Do you track it?

ToBePriya
ToBePriya Posts: 16 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
If your activity level is set to sedentary.. do you log when you have a lot more walking in the day, but the walking isn't planned as a workout?

Just curious! :)

Replies

  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    Not sure what difference it makes whether it was planned or not planned. Walking is walking whether you've planned it as a form of deliberate exercise or not.
  • tcunbeliever
    tcunbeliever Posts: 8,219 Member
    I do not log my daily 10K steps...but if I do more than that, like double plus, then I will log the extra time. Anything between 5K and 20K I just figure is a normal range and doesn't need to be logged.
  • tcunbeliever
    tcunbeliever Posts: 8,219 Member
    Let's see...it takes me about 15 min to walk 5K steps...so...20K steps is like an hour of walking...compared to a desk job and commute time sitting in a car and overall sedentary day...no, that's not hugely active by my estimation...and hour of activity is not an active lifestyle...not the same as being in a job where you are on your feet all day, or moving around all day...23 hours of sedentary is not magically made active by an hour of walking.
  • ToBePriya
    ToBePriya Posts: 16 Member
    I appreciate the perspectives here. This is kind of why I wasn't quite sure... It's true, any walking is adding to my typically sedentary day. However, sometimes I don't feel like it's that significant and I wasn't quite sure what MFP assumed my sedentary life was like; does it automatically include around 5k of walking?
    Plus I'm not sure if I should be making up any of those calories unless it's a significant deficit.
  • spiriteagle99
    spiriteagle99 Posts: 3,748 Member
    I generally don't log anything that isn't deliberate exercise. An exception is when I'm camping and do a lot of walking around the campground with the dog and to and from the outhouse. (We had one campground where the bathroom was .2 one way.) In that case I take the total mileage and subtract two miles (4500 steps) which is about the minimum I would do in normal life around the house and doing errands. Your base allowance assumes that you will go to the grocery, do housework, and walk around work, etc. If you are doing a lot more, i.e. walking to the grocery a mile each way or going on two hour walks with the dog, then you should definitely log that.
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,463 Member
    Do you have a fitness tracker that will sync your steps to MFP? If so, do that, then you don’t have to worry about going over because MFP will make any needed adjustments for you.
  • Duck_Puddle
    Duck_Puddle Posts: 3,237 Member
    edited December 2019
    tcunbeliever wrote: »
    Let's see...it takes me about 15 min to walk 5K steps...so...20K steps is like an hour of walking...compared to a desk job and commute time sitting in a car and overall sedentary day...no, that's not hugely active by my estimation...and hour of activity is not an active lifestyle...not the same as being in a job where you are on your feet all day, or moving around all day...23 hours of sedentary is not magically made active by an hour of walking.

    You walk 6 minute miles?

    20k steps is about 10 miles.

    For most people that’s more like 3-ish hours (2.5 @ 15 min/mile pace; 3.3 Hours @ 20 min/mile pace-which would be close for non purposeful activity).

    FWIW, without exercise, I am solidly sedentary (I work a desk job in my home and typically get 3-4K steps). I took 20k steps on Thursday. My Garmin (and Fitbit) both gave me an extra 600 calories.
  • rainbow198
    rainbow198 Posts: 2,245 Member
    I personally don't count unintentional exercise such as walking my puppy (1.5+ miles a day), when I do short bursts of activity during the day such as bodyweight work, or when I clean etc.

    Outside of exercise I'm pretty sedentary (I work and workout from home) so I think of activities above as a bonus. So just keeping track of my deliberate exercise is a great fit for me.
  • Bari_Tone
    Bari_Tone Posts: 45 Member
    I only track the stuff I do that is not part of the normal 'sedentary' day.

    Going to the gym, cutting firewood, clearing brush, shoveling snow would all be tracked.
    "Vigorous House Work" (ha-ha - this always makes me laugh when I see people logging this) would not get tracked.
  • ToBePriya
    ToBePriya Posts: 16 Member
    lorrpb wrote: »
    Do you have a fitness tracker that will sync your steps to MFP? If so, do that, then you don’t have to worry about going over because MFP will make any needed adjustments for you.

    Ooh good idea. I need to find my charger, but when I do, I will be using the tracker again! Thanks :)
  • ToBePriya
    ToBePriya Posts: 16 Member
    Bari_Tone wrote: »
    I only track the stuff I do that is not part of the normal 'sedentary' day.

    Going to the gym, cutting firewood, clearing brush, shoveling snow would all be tracked.
    "Vigorous House Work" (ha-ha - this always makes me laugh when I see people logging this) would not get tracked.

    Good points. xD It makes me laugh to think of logging vigorous housework too, although maybe once or twice I've thought about it. 🤐

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