What walks do you track? What do I put in?

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mrj768
mrj768 Posts: 2 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I work as a Sales Manager and therefore walk throughout the day, but I also do a lot of just standing. I don't think I'm sedentary, I think I"m lightly active. Here is my question, how much walking does the app assume I walk each day depending on my selection sedentary vs lightly active?

How does MyFitnessPal calculate sedentary/light active with respect to calories allowed? I changed it and my allowed calorie intake does not change at all.

Also, am I supposed to log everything? Example, I know everyone walks a little bit through the course of normal everyday activity. How many minutes does each one give me as a buffer, so I don't count walking at work as double, etc? I don't want to log all my walks if it already assumes I walk x amount of minutes per day, what is the best way to manage this?

Replies

  • 4skylarandmia
    4skylarandmia Posts: 9
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    Hi there, I use a pedometer and I find that very useful, it gives you how many steps you take a day and how many moderate steps, plus calories used, and minutes walked at a moderate pace. I wear mine all day. I walk at a brisk to very brisk pace at least for about an hour a day. You go to exercise and click on cardio. Good luck I hope this helped.
  • saraann4
    saraann4 Posts: 1,312 Member
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    I would log anything you do outside of working. You do that on a daily basis. If I go for a nice stroll with the dog, I don't log it. If I'm doing it with some feeling and it's longer than 20 minutes, I'll log it. The only thing is I don't really pay attention to the calorie burn on MFP as they overestimate. I just put it in for myself to know I did something that day. That's just my two cents. Probably wrong, maybe right.
  • meshashesha2012
    meshashesha2012 Posts: 8,326 Member
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    i only consider something as exercise if my heart rate goes above a certain amount (above 130 for me) and stays at that level or above for 15 minutes or more. so slow easy walks where my heart rate barely goes above 100 i dont count. running up 4 flights of steps to my apartment doesnt count as exercise.

    basically i only count stuff as exercise when i intend to exercise and for me that intention always means beast mode.
  • Ladyeliah
    Ladyeliah Posts: 34 Member
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    I have a desk job, so when I started here I had myself down as sedentary. I didn't take into consideration that "sedentary" was being calculated as someone walking from their house to their car, driving to work, sitting all day, and driving back home. When I got a fitbit I found that it was adding 500 to 600 calories that I should be eating per day for my walk to and from the subway/work.

    I guess what I'm saying is that your activity level doesn't depend just on your job but on your overall lifestyle as well. I average around 13,000 steps a day, have my activity level here now set as "lightly active" and still get a 200-300 calorie adjustment each day depending on how fast I walk and any extra errands I run. I would suggest trying to listen to your body. Are you hungry with the calories you're eating? Are you tired? Are you dropping weight faster than is recommended? If you figure out how your body is reacting to your current plan then you can adjust from their until you find what works best for you.
  • Afterblue
    Afterblue Posts: 78 Member
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    I am carefully reading responses to your question because I'd love to know too.

    I work a desk job, but I walk from the station to my workplace, and back at the end of the day. It is a 1.3 mile walk each way, but the problem is there are loads of other people walking and there are traffic lights that I clearly need to stop for because somehow this world has not accepted that everything must yield to me when I am in my 7-8 zone of effort. *shakes fist*

    I am not currently logging this because it is so unreliable a method but would love to know if I should.
  • mom2dms
    mom2dms Posts: 152 Member
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    I would say wear a heart rate monitor to work one day and see how many calories you burn or a pedometer to see how far you are actually walking. Now, having said that..I walk throughout the day as a teacher, but since this is something I've done for 25+ years and before I started to lose weight, I don't count it as exercise since I'm not getting my heart rate up.

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