Adding in Walking as Exercise or as your 10K steps?

EllaGmember

I have a random question - I walk home from work, between 5-7kilometers depending which way I go and I walk average speed, not heart racing but it's a fair way. Do you leave this as just your 10K steps a day? Or do you add it separately?
Bit confused.

estherdragonbat

I don't count steps. I'm pretty sedentary in that I work from home and am capable of spending all day in front of my computer. I'm active in that I try to get a 2-hour daily walk (or an hour on a fitness glider when I can't) minimum in. So, if I'm doing a 15-minute run to the store, it counts. If I'm walking instead of taking transit, it counts. If I decide I want to take a walk for no clear purpose beyond moving around, it counts.

If you've set your MFP activity level to sedentary, go ahead and count it. If you consider yourself lightly active or active... see how your weight loss is going. If you're losing around where you should be, keep doing what you're doing. Too fast or too slow and you should adjust. Wait 2-3 weeks before making changes though, since weight loss isn't linear.

Nony_Mouse

Are you using a Fitbit or similar that is synced to MFP? If so, it's already been counted, so you wouldn't log it here as well.

mlinci

I let Fitbit count all my steps; it's been a very reliable companion throughout my weight loss and now when I'm maintaining. 5-7 km is quite significant so I'd count it one way or another, i.e either through manually logging or through a fitness tracker.

spyro88

I add walking as an exercise if it's more than I'd do on a normal day. My activity level on here is sedentary so if I go for a walk in the park just for the sake of walking and burning some calories, or if I actively choose to walk somewhere instead of taking the bus because it's better for me, I'll add it. I probably wouldn't add a walk to the shop because I'd have done that anyway.

Lillymoo01

To start with I had my activity level as sedentary and added all of my intentional walking separately. It worked for me, especially as there is a huge variance in how much walking I do a day. Since I have found an app which logs my steps and syncs with MFP. I still have my activity level as sedentary with the steps being added as exercise throughout the day. This method works too. If I weremore consistent with the number of steps I did a day (or went by daily average) I could change my activity level to correspond with my step numbers. This too would work.

Just find a logging method that works best for you. Moniter your weight loss rate and make adjustments as necessary. Make sure that you are never including your exercise twice and be aware that apps can over estimate calorie burn.

misnomer1

Just make sure that your walking is taken care of either in activity level, or by logging it. But not in both.

I have set my activity level to 'active' and make sure that i hit 7000steps daily on my google fit app (not synced to mfp)

farmgirlco

I'm assuming you have a Fitbit or other tracker? I have my activity level set to sedentary and any steps that I get are added as activity when my tracker syncs. The only time I manually add is when I ride my stationary bike. The numbers aren't exactly the same between syncing and manually adding but for now it seems to be working (if anything Fitbit underestimated which I'm ok with)...hope this helps!!

jjpptt2

I've noticed that walking has very little impact on my overall TDEE, so I don't factor it in separately. If I'm walking A LOT and doing some CONSISTENTLY, I'll increase my activity level, but all in all, walking makes very little difference for me.

IMO, the only thing to add in separately is the stuff you do specifically for exercise, and specifically to challenge yourself.

But that's me. There are lots of ways to be successful.

EllaGmember

Ok that all makes sense. Thank you so much for all your advice on this one! Since I'm doing this everyday and it's not really a 'challenge' I'll let the iPhone step counter pick up the 5-7km. Any exercise/walking I do that's specific like up hills/stairs etc I'll track that separately and then monitor how I go, and if I need to update my activity levels later then I will.

Thanks so much!

heybales

Those with activity trackers would have discovered that those amounts of steps daily would put them in MFP's level of Active very easily.

So just counting it as part of daily activity and not logging as exercise, would be taken care of by using Active level on MFP.

And those general increases to daily activity like walking and generally moving more - have been found to have a more positive effect on fat loss than most of the exercise people do to compensate for otherwise sedentary lifestyles. So good job.
It's just not as body transforming as say, lifting.