Is counting calories and walking 10km per day good enough for losing weight?

Question

I am currently 23 years old and weigh 110kg, mostly because I spent a lot of time in front of the computer and I am not doing any kind of sport. So I decided to lose some weight so I wanted to ask if my approach is good enough, since I feel like it is kind of rudimentary:

I started doing walks every evening. I am not jogging, just walking normally (maybe a bit faster than I normally would). I always go for 10 km and it usually takes me around 1h 45mins.

When it comes to my diet, all I am really doing at the moment is counting calories. I try to stay under 2000 calories per day. Not sure if I set that number too low or too high.

A lot of different sources on the web recommend specific diets, like low carb, low fat etc. Also most workouts designed for weight-loss are a lot more sophisticated than what I am doing - simply going for a walk. So I am posting this question to maybe get some feedback on my approach. Is what I am doing enough to get to a healthy weight in a reasonable amount of time? Or would it be better doing an actual workout or doing a more specific diet instead of just counting calories?

Until now I have never actively tried to lose weight, so I would also appreciate any kind of beginner tips.

Answer 1

The answer lies in your balance of energy input and output, so let us examine that question.

The average Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) for an individual of your mass is around 2,000 Calories for men or 1,800 Calories for women. (The larger you are, the higher your metabolic rate.) Thus, even without considering the exercise you are doing, your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) is already significantly higher than your energy input!

And walking is an ideal exercise for fat metabolism. In fact, it has even been argued that our gait is selected naturally for the purpose of conserving our carbohydrate (CHO) stores (blood glucose, and muscle and liver glycogen), thereby leading to our selectively metabolising fat. Whilst it is difficult to determine exactly how much energy you would be consuming with your constitutional, given the number of variables, we can safely assume that it would amount to at least 600 Calories—and likely more, given that you are carrying a little more weight than average.

So overall, you are doing all the right things to make significant progress. Walking is a very sensible choice, too, because it is easier on your joints and provides your muscles an excellent base of conditioning. It also forms a good foundation for future running.

Keep it up!