We introduce a general technique for proving estimates for certain random planar maps which belong to the $γ$-Liouville quantum gravity (LQG) universality class for $γ\in (0,2)$. The family of random planar maps we consider are those which can be encoded by a two-dimensional random walk with i.i.d.\ increments via a mating-of-trees bijection, and includes the uniform infinite planar triangulation (UIPT; $γ=\sqrt{8/3}$); and planar maps weighted by the number of different spanning trees ($γ=\sqrt 2$), bipolar orientations ($γ=\sqrt{4/3}$), or Schnyder woods ($γ=1$) that can be put on the map. Using our technique, we prove estimates for graph distances in the above family of random planar maps. In particular, we obtain non-trivial upper and lower bounds for the cardinality of a graph distance ball consistent with the Watabiki (1993) prediction for the Hausdorff dimension of $γ$-LQG and we establish the existence of an exponent for certain distances in the map. The basic idea of our approach is to compare a given random planar map $M$ to a mated-CRT map---a random planar map constructed from a correlated two-dimensional Brownian motion---using a strong coupling (Zaitsev, 1998) of the encoding walk for $M$ and the Brownian motion used to construct the mated-CRT map. This allows us to deduce estimates for graph distances in $M$ from the estimates for graph distances in the mated-CRT map which we proved (using continuum theory) in a previous work. In the special case when $γ=\sqrt{8/3}$, we instead deduce estimates for the $\sqrt{8/3}$-mated-CRT map from known results for the UIPT. The arguments of this paper do not directly use SLE/LQG, and can be read without any knowledge of these objects.