walking calories burned?!

rocket_ace

so I just entered what I think was a brisk but not crazy walk for my commute - it came out as follows:

"194 calories doing 30 minutes of "Walking, 3.5 mph, brisk pace"

is that for real? seems high no? should I not bother entering in my walks (I walk back and forth to work, and at lunch, each for about 30 min)....so I guess if I enter all in , that's almost 600 calories from 1.5 hours of walking......which seems like it might be skewing my calories (if I try to eat them back). I also try to run at the gym for 30 min or so and that gives like 250+ calories, which I do enter in cuz it feels like I earned it.

what do you guys think? no walking,but yes on running when entering into MFP and possibly eating back those calories?

and don't get my started on stair climbing and weights....those are much harder to figure.

tutti777

Walking is about the only exercise I can do and I pretty much do it daily if the weather permits. Yes, I always log my walking exercise. I don't always eat back the earned calories but it is exercise and it should be counted.

claritarejoice

It really depends on how you want to figure your calories. You can set your activity level at sedentary and count your walking, or out it at active/lightly active and not count walking. It's basically the same. Personally I put my activity at sedentary since I have an office job, then I count all my walking (I also walk to and from work and on lunch), and I eat some of my exercise calories back but not all. This works for me. I know other people who eat the same amount every day (like 2000 calories) and don't eat any exercise calories because exercise is already figured into their intake. The choice is yours. You can try different things and see which one you like.

STrooper

Actually it seems pretty close to target. You basically burn 100 calories per mile (that rate per minute goes up as yo pick up the pace) and so if you are at 3.5 miles per hour (rounded). Your weight changes that somewhat but if you were walking at precisely 3.5 mph, you'd complete 1.75 miles in 30 minutes and that would convert to roughly 175 calories (YMMV). Besides a standard "dumb" pedometer 9one that registers steps and takes your stride and weight and converts the walking into 'additional" calories burned would give you roughly the same value. I have two years of data that confirms that.

So, no, you aren't too far off. But the trick is having MFP set correctly so that you don't inflate the importannce of walking in the scheme of things.

notthatthis

Actually it seems pretty close to target. You basically burn 100 calories per mile (that rate per minute goes up as yo pick up the pace) and so if you are at 3.5 miles per hour (rounded). Your weight changes that somewhat but if you were walking at precisely 3.5 mph, you'd complete 1.75 miles in 30 minutes and that would convert to roughly 175 calories (YMMV). Besides a standard "dumb" pedometer 9one that registers steps and takes your stride and weight and converts the walking into 'additional" calories burned would give you roughly the same value. I have two years of data that confirms that.

So, no, you aren't too far off. But the trick is having MFP set correctly so that you don't inflate the importannce of walking in the scheme of things.

Are the figures Net or Gross?

Exercise minus BMR for Net and is this also assuming that the walk at 3.5mph is on the flat with no hills or descents.

I still prefer to wear the HRM and to achieve at least a minimum of 55% of MHR, anything less and it seems rather pointless.

4_Lisa

For me personally, I don't count things that are done regularily as part of my day, walking, cleaning etc. If it over and above what I would normally do, then yes I track, gym workouts, i track. But because I am losing weight I NEVER eat back my earned calories.

bsix3

Everybody is different so the without a heart rate monitor it's just an estimate. I started out walking on my breaks & lunch. Once I got a HRM I found out I was way under. You may want to look into investing in one if you want to get an idea of how many calories you are actually burning.

slimmercaz

Can i ask, do you all use some kind of app to track your walking if so whats it called please?

Thanks Caz x

notthatthis

mapmywalk

endomondo

are two apps, if you have a fully enabled gps phone

rocket_ace

Can i ask, do you all use some kind of app to track your walking if so whats it called please?

Thanks Caz x

I use MFP, Loseit to enter them in manually, but mostly I rely on my fitbit. I also have used Runkeeper w/ my iphone (ie - gps) before and it gives the same results as fitbit so I'm confident of the fitbit results being accurate.