Question For Walkers

breeze_brat

What kind of walking do you do to get those high calorie burns? I walk but am lucky to get 100 -200 and getting discouraged. I do have to be careful so I don't trigger my asthma. If you walk several miles do you do it all at once (ie:walk 5 miles all at once)?

MissusMoon

I walk on a treadmill usually, and I get my burn up by pushing myself to go as fast as I can for as long as I can. Obviously with asthma you need to be careful.

RespectTheKitty

I walk at least 3 miles at a time; my long walks are over 5 miles. I have mild asthma but I have found that losing some weight has almost eliminated my symptoms. But definitely check with your doctor about exercising with more severe asthma.

rosieandroo

I live in an area with loooads of hills (my home is at the very top of one of the steepest hills in town..) so I find that adds a lot to a walk. I try to go as fast as I can, although frankly I'm usually walking to and from work. If I'm walking to work, I can only go so fast without feeling like I need to shower once I get there! My walks tend to be 3 miles. I get what you're saying about the calorie burn sometimes being disheartening, but I find that it all adds up. For example, I go for a walk when I get up in the morning that burns 100 calories and takes about 20 minutes, I walk to and from work, I go for an evening walk that takes about 30 minutes, and before I know it's all added up to a significant and useful amount. Plus, calories aside, there will be benefits to your health, especially if you're getting your heart beating a little faster.

Ready2Rock206

Nothing wrong with burning 100-200 calories - probably means you're not overestimating your calories like so many other people tend to do.

RespectTheKitty

I forgot to mention that MFP and MapMyFitness (the exercise app I use) greatly overestimate calories burned. For example, it told me that I burned 896 calories from a 5.4 mile walk (1 hour 24 minutes). That's just not right; if anything, I'm burning half that. Needless to say I almost never eat back my exercise calories because I never know exactly how much I'm burning.

itsbasschick

i'd rather walk for a longer amount of time slower than faster for a shorter amount of time - for me, a continuous walk is more effective than a couple shorter ones, but i have friends who do a couple shorter walks and are happy with the results.

i don't track miles, just time.

breeze_brat

thanks for the replies! i just get a little discouraged when i see others have burned 600 calories or more walking and tend to wonder if it's worth it. mfp only allows me 1240 calories so i like to have extra to play with. my doctor knows i'm trying to get the weight off and said walking is great but i am to stop if my breathing gets weird.

NorthCascades

For what it's worth, my watch has a bug in the current software that seems to approximately double the calories it "awards me" or "measures" from walking. Since I'm not the only one with a Fenix 3, you might be seeing the same thing from other people.

It would take me at least 2 hours to burn 600 calories from walking. It's pretty rare that I'll just go for a walk for that long. I like to go hiking and spend a lot more time out than that, but not around the neighborhood...

breeze_brat

thanks NorthCascades!

Christine_72

This is a screenshot of my fitbit dashboard. Pretty much all of my steps over 3,000 are from deliberate power walking.I got an extra 1000 calories on mfp for this..

Christine_72

bakemma

I do a .75 mile lap walk/jogging with my dog around my complex. It usually takes me 15-20 minutes and I get anywhere from 120-150 calories depending on my HR ( I have a Charge HR) I find that its actually pretty accurate for me. I typically do this once or twice a day. I do it so I can have all the fruit and reddi whip lol Probably not the best way to use those calories but I'm starting to feel better during my walks and the calorie reward is worth it for me.

chipdogwa

Calorie burn is approx. 100 per mile. A 300lb person would burn about 150 per mile. Adjust accordingly to your weight.

HealthyBodySickMind

Just in case no one has mentioned it, your calories burned for most exercises has to do with your current weight. If you weigh 110 lbs and walk for an hour at 3 mph, you burn about 215 calories, but if you do that same walk and weigh 310 lbs, you burn more like 615 calories. This is because it takes more energy to move the increased weight. If you weigh 110 lbs and would like to burn more calories on the same walk, wear a 40 lb backpack. The calories burned in mfp auto adjusts for this based on the weight you enter.

breeze_brat

i dance every Friday night (slow, fast, square, line) and only burn around 400 in 4 hours. guess i gotta try and up my game.

huntersvonnegut

I walk a little over 5 miles every morning in about 70 mins. I don't mind the weather. Rain, shine, cold, hot...I don't mind. I'll give it a miss during thunderstorms (but there fairly rare in the AM.) I'm a morning exerciser. If I wait until after work there's too much temptation not to do it. I calculate my net calorie use at between 500-600 calories.

dawnj87

I walk to Leslie Sansone's videos and always burn over 300 calories. Today I did 2 miles and burned 488 calories according to my Heart Monitor. I love her videos, check them out if you want to shake up your routine. I cannot walk outdoors where I live so these are a great way for me to get my workouts.

Meganthedogmom

I think a lot of people overestimate their calorie burns. I count 48 calories per mile for walking 3.5 mph (.3 x my body weight). You do burn more if walking at an incline, but it's hard to say how much.

7elizamae

dawnj87 wrote: »

I walk to Leslie Sansone's videos and always burn over 300 calories. Today I did 2 miles and burned 488 calories according to my Heart Monitor. I love her videos, check them out if you want to shake up your routine. I cannot walk outdoors where I live so these are a great way for me to get my workouts.

488 calories from a 2-mile Leslie Sansone walk doesn't sound right to me. I love her videos, but that's a very high calorie burn for two miles.

lorrpb

Many of the calories from waking are crazy. I mostly consider walking cals as bonus burn and don't intentionally eat them back. I usually take 2-3 walks a day to get 10,000 steps. Heavy people and younger people will get a higher burn rate.

lseed87

Most have bigger burns since they are bigger. Or do it for longer etc Varying speeds, walk, run, walk.. Maybe try some type of program?

5 miles walk around my neighborhood (huge round circle type thing)

The elliptical or stationary bike is also good.

Machka9

breeze_brat wrote: »

What kind of walking do you do to get those high calorie burns? I walk but am lucky to get 100 -200 and getting discouraged. I do have to be careful so I don't trigger my asthma. If you walk several miles do you do it all at once (ie:walk 5 miles all at once)?

I burn approx. 100 cal for a 30 minute walk (approx. 2.5 km) and 200 cal for a 60 minute walk (approx. 5 km).

I wish I could magically burn more, but I'm a realist and I know that's just not going to happen.

Machka9

This seems to be pretty close ... maybe just slightly high, but not too bad. (For example, it's not telling me I burned 400+ calories for a mere 5 km (1 hour) walk)

http://www.shapesense.com/fitness-exercise/calculators/walking-calorie-burn-calculator.shtml

Phrick

HealthyBodySickMind wrote: »

Just in case no one has mentioned it, your calories burned for most exercises has to do with your current weight. If you weigh 110 lbs and walk for an hour at 3 mph, you burn about 215 calories, but if you do that same walk and weigh 310 lbs, you burn more like 615 calories. This is because it takes more energy to move the increased weight. If you weigh 110 lbs and would like to burn more calories on the same walk, wear a 40 lb backpack. The calories burned in mfp auto adjusts for this based on the weight you enter.

This bears repeating. Additionally I'd like to say, do your thing and stop comparing yourself and your burns to those of other people, if it makes you discouraged and discontent!

breeze_brat

thanks for all the replies, i guess i just think i'm doing something wrong when my burns are low and others are high for doing the same type of exercise. i have 20 lbs to lose to get to my goal then will see how i feel and may try and lose another 15 lbs , maybe thats why my burns are low

dutchandkiwi

I walk to work 4 days a week (9km per day) plus whenever I can. In total I walk around 50km per week. These days that is approx 450cal per day (used to higher when I weighed more). When I started walking way back when I started with doing this just once a week. I slowly increased it and now I love long distance walking
For really quite high burns I go for long day walks. Anywhere between 18 and 30 km on a day. But they do not occur often as they take time :-)
I have allergies (not typical asthma) and walking has alleviated them quite a bit.

amusedmonkey

I burn a lot of calories walking because I'm fat, no special arrangements needed. I achieve even higher numbers with incline walking (500-700 an hour).