Can walking make you fat??

Was reading Prevention Magazine...
Would you lose more weight if you curled up with a good book or if you took a leisurely walk instead?  The end result is about the same...Unless your walk is fast enough to leave you breathless.  In a new study from Harvard University, women who strolled at a window-shopping pace throughout a 16-year period weighed about the same as women who didn't exercise at all!!  But the women who stepped up the pace to 4 MPH fared better at fighting age-related weight gain.

Thoughts??

Just a theory...but when people walk "at a leisurely pace" and think they are really burning significant calories by "exercising"...they also add in extra food as a "reward".  Becuase they are really not burning any serious calories...they end up just maintaining.

  I haven't read the article, so I don't know the specifics about the women in the study.... were they normal weight, overweight, obese..... BUT in regard to WLS I personally think that where ever you start from, in regards to exercise, is a excellent beginning.... just keep doing it.

 "A journey of a thousand miles starts with one step." 

Studies will find what ever conclusion you are looking for...I dont dare gauge my life around studies or sampling.

Anything is better than Nothing.

Michelle

 I just saw over one of the talk shows, not sure if it was a news show or something like Rachael Ray that they have found that any pace of walking is better for you than none and that you don't always have to walk brisk for it to help.  Do I believe it?  Nope because as someone said above, you can make results look any way you want them to.  

I hate shopping, and pre-op when I was my largest, if I didn't walk FAST and BRISK my lower back would just KILL me. I always walked fast. In fact, right now, as I'm recuperating from my surgery and just starting back to work, one of the things taht bugs me the most is taht I don't have the energy to walk briskly, so I've been walking at about a "double-window-shopping" speed.

I never walked fast enough to leave myself breathless, I always just enjoyed how it made me feel to use my muscles. Even at 350 plus I'd always half-run up the stairs all the time.... made me feel good.

So.... haven't never been a window-shopping-speed-type-walker, I can't honestly say nuttin..... so in otherwords my response is a whole lotta nuttin! BUT I think that my propensity to always walk briskly HELPED me to lose weight, even if it never got my heart racing.

I went through this same discussion with my doctor because he wanted me to exercise and I told him that I was getting out and shopping and that a lot of exercise for me, especially coming from where I was completely sedentary. He said it didn't count unless I was practically running. Sorry, that isn't going to happen. I don't run unless someone is chasing my ass.
I saw the title of this thread "Can walking make you fat?" and I thought to myself "Cool, I have an excuse to stay lazy if walking makes me fat."

I didn't look at the study, just wrote what I saw in Prevention.  I have a feeling they were using average size women in the study.  I personally believe that obese, morbidly obese, and severe morbidly obese people would be aided by movement of any kind.  I do remember in college that in order to gain (strengthen) lung capasity you needed to get your heart rate up to at least 120 beats per minute for at least 12 minutes.  So my thoughts are if you are overweight or normal size the above may apply to you more than for the obese person. 

Im guessing if you are walking with a sandwich in one hand a donut in the other there might be sme merit in walking making you fat. These studies are almost always skewed in the direction of where they want to see the results land. Any exercise for someone morbidly obese can only be a step in the right direction!

Well, I tend to think that moving your body in any form or fashion is better than not moving it at all. I wear a bodybugg and I know on days I move I burn more. Even if I move by shopping, etc.