Let $G$ be a compactly generated locally compact group and let $U$ be a compact generating set. We prove that if $G$ has polynomial growth, then ${\left(U^n\right)}_{n\in \mathbb{N}}$ is a Følner sequence and we give a polynomial estimate of the rate of decay of $\frac{\mu (U^{n+1}\setminus U^n)}{\mu \left(U^n\right)}.$ Our proof uses only two ingredients: the doubling property and a weak geodesic property that we call Property (M). As a matter of fact, the result remains true in a wide class of doubling metric measured spaces including manifolds and graphs. As an application, we obtain a $L^p$-pointwise...