Walking up and down stairs

trjjoy
trjjoy Posts: 666 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
The walking up stairs avtivity on Mfp gives me +-85 calories for 10 minutes of walking. I am 1.63m and I weigh 66kg. Does that amount of calories sound right? My breathing becomes heavy, my palms and brow start sweating, and I try to take 2 stairs at a time.

Replies

  • trjjoy
    trjjoy Posts: 666 Member
    I hear ya. I am, however, constantly climbing up and down stairs for 10 to 12 minutes a pop.
  • Redordeadhead
    Redordeadhead Posts: 1,188 Member
    I think the point was it should be up for 10 minutes straight, not up and down, as continuously climbing up stairs is more effort.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    trjjoy wrote: »
    I hear ya. I am, however, constantly climbing up and down stairs for 10 to 12 minutes a pop.

    Walking downwards is far easier than upwards, working with gravity rather than working against gravity.
  • trjjoy
    trjjoy Posts: 666 Member
    Redordeadhead wrote: »
    I think the point was it should be up for 10 minutes straight, not up and down, as continuously climbing up stairs is more effort.

    Yeah. That does sound fair.
  • lgfrie
    lgfrie Posts: 1,449 Member
    Funnily enough, I started doing 10 minutes of going up & down the stairs every night, a while ago, just as an add-on to the rest of my regimen. It does provide a good workout. My HR during it is 70-75 % of MHR, higher than I normally get on my machines - it really is a good workout. I think 85 cals is reasonable. Might be a tad high, but doesn't really matter for 85 calories. I've been counting it as 70.
  • trjjoy
    trjjoy Posts: 666 Member
    It is a really good workout 😄😄

  • reginaswork
    reginaswork Posts: 26 Member
    A friend who had very limited time and hated exercise took my advice and used the stairs in her house up and down for exercise. I had her set the timer on her stove or watch and she started out 5 min day eventually weeks later got up to 20 min a day. She cut back on calories and over 6 months lost 40lbs!,
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,592 Member
    I climb stairs at work. In fact, I was in a little stair climbing challenge at work back in February before the shut down.

    I've been estimating 30 calories for 5 flights of 20 stairs each flight up and down plus landings.

    But that may be a touch high ... according to this article, it might only be about 25 calories for 5 flights of 20 stairs.

    https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/is-climbing-the-stairs-every-day-actually-a-good-workout-227727

    "According to StepJockey, you burn about 0.17 calories for every step you climb ... You also burn calories going down, where every stair descended burns about 0.05 calories."

    So for me, that's 0.22 calories per step * 20 steps = 4.4 calories per flight.

    When I was doing the challenge, I was doing about 25 flights a day so that's 4.4 * 25 = 110 calories.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    I used to live in a 4th floor walkup, and liked that going up and down the steps a few times daily was a fitness check (I still got fat, as well as getting thin again, when living there, but at least I knew I could take stairs pretty well!). One time I saw my neighbor going up and down the back stairs and she said she was training for a trip to Kilimanjaro and they'd been recommended to get in shape partly by going up and down stairs.

    Now I'm in a house with a second storey and basement and haven't thought about going up and down those for exercise, but maybe I should, at least as a change of pace! (My office is on floor 30-something, so it would be a great workout if they let me climb up and down even just once each way when I come to the office, but sadly they don't let you use the fire stairs.)
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    springlering62 wrote: »
    In the early days of lockdown, I ran and walked many miles a day on our very empty city bike trail. Rainy days were a problem. I was climbing the walls.

    I decided to run up and down our three story house. Those were some of the hardest workouts I’ve done. By round 40 I was struggling. It was a nice little calorie burn. I was getting 80-100 calories per 40 or 50 rounds of two flights.

    The cats were torn between fear and fascination. They thought crazy antics on steps was their prerogative, lol.

    Btw don’t attempt this in socks on hardwood.

    My cat has free access to food (a big no-no according to Jackson Galaxy) but maintains his weight partially by doing laps around the house. I let him out the kitchen door, (4 steps) he prowls around the cat-proofed yard, then my OH lets him in the basement door (half flight of stairs), he comes up the basement steps (full flight of stairs), he checks out the front windows, and then the cycle repeats.

    I wonder what he would think if I started doing this...
  • trjjoy
    trjjoy Posts: 666 Member
    Update: I weighed in at 67.7kg on 2 January. I weighed myself today, and I weigh 66kg. I have lost nearly 3kg, mostly thanks to walking up and down stairs, and eventually running up and down stairs. So I definitely think one burns even more calories than the calories MFP allocates for those activities.
  • AsthmaticHippo
    AsthmaticHippo Posts: 62 Member
    If it works for you and you enjoy it then that’s great keep doing it. I think the MFP guide burn rate is on the generous side for most activities but clearly you have things under control.

    Keep attacking those stairs 💪

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