Do you count daily walking

CherryOnionKiss

When calculating your exercise calorie burn for the day, should I count the walk from home to work that I do everyday or is it already calculated in my daily calorie burn for a normal person?

CherryOnionKiss

bump

littlelily613

I count my walking....and I am still losing weight...but other people might have a difference of opinion.

robot_potato

I only count it if i am going on a walk for exercise/ relaxation. The normal everyday stuff, i don't log.

Lesa_Sass

Its according to how far it is.

I think what you are supposed to do is recognize this fact in your settings as active

bshedwick

I think it depends on what you set your lifestyle as. I'm a desk worker, so I set my profile to sedentary, and I usually count any walking that I do that will end up being more than 10 minutes or so of straight walking.

And I usually only count the times when I go walking for exercise sake. Not walking around a store or something.

swilk627

If it's something you do as part of your everyday living, it should be accounted for in your activity level.

marquesajen

I count it as my normal daily activity so I don't log it. I don't move around a lot for one job, but one day a week at my other job I am on my feet all day so I log that since my life style is set to sedentary. It's up to you

CherryOnionKiss

I'm a deskworker too, I set my profile to sedentary so I guess I'll start logging then.

Thanks!

erinw1011

How far of a walk is it? Do you get your heart rate up/get sweaty? What are your activity levels set at? For me personally, I drive to work and sit all day so I put sedentary. If I was walking to work every day I might put lightly active. Also, when I think of logging things, I think "Is this something I did before I was trying to lose weight?" I don't log cleaning or a short walk with my daughter on the weekend because I did those things before. If I take a longer walk than normal or really get going I will. Does that make sense?

KyleB65

What is your activity setting on MFP?

Mine is set as "Sedentary" so I count everything that is not sitting at my desk.

If your setting is at a higher activity level you may not want to include normal everyday activities.

CherryOnionKiss

I'm set at sedentary. I have a desk job and before I wanted to lose weight I was on maternity leave so I was on the couch all day. Walking gets me easily out of breath and sweating

SarahMorganP

Yes, if your activity is set to sedentary than you should log any walking you do.

solodancer

i count everything i do, even at work, i have an active job but i set my lifestyle as sedentary to account for days off and annual leave. I wear a pedometer so i can be accurate about what walkin i do....I no this isnt the way that many ppl do it but for me i dont want to include being active on my days off work and for how i work things out with my goals it works for me. find what works for u

yesthistime

I would consider using an alternative way of measuring your calorie burn, because in my experience MFP significantly overestimates the number of calories burned from cardio exercises, including walking. You wouldn't want to overeat because of a number error. Best wishes

Bentley2718

I have my MFP set for sedentary, but I walk about a mile most days to/from the bus stop. I don't count this, because I get a lot of other exercise, so it doesn't feel like I need bother logging it. For me, it doesn't feel like I'm working physically. If I got less exercise, I think I'd be more inclined to count it, because my body would be less accustomed to moving around.

CherryOnionKiss

I would consider using an alternative way of measuring your calorie burn, because in my experience MFP significantly overestimates the number of calories burned from cardio exercises, including walking. You wouldn't want to overeat because of a number error. Best wishes

What kind of alternative way ? Do you have any suggestion ? Like a pedometer or something?

meerkat70

If it's something you do as part of your everyday living, it should be accounted for in your activity level.

What if you run, or do an hour or two's cardio every day... ?

Lesa_Sass

I would consider using an alternative way of measuring your calorie burn, because in my experience MFP significantly overestimates the number of calories burned from cardio exercises, including walking. You wouldn't want to overeat because of a number error. Best wishes

Wow, that is funny because so far, my experience is that MFP is significantly lower in the number of calories burned from carido.

RUN2CJ

II count my walking depending on how late I am or how fast I need to get to my destination.... If there is a free luncheon to the first 50 people, I am speed walking and totally count that! Or those times when I really have to go to the bathroom and I gotta’ run to make it in time before an accident...I count that too.

Hey! Every little bit counts!!!

yesthistime

I would consider using an alternative way of measuring your calorie burn, because in my experience MFP significantly overestimates the number of calories burned from cardio exercises, including walking. You wouldn't want to overeat because of a number error. Best wishes

What kind of alternative way ? Do you have any suggestion ? Like a pedometer or something?

Perhaps a heart-rate monitor. Or some members just choose to adjust their "calories burned" to a percentage of what MFP calculates instead of taking the number completely.

yesthistime

I would consider using an alternative way of measuring your calorie burn, because in my experience MFP significantly overestimates the number of calories burned from cardio exercises, including walking. You wouldn't want to overeat because of a number error. Best wishes

Wow, that is funny because so far, my experience is that MFP is significantly lower in the number of calories burned from carido.

Lower than what your HRM says?

led6777

I am set as sedentary and I rarely count walking. I do this as a means to compensate for the possibility that I may be entering incorrectly small food portions sometimes (i.e., I eat a 7" banana but erroneously log it as 6" because my estimation skills are bad).

I only count walking if I have spent a significant time on my feet during the day (2+ hours) or if I'm over on my calories and I want to see a green number... I know, silly.

My advice is, play it safe and don't add walking unless you are truly sedentary or if you do it intentionally for exercise purposes.

CherryOnionKiss

I have an HRM on my watch but people on MFP told me it isn't as accurate as a chest strap. I can't really afford one of those unfortunately

Lesa_Sass

I would consider using an alternative way of measuring your calorie burn, because in my experience MFP significantly overestimates the number of calories burned from cardio exercises, including walking. You wouldn't want to overeat because of a number error. Best wishes

Wow, that is funny because so far, my experience is that MFP is significantly lower in the number of calories burned from carido.

Lower than what your HRM says?

Way lower than what my heart rate monitor AND the monitor in my treadmill say as well as another app that I use to calculate calories burned. The other three are all about the same and MFP is way way lower. Say my other three say I burned 350 calories and MFP will say I burned 280. But that is just my experience with it.

hexrei

I have an HRM on my watch but people on MFP told me it isn't as accurate as a chest strap. I can't really afford one of those unfortunately

Use googlemaps to map the distance. If its so short that Googlemaps can't realistically track the distance it's probably not worth logging. If you can get a measurable distance, time the walk and use division to determine the speed, then log the walk using the speed and time.

led6777

I have an HRM on my watch but people on MFP told me it isn't as accurate as a chest strap. I can't really afford one of those unfortunately

Use googlemaps to map the distance. If its so short that Googlemaps can't realistically track the distance it's probably not worth logging. If you can get a measurable distance, time the walk and use division to determine the speed, then log the walk using the speed and time.

This is a really good idea.

CherryOnionKiss

How can I determine the speed of my walk?

Lesa_Sass

How can I determine the speed of my walk?

How far is it from your house to your job and how long does it take you?

CherryOnionKiss

Ah ok I get it.

By knowing the time it takes and the distance I can find the speed to know under what kind of walk to log it.
Right?

jennifershoo

How can I determine the speed of my walk?

You just need to know the distance walked and the total time of your walk.
Use this treadmill calculator http://42.195km.net/e/treadsim/
And put incline to 0%
For me, this calculator seems accurate, but I can see it not work for everyone as you can't enter your gender and height.
If someone could provide a better link, I'd be happy.