Walking is the best all-around exercise. It's not necessarily the fastest, nor does it build a ton of muscle, but it's still the best.
If you're just starting out on your weight-loss journey, and haven't been exercising regularly before, I recommend starting with walks. Here's why.
It's trivial to get started with walking. This is because the actual minimum barrier is so low. You don't need special shoes. You don't need to travel anywhere or do it at a particular time.
The minimum length walk is one step. Barring a medical condition, that it something everyone can accomplish.
For me, I started with walking a few blocks in my city with my wife. It was actually not that easy for me! I hadn't exercised in a long time so my heart rate would increase and I'd get a bit sweaty. Also, I was uncomfortable all the time (from being so overweight - i a 330 lbs 6'1 male), so it was just uncomfortable.
But the fresh air was really nice, and the trees and houses were fun to look at. And my wife and I had a nice chat.
You don't have to buy anything at all to start on your walks. Eventually, getting some comfortable walking shoes can be useful, but really anything works at first. You don't have to buy a gym membership, or pay a trainer to teach you.
If you walk alone, you can listen to a podcast, audiobook, music, or just be alone with your thoughts. If you walk with someone, you can have a lively chat and catch up. Either way, you start to forget about the walk itself, and can end up going much farther than you planned!
If you live in a city, have you explored every street around you? Seen every block? There's usually parks tucked in various areas, neighborhoods to visit, odd shops to wander into, and landmarks to see. Is your town populated by tourists? Maybe you could finally go see that touristy area that you've been meaning to visit for 5 years since you moved there.
It can be even more fun if you take pictures along the way - you probably have a pretty high-quality camera right in your pocket in the form of a smartphone. See what beauty you can capture.
If you live in a city, then you probably don't want to drive places anyway - it's too hectic. But instead of getting a rideshare or taxi, why not walk to your destination? Just leave a little early and take your time. Maybe you'll find something cool along the way.
If you don't live in a city, it's possible that the nearest restuarant is a bit further away. But as long as you budget enough time, many people can work up to walking many miles - that restaurant may eventually be walkable for you!
And of course, it's much healthier.
Walking is an exercise that doesn't even feel like exercise once you get used to it. It's low intensity, so your heart rate doesn't usually shoot up unless you go up a steep hill. That said, since it's low intensity, you can walk for a long time without tiring. Yesterday, I walked 6 miles, and a couple days before that, I walked 10 miles. It does take a few hours to do this, but I am rewarded by burning 2,000+ calories!
The calories really add up, and as long as you are on a proper diet (which is the most important factor in weight-loss), regular walking is going to significantly boost your progress.
Getting started with walking is easy, but you can also trivially boost the difficulty. You can walk further, or deliberately walk up hills or take stairs. You can walk more often - go from weekly to daily, etc.
If you ramp it up slowly, it starts to turn into a game where you want to see how far you can go. You actually want to push yourself a little because you know how many calories it burns, and it's genuinely fun.
Once you're challenging yourself with walks, maybe it will motivate you to start doing other exercises, like pushups or body weight squats. And before you know it, you are doing high-intensity workouts as well.
The benefits aren't all physical, which is what really makes this exercise the best.
Going for a walk gets the blood flowing, and if you go alone, also helps you to think about problems you're working on, or issues in your life. It helps you to get some distance from people or things causing stress, and gives you perspective. In that way, it can really help with mood.
Sometimes I'm just inconsolable, and a walk doesn't fix my mental state, but I have never had it make my mental state worse.
Lastly, walking helps you think. As I mentioned earlier, you can listen to a long audiobook or podcast to get ideas going for whatever you're learning or working on. But you can pause said audio and just think for a while.
People rarely just think about things for a while, but sometimes that's all you need to gain perspective on your problems and figure out what you've been missing.
I hope this at least made you want to try one walk if you haven't already been doing it. How about just walking around the block later today? Let me know how you feel after it by DMing me @dackerman.