Don't People Walk Anymore?

Contrarian

I walk everywhere. I don't even own a car because I don't need one. I log some walks, but I don't log every time I leave the house.

ilookthetype

I only log my gym time. I do not log when I walk to work, walk my dogs, walk to the store, clean my house, mow my lawn.

That is just ridiculous.

I'm this.
I don't own a car, so walking/buses/metro is how I get everywhere. I walk all day, I just don't log it because it's part of my day, it's not extra exercise.

latepaul

I walk to and from work (about 15mins each way) and I walk every lunch time (40-50mins) just to get out of the office. I don't log those because I did them before I started dieting. I only log my "exercise walks" (about 70mins weekdays, 90mins w/ends) where I try to walk more briskly.

Qarol

I live in a rural area, outside even the city limits of the suburb of the urban area. I live 40 miles from work. So no, I don't walk to work.

clarech82

I walk a lot as I don't drive but I've always done it even at my largest so I dont log it as exercise the only time I do add it is if I walk extra fast or I'm walking carrying my 38lb three year old as its not something I do often and he's bloody heavy lol.

ilookthetype

I live in a rural area, outside even the city limits of the suburb of the urban area. I live 40 miles from work. So no, I don't walk to work.

Q, you are so lazy. I don't know how I manage to remain friends with you...

whatwentwrong

i live in the middle of nowhere- the closest thing to walk to is a mile each way, and it's a convenience store. getting groceries would be a 10 mile roundtrip. i walked a LOT when i lived in the city, but i wouldn't have logged it in my exercise calories

bcattoes

I live in a rural mountainous area. It's great for hiking, but not so great for walking anywhere. The roads are narrow and rarely have sidewalks, and if you are going more than 1/2 mile you'll likely have to walk up or down a steep hill.

SarabellPlus3

Wow, you're doing amazing! Good for you.

Like others, I have to point out that it depends on where/how you live. I walk my kids to and from school (unless there's a blizzard or it's over 100*-- you'd have to coach me more to walk through those LOL), it is a little over a mile round-trip. That is well worth doing. But my husband would have to walk about 30 miles, on the Interstate and across fields, to walk to work. Not so much practical. LOL
I always toy with the idea of walking to the grocery store, but it'd be 2 miles round trip, carrying the grocery bags, and that's to the closer grocery store, when I prefer the one about twice as far. I guess I'd say that I don't walk there because I don't have to walk there.

I love the idea of living in the heart of a big city and never driving anywhere, but it's not the place I choose to live. I love everything else about not living in the heart of a big city, I guess!


eta: I don't log my walking. I take it into account in deciding whether I'm "sedentary," "lightly active," etc. When I jog, and my gym time, I log, and do NOT count into whether I'm "sedentary," etc. I think that's how this website is meant to be used. (?)

Laurarunnergirl

I no longer own a car, so I walk/run/bus wherever I'm going (we have an excellent public transportation system, even out to the 'burbs and beyond). Since walking is part of my daily routine, I don't log it as exercise unless I'm intentionally exercising/power walking. I do, however, have a pedometer/step counter, so I can keep track of how many steps I take, and up the activity if I'm sitting too much.

scraver2003

I sometimes wish I lived closer to things so I could walk to work - bike to work - walk to the stores. I work 30+ miles away. I have thought about parking at a park n ride and biking the rest of the way to work... but I work in Downtown Hartford, CT. Not really the safest biking area. In fact, I say a little prayer every time I cross the street. I swear I saw a guy peeing as he walked down the stree one day - but I was on the shuttle and couldn't get a god look.

I probably could walk to the little co-op that is about 1 1/5 miles from my house, but there is a killer hill... it would be hard to hawl 6 bags of groceries up that hill... and I don't have that kind of time for grocery shopping. I stop at Big Y on the way home from work.

Hubs has a push mower... I see a lot of people on their little tractors and I am glad he is still getting some exercise from that.

partyof5caga

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fteale

I don't log my walking most of the time, unless I am carrying one of the children at the same time, or it's a really significantly long walk. Before I learned to drive I walked everywhere, at least 4 miles a day, often up to 10, pushing a pram or pushchair. I had a 2 mile walk just to get into town. Needless to say I put on A LOT of weight after learning to drive! I put on a stone and a half in 4 months, then realised I was going to have to really cut back my calories from now on. I don't have the option not to drive now my children are at school, as the school is 4 miles away across the other side of a motorway with no footpath, so walking it is simply not possible.

I would say I walk between 1 and 4 miles most days now but don't bother logging it.

SoDamnHungry

It's a 40-minute drive to work, so I'd have to start at midnight if I wanted to get here on time. That said, I WISH I could walk to work every day. I had to drop my car off for an oil change about a mile away from work and walked the rest of the way, then walked back to pick it up. It was really nice.

partyof5caga

I try to walk around the neighborhood when the weather is nice. however, walking as a mode of transportation is unrealistic for me. I live in the Hampton Roads area of VA, which is a group of 7 cities spanning a great deal of distance. It's not unusual to live in one city and work in another that's a good 40-60 minutes away by car. No matter which route I take to work, I have to cross a bridge or tunnel to get there, none of which are biker-friendly. I envy you, I'd love to be able to bike or walk to work.

I agree! I live in Hampton Roads too

TS65

I live in the country. The closest grocery store is 4 miles away, but it's expensive, so I go to the one 20 minutes away unles I absolutely NEED something.

We have a little town aobut 1/2 mile away, but I don't usually have any reason to go there (as I'm not eating at their restaurants [comfort food] and I'm not buying antiques). Even if I do have something I need to do (go to library), my chores are usually lumped together, so I end up driving.

Here, there are no sidewalks and the roads are curvy. I've walked and jogged for my health, but I tend to have to SEARCH for a safe road. Otherwise, what makes you healthy could end up killing you. :noway:

Vegan_Chick

I walk dowtown every day at lunch and the ladies at my work say "I can't believe you walk all the way downtown, I could never do that or have that much discipline". I never know what to say because it's only a 40 minute round trip walk which is not much. I believe there are so many truly lazy people out there.

llkilgore

I walk at least 40 minutes or so nearly every day - have for years - but quit logging it on MFP because I couldn't eat back the calories the software gave me and still reach my weight loss goal for the week. And I was falling more and more short every week. So after several weeks of this I upped my activity level to account for the walking and looked around for a different cardio activity that my body didn't already see as completely routine.


It was no big deal if the increase in activity level didn't fully cover the calories burned by walking because I was pretty sure MFP was overestimating the burn from other activities. The elliptical, for example - I never did believe those numbers. My average weekly weight loss was almost dead on what the software predicted, though, and I reached my goal without ever hitting a plateau. So I'm satisfied the math worked out for me in the real world, even if it didn't always look quite right in the log.

ItsCasey

I used to walk 20 to 25 miles per week, strictly for exercise and not counting the walking one has to do to get from A to B in their day-to-day life. Back then, I wore a pedometer all day, every day, but I only logged the walking I did for exercise. As I'm sure others have pointed out by now (I didn't read all the responses), you're supposed to include whatever "normal" walking you do when you choose your lifestyle activity level for your MFP settings. In that case, MFP is already accounting for those calories when they establish your goals.

Otherwise, you can set your activity level to sedentary and log every step you take beyond required walking. For instance, if you walk to and from work, you would log that. If you walk your dog, you would log that. If you take a couple of laps around the building at work on your breaks, you would log that. Obviously, you would log actual exercise like time on the elliptical or going for a walk around the neighborhood. You would NOT log walking to and from the restroom or to and from your car or the steps you take as you move around your house doing various things. So wearing a pedometer all day long and recording every step in your exercise diary is probably overestimating your calories burned for MFP purposes (not by a huge amount ... maybe 100 to 200 calories, but still enough to have an impact over a long period of time).

Of course, if you have your activity level set to anything above sedentary and you are still logging every step, you are double counting a lot of your calories burned.

Qarol

I live in a rural area, outside even the city limits of the suburb of the urban area. I live 40 miles from work. So no, I don't walk to work.

Q, you are so lazy. I don't know how I manage to remain friends with you...

because of the blackmail...

ilookthetype

I live in a rural area, outside even the city limits of the suburb of the urban area. I live 40 miles from work. So no, I don't walk to work.

Q, you are so lazy. I don't know how I manage to remain friends with you...

because of the blackmail...

*sits quietly*

Stefani74

Living out in the country you can't really walk to work or the store. Even at work its too far to walk to get lunch or run errands. I would LOVE to live close enough to walk or ride a bike to work. But around here you don't have sidewalks or much of a shoulder so it can be pretty dangerous.

But I am trying to walk more...like on my lunch break but people will stop and ask if I need a ride. That's how rare it is to see someone walking just for exercise around here. Most people you see walking just don't have a car.

auntiebabs

I lived in NYC for 27 years.
walked at least 5 miles a day without thinking about it.
Lived in a 5 floor walk-up.

Recently moved to suburbia.... and boy is it a different world. People get in their cars to drive to the other end of the shopping center.

I thought I was sedentary before I moved... walking less than I used to but more than most folks in my area. (they think it's weird when I walk to the grocery)

Matiara

I live in a pedestrian friendly suburb with every amenity within a 15-30 minute walk or a 5-10 minute bus ride. There is really not much that I need to leave my town for, but most weekends, I do my shopping and errands the next city (or two or three) over. I live and work in the same city and while I love my town, I would go insane if it was *all* I ever saw.

There is good public transpo around here, so I don't own a car and walk and bus everywhere. A lot of my friends and coworkers are amazed by this, but I've never owned a car and hated driving when I took lessons, so the pedestrian life is not odd to me.

I live a mile from my office and walk both ways in the spring and summer. My coworkers equate this with a trek in the Himilayas. I have many "amusing" anecdotes regarding my coworkers' comments regarding my walking commute, but this is already tangental. So anyway, in the fall and winter, I take the bus to work because it's dark at 6:30 AM, but I walk home. My neighborhood is safe, but I'm a 'fraidy cat who's afraid of the dark and the route is lined with woods for a good 1/3 of my walk. I have visions of Michael Myers or Freddy Kruger coming after me. It's silly, but I own it.

In any case, I put the weight on while doing all of the above and though I probably would have gained more had I not, I only count my actual workouts as exercise because my other activity is not out of the ordindary..

LJA1968

I walk daily but some of my walking is just part of my daily routines. When I go for a "real" walk I log it. But I don't log my walk from where I get off the bus and have to walk the rest of the way to work or when I take the dog out because she stops and starts all the time and doesn't go far because of a bad knee. I consider these just normal for the day.

summertime_girl

Where I live, it's not an option to walk to places. I live far out in the 'burbs, and everywhere is a drive.

caroln3

I love to walk and ride bikes, if I could walk or ride my bike to work I would. Today I walked to the store I needed some things for dinner. If I had a dog, that would be the perfect excuse for me to walk more than once a day. You are very lucky.

kathypasco

I walk everyday for atleast an half hour. Would like to do more but am so tired from being on my feet most of the day. Am tring to find other exercises to do besideswalking. i have a bad knee any suggestions welcome.

lwhitman4

I think walking is a very underrated exercise: most people think it's not vigorous enough so they skip it, but why skip a 30 minute walk during lunch that you otherwise would have just been sitting on your butt listening to boring coworkers?

I love walking. I walk/jog my neighborhood about 5-6 times a week, and try to walk 2-3 days during my lunch break. It's about 85% of my exercise routine and I've already had 2 comments about my weight lost in about 2 weeks.

And why not? It's free, it's something you can do without special equipment, and you get to experience the outdoors. I lurb it.

genxrider

I live in Atlanta. It's like L.A. - nobody walks.