Calculating Distance With Pedometer

jessicacookieboots
jessicacookieboots Posts: 4
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi everyone! I have a pedometer to keep track of my steps while I'm at work. I spend a decent amount of time walking but there is no way for me to even ballpark the time the walking actually took. I walk a little, do something else, walk more, stop for awhile, etc. So, while the pedometer is fairly accurate in counting my steps I'm having issues calculating how many calories I may have burned (even when I figure out the distance I walked.) Most formulas seem to require a time in order to calculate calories... any ideas?

Replies

  • jamebb
    jamebb Posts: 86 Member
    Supposedly you burn about 100 cal per mile (if you are of average weight).
    So to get a rough estimate of your mileage and calorie burn try this: Figure out your stride length (take 10 steps, measure the distance in feet and divide by 10). Multiply stride length by the number of steps you've taken. Divide that number by 5280 (the number of ft in a mi) to get your total mileage for the day.
  • Morgaath
    Morgaath Posts: 679 Member
    Figure out your normal walking speed by walking some distance you know without stopping. Like around a track, or maybe the length of your block. Now that you have a time and distance you can figure out your normal speed.
    When you go far a walk, just compare how long it would take you to walk it at that speed, as this would ignore the time spent not walking.
    I have to do this with my dog walks, as she likes to stop and smell stuff, so we will cover a hundred yards at 3.5mph, and then stop for a minute, and then back up to walking speed for another 100yrds, and stop.
  • Morgaath
    Morgaath Posts: 679 Member
    The list here might also come in handy, as well as all the other activities they list (tons of them covering all kinds of stuff - Like 5 different entries for fishing)
    http://www.nutristrategy.com/caloriesburnedwalking.htm
  • jessicacookieboots
    jessicacookieboots Posts: 4
    Thank you for your help!
  • yanniejannie
    yanniejannie Posts: 1,090 Member
    I just looked this up to confirm that I was remembering correctly: 2,000 steps in a mile is average. I've been wearing a pedometer for weeks to get some idea how much I do. It seems to vary wildly---some days not even 2,000..........others (like a day I spent volunteering at an equine event), I was well over 10,000. I try to make it to at least 5,000/day. One problem, when I exercise seated on a stationary bike, I get no "credit", it just doesn't register.

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