Walking Question???

Debtappe

History: I'm out of shape and overweight. I just came in from a 1 mile walk and I waked at a brisk pace for me (in fact I'm still,l ahem, sweating a bit) and my breathing is returning to normal. However, since it took me nearly a half an hour do I mile so according the the mfp exercise choices this would be a moderate pace walk. How do I count it? Brisk or Moderate? I think I should go with brisk (cos for me, it was!) What do you all think?

fluffykitsune

Since it took you half an hour to walk a mile you'd put it down as walking 2.0 mph.
it might have felt like a brisk walk but if you put that into the system it'll probably think you went 2 miles instead of 1. since it's going by speed..

Bubs05

To give you an idea, the average calorie burn for walking or jogging is about 100 calories/ mile for someone weighing 180ish pounds. Speed really doesn't matter much except for the fact that if you walk faster you go a further distance in the same time.

sonjavon

I would have a tendency to log it under moderate because I prefer to underestimate than over. BUT - you might want to consider getting a HRM. I've found that because I'm short a lot of times I'm walking a lot faster than MFP thinks I am. I burn a lot of calories because my little legs have to move fast! LOL

MsMouseMouse

I also am some what confused about the counts, and I am aware that everyone says a HRM is what you need to get the correct calories burned. I walk on my treadmill, incline 1 at 3mph for 60 mins (70 mins today). My Treadmill tells me that I have burned close to 500 cals. MFP says different, so I put in 400 cals. Maybe I am way over my calorie intake at the end of the day because of this?? However 1200 calories is a low amount for any women, and I find it extremely hard to stick to that amount so I have changed mine and now have 1380 calories plus my exercise ones. Other sites I have been on tell me that for me to maintain my present weight to multiply 16 X my weight. that gives me over 2900 calories a day and that if I just took away 500 I would still lose a pound a week and if I wanted to lose 2 then to cut out a thousand. That would still give me 1900 plus my exercise calories.. Who would feel like they were on a diet with that amount?

llkilgore

I'd count it as 30 minutes at 2 MPH on the grounds that if it isn't enough of a challenge that you get a little winded and sweaty, it probably shouldn't count as cardio at all. So log what you have actually accomplished and progress to longer distances and a faster pace as your fitness level improves.

I've quit logging my daily, hour long, 3 mph dog walk at all because I've been doing it so long (more than two years) that it is no longer a challenge. I don't get winded, and if I sweat, it's only because it's hot out. Instead I've bumped my activity level up from "Sedentary" to "Lightly Active," which has added a whopping 90 calories to the 1200 daily goal. That sounds a lot more realistic to me than the 240 exercise calories it was giving me before.

JE55Y

I do a 47 minute walk for 2.5 miles and class this as a brisk walk at 4.0 mph.

Hope this helps