought I would like to run and so I did, ” she says.

“There are days when it’s just not feasible for me to get out on the trail due to weather, or I need to do a shorter burst of something, or I need to lift weights, and so that’s a gym day, ” she says.

“Feeling the need to be dressed a certain way in order to exercise only puts more obstacles for yourself, ” she explains. “It’s just one more hassle to talk you out of what your body naturally wants to do, which is go outside, enjoy the trees, and take a walk.”

Lockdown Weight Loss:

“Being kind to yourself is getting up and trying and just not shoving yourself forward, and not artificially limiting yourself either, ” she says.

If you are overweight and have been sedentary for a long time, Thomas advises starting small and building up your walking routine in increments.

“Walking has the power to get you somewhere both literally [and] to allow you to take leaps in your mind about what is possible for you and your body, ” says Thomas.

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Want more tips like these? NBC News BETTER is obsessed with finding easier, healthier and smarter ways to live. Sign up for our newsletter and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.In January 2015, I weighed 233 pounds. It was the heaviest I'd ever been. I'd started to let myself go after my mom passed away two years earlier. On a typical day, I woke up and had three to four slices of toast with butter. At 11 a.m., I'd start snacking on cookies to satisfy me until lunchtime. For lunch, I'd have a ham and cheese sandwich and a bag of chips. After work, I'd eat pizza with cheese sticks and garlic bread. I was out of control.

When I started losing my breath going up stairs and experiencing back pain after walking short distances, I started getting scared. I thought, This is silly. I'm 33 and I'm literally eating myself to death. I had no confidence. I thought everyone was snickering at me when I went into town. I even felt embarrassed for my husband to

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