10,000 steps a day

I aim for 10,000 steps per day, but rarely meet it. I'm really trying to get better! Once it warms up a bit I'm sure it will be easier for me. There's just no way I'm going to spend extra time outside when it's below freezing.

As for how to log it, the different activity settings take into account how much general activity you get during the day. If you're regularly walking at least 10,000 steps, I'd just make sure your activity level is set to some level of active, and leave it at that.

I have a FitBit which is just a pedometer that can sync to the site. I have an office job so my activity is set to pretty sedentary, so when I have a day where I walk more than MFP considers sedentary, I get a "FitBit calorie adjustment" under my exercise. I haven't paid too close attention to this, but I'd estimate it usually gives me around 100-150 calories toward my daily steps when I've walked 6000-8000 steps for the day, since my account is set to sedentary and it doesn't expect me to normally walk this much.

Your daily walking for just getting around and doing things is already part of your budget. Unless you went for a dedicated brisk walk I wouldn't count it. If you did then you can log the time, speed, distance. Someone moving less than 6000 steps a day is considered sedentary so there isn't much to be gained by logging it other than over eating.

I understand your point. Our bodies burn calories just to maintain.

I disagree with you completely on this response to this question.

Our daily caloric burn rate is already figured into each individuals daily caloric intake! The only reason to add cardio and exercise is if it is on top of what we have described our lifestyles to be at (i.e. sedentary, active, ect!). I have a pedometer that tells me how many steps taken, how many calories burned, and how many steps were areobic and anerobic. I have found these numbers to be completely innacurate compared to my calculations based on my HRM. My recommendation of caloric burn is INCREASE EXERCISE to increase calorie burn. When your heart rate increases to percentages up to 85% you are burning more calories than when your body is operating at 15% such as walking just to get in steps!

Like I said before, but will clairfy, Its not necessarily the amount of steps you take to loose weight, its the quality of the steps!

I try and incorporate walking into my day. I walk 10,000 steps a day or better. How do I log this? Under walking it has the pace and the amount of time. It takes me more than 9 hours to walk all that. I can't put in 9 hours of walking the dog pace. my ipod says number of calories burned. Should I just put that in?

I have a fitbit which links with mfp, it automatically gives me some extra calories when my fitbit burn exceeds what mfp expects. I don't manually log exercise on mfp though, so the extra calories are inclusive of my intentional exercise + extra activity. There are a few devices that can sync with mfp, but in absence of any. I think I would just look at your mfp activity level setting. I read that the average American with a desk job does about 4,000 steps a day, so if you are regularly doing 10,000 you are more active than that. The goal of 10,000 steps is intended to result in a "moderately active" activity level--however that is defined.

I usually acheive 7000-10,000 +/- and I have my mfp setting at lightly active. At that level, I start seeing an adjustment after I exceed 8,000 steps or so (depends as it isn't strictly just step count). I do not log exercise on mfp though, so my overage includes steps from intentional exercise. At 10,000 steeps you are probably "active" (the second highest of mfp's four settings). On days when I reach or slightly exceed 10,000 I usually have an adjustment of about 300 calories. On days when I reach 15,000-25,000 steps it adds a lot more. If you regularly reach 15,000 than I would set it for "very active". But I would be a little conservative and only base it on the step count you can reach 6 days a week or so.

Somewhere I saw an article comparing different step counts to activity levels, there activity levels do not exactly line up with mfp's, but it might be a helpful reference. http://walking.about.com/cs/measure/a/locke122004.htm

ETA: I would not log the walking time it takes to acheive the 10,000 steps unless you are doing it all at once or broken into a couple walks. If you enter 9 hours of walking, it might include 9 hours of your bmr and credit you with too many calories.