Actually I'm pretty sure it felt a lot longer back in the trudging days.

MS is pretty much spot on in my experience. In my early days I was actually doing it completely backwards; I started walking... no, that's too generous... shuffling to work in April last year, a full 6 months before I started LCHF since I hadn't discovered that yet. And while I did lose about 5kg/11lb during those 6 months, it was never much fun and it never really got any easier.

Things changed for me last October when I moved to a new office building at work which meant a slight change in the walking route. Later that month I discovered and began LCHF and, while the weight loss immediately kicked up a gear, the improvement in the walking for me felt more gradual.

The first improvement I noticed was the recovery time. My trip is about 2.5km/1.5mi each way. At first I needed about 30-45 minutes just to stop sweating and get my breath back, which was more than a little embarrassing at the work end (at least I could shower when I got home). But since October I started to recover more and more quickly.

The speed came later. I had gotten so used to being passed by everyone for so long, that just to pass people who were more interested in their phones than their movement was an achievement for me. Then later I began to graduate to rows of students just drifting along at their own pace talking to each other, then to tired parents yelling at their kids to STOP RUNNING AROUND AND COME BACK HERE, then to the kids themselves (if only because they never ran in a straight line) and so on. It was only about a month or so ago that I realised for the first time that I hadn't been passed by anyone not on wheels, without really trying.

Since my distance doesn't change day to day, I have made the odd recent attempt at pushing myself to go faster when weather and traffic lights permit. When everything lines up, I can powerwalk the distance in about half an hour; 10 months ago my best was more like 45 minutes.

There are a couple of key things that I've learned from all this:

1. It's the diet that enables the exercise, not the other way around. I was losing token amounts of weight from walking alone, but when I added LCHF on top, that's when things really started to happen for me. If you're struggling at first, that's fine, just limit yourself to what you can do, and let things improve naturally as your weight does. Give it time.

2. I have great calves, lol. I live halfway up a hill so it's an easy start to my day and the hardest part comes at the end. That final daily climb has really done wonders for my lower legs, but seemingly not much for anywhere else. Lately this has gotten me wondering if I should be mixing up the routine somewhat; likewise for you, if walking is giving you grief, is there anything else you could consider? I'm still in the early stages of considering my own options so I can't suggest anything concrete yet, but I am looking at some bodyweight exercises I can do at home for example, such as pushups and/or planking (both of which I am laughably terrible at).