Trying to find walking in the exercises and no luck

I walk approx. 6 miles at around 4 mph, burn approx. 700 calories according to my fitbit.

Unless you are 400 pounds, your FitBit is waaaaay over-estimating.

Net burn from walking = 0.3 * miles walked * body weight in pounds.

^^^^

I thought the OP meant that he/she was looking for "walking up stairs" in the database and couldn't find it. Am I the only one that read it that way?

I read it that way, too, TBH. As per the internet, the thread took on a life of its own! :laugh:

I'm brand new here and was able to find jogging up stairs but typing in walking into the box found no matches. Huh? I thought MFP was supposed to be easy to use, but not so far.

Welcome to MFP.

There is a running/jogging upstairs in the database, just type stairs to find it.

Walking is a great form of exercise and can be found in the cardio exercises http://www.myfitnesspal.com/exercise/search. In addition, you can create your own by clicking on 'Add an exercise to the database'.

I am still fairly new here myself but I can tell you the MFP website is a very useful tool and gets a lot easier with regular use. It gets quicker to use when you have already input regular meals and exercise you can add to your daily diary rather than searching for them.

I have read some of the comments on this thread. I believe walking is a valuable form of exercise, for fitness as well as weight loss.

I walk outside and I also use a treadmill and use my pedometer and my treadmill stats to accurately assess the calories burned. My pedometer and treadmill figures are almost identical and about half the calories of those shown in the database, so I have added walking in my MFP exercise database, which varies by average speed, to give a more accurate assessment than using a generic one.

Walking is my main form of exercise and for anyone starting off from a place of little or no activity it is a great place to start. Additional walking can be easily incorporated into most people's day. It is free, can be done anywhere at any time and you can do it while carrying out your normal daily tasks too.

I started off by aiming to get in my 10,000 steps a day and now do that very easily. My fitness level has increased, my clothes size has gone down, my weight is reducing and I can walk further and enjoy the walk rather than thinking about getting to the end of it.

Since starting to use the MFP website, I have reduced my calories and increased my exercise in my goals several times. Each time I do it is with a better understanding of what my body needs to improve my fitness and reduce my weight.

I think reviewing your goals as you go along is beneficial, as your weight changes, your fitness changes and your understanding and expectations change.

As far as the comment on cleaning is concerned. I feel that any exercise is better than no exercise. Being on my feet does me more good than sitting. For some of us, just getting up and getting moving is a big thing and in those cases, every movement helps.

I count in my calorie burn any exercise that makes me breath harder, get warmer and where my body feels like is has been moving. So I would not include a small time spent in the kitchen washing up or a quick mop of the floor but I would include cleaning where my body feels the exercise. I find I expend more energy cleaning when I work for the the weight loss not just for the cleaning.

Best wishes for smooth journey to your goals.

Are you really wanting to count walking as an intentional exercise? Shouldn't that be included in your TDEE (or your maintenance calories?).

I personally wouldn't count walking as this could lead to over eating the estimated calories back and undoing your calorie deficit.

:laugh: Ok.

Hhhhmmmmm......I been walking since I started this weight loss, I wonder how I loss the 102 pounds!!! :happy:

Probably the same way I lost my 134:

You are not trying hard enough. I used to add walking every day to my exercises 100lbs ago.

Because MFP typically dramatically overestimates calories burned, when I go for a walk that I'm going to count as exercise (i.e. something above and beyond normal moving around in the day for me), I tend to halve the calories MFP spews out. That's worked for me. A HRM or other device that gives you more accurate info would also help. Just whatever you do, don't take the MFP exercise calories at face value -- they're overinflated!

As others have pointed out, it is in the cardio database, so you should be able to find it. Good luck!

For a rough estimate, enter 100 calories for every mile you walked. Same goes for running.

Are you really wanting to count walking as an intentional exercise? Shouldn't that be included in your TDEE (or your maintenance calories?).

I personally wouldn't count walking as this could lead to over eating the estimated calories back and undoing your calorie deficit.

So if I take a 2 mile walk to the park, which is not part of my everyday routine, I shouldn't count it as exercise because it is walking?

Just started walking on our treadmill (walk before I can run lol) 22 mins at 3.0 incline and 4.6Kmh was 76 Calories acording to the machine.

And yes I have logged it, as I sit behind a desk most of the day. but waling round the office I don't

Are you really wanting to count walking as an intentional exercise? Shouldn't that be included in your TDEE (or your maintenance calories?).

I personally wouldn't count walking as this could lead to over eating the estimated calories back and undoing your calorie deficit.

:laugh: Ok.

Hhhhmmmmm......I been walking since I started this weight loss, I wonder how I loss the 102 pounds!!! :happy:

I'll go on a limb here and suggest that it might have had something to do with how many calories you ate.

Both had a lot to do with my weight loss, but to say walking isn't exercise is ridiculous, I can't run as i have issues with my knees. I walk approx. 6 miles at around 4 mph, burn approx. 700 calories according to my fitbit. Ohhh and I do weight lifting also, but started this a year ago.

Re-read my post where i stated i wouldn't count it as exercise on MFP. Because you are likely to overestimate caloric burn.

I never said it wasn't exercise... :noway:

I'm brand new here and was able to find jogging up stairs but typing in walking into the box found no matches. Huh? I thought MFP was supposed to be easy to use, but not so far.

under cardio, search for
Walking, upstairs

you probably entered up stairs, which is why it didn't recognize it. You have to be exact in your words and spelling to find activities.
Also, if you just searched walking it would have pulled up a long list, which if you scrolled down,you would have found the upstairs entry

Are you really wanting to count walking as an intentional exercise? Shouldn't that be included in your TDEE (or your maintenance calories?).

I personally wouldn't count walking as this could lead to over eating the estimated calories back and undoing your calorie deficit.

:laugh: Ok.

Hhhhmmmmm......I been walking since I started this weight loss, I wonder how I loss the 102 pounds!!! :happy:

I'll go on a limb here and suggest that it might have had something to do with how many calories you ate.

Both had a lot to do with my weight loss, but to say walking isn't exercise is ridiculous, I can't run as i have issues with my knees. I walk approx. 6 miles at around 4 mph, burn approx. 700 calories according to my fitbit. Ohhh and I do weight lifting also, but started this a year ago.

Re-read my post where i stated i wouldn't count it as exercise on MFP. Because you are likely to overestimate caloric burn.

I never said it wasn't exercise... :noway:

Couldn't the same be said for any exercise that is tracked through MFP alone? why restrict it to walking. It overestimates pretty much everything.

Are you really wanting to count walking as an intentional exercise? Shouldn't that be included in your TDEE (or your maintenance calories?).

I personally wouldn't count walking as this could lead to over eating the estimated calories back and undoing your calorie deficit.

:laugh: Ok.

Hhhhmmmmm......I been walking since I started this weight loss, I wonder how I loss the 102 pounds!!! :happy:

I'll go on a limb here and suggest that it might have had something to do with how many calories you ate.

Both had a lot to do with my weight loss, but to say walking isn't exercise is ridiculous, I can't run as i have issues with my knees. I walk approx. 6 miles at around 4 mph, burn approx. 700 calories according to my fitbit. Ohhh and I do weight lifting also, but started this a year ago.

Re-read my post where i stated i wouldn't count it as exercise on MFP. Because you are likely to overestimate caloric burn.

I never said it wasn't exercise... :noway:

Couldn't the same be said for any exercise that is tracked through MFP alone? why restrict it to walking. It overestimates pretty much everything.

You are correct. But i find it overestimates even greater on light impact exercise such as walking/light jogging/etc. I actually think the MFP calculation of calories burned is atrocious. It estimates 40% higher on most exercises for me. I know first hand that when creating a deficit to cut that it's important to make sure you're consuming enough calories... but come on... walking? Even if the OP was walking great distances and briskly she still isn't going to be burning a very high number of calories.

Why even chance completely undoing your caloric deficit with eating those calories back when you have no way to really track it accurately?

OP didn't indicate they had a pedometer (to see if their "walk" was really beyond MFP's assumptive TDEE), a heart rate monitor, etc.

That's why i said.. if it were me... I wouldn't count it as exercise calories to eat back. A walk is a walk is a walk. OP didn't indicate if they walked a marathon or something...


Regardless, that's my opinion. You are all entitled to your own. To those who lost a large amount of weight while walking.... good for you! But keep in mind you had a lot of weight to lose and were likely at a fairly large deficit as it were. I gave generic advice for someone within any weight range. I know for someone who only has 10-20 pounds to lose eating those calories back can be detrimental.

Are you really wanting to count walking as an intentional exercise? Shouldn't that be included in your TDEE (or your maintenance calories?).

I personally wouldn't count walking as this could lead to over eating the estimated calories back and undoing your calorie deficit.

:laugh: Ok.

Hhhhmmmmm......I been walking since I started this weight loss, I wonder how I loss the 102 pounds!!! :happy:

I'll go on a limb here and suggest that it might have had something to do with how many calories you ate.

Both had a lot to do with my weight loss, but to say walking isn't exercise is ridiculous, I can't run as i have issues with my knees. I walk approx. 6 miles at around 4 mph, burn approx. 700 calories according to my fitbit. Ohhh and I do weight lifting also, but started this a year ago.

Re-read my post where i stated i wouldn't count it as exercise on MFP. Because you are likely to overestimate caloric burn.

I never said it wasn't exercise... :noway:

Couldn't the same be said for any exercise that is tracked through MFP alone? why restrict it to walking. It overestimates pretty much everything.

This!^

Because MFP over states many exercise activities..... do you ever record any exercise?

OP - the PURPOSE of eating back exercise calories is this..............lose weight too quickly & you risk losing lean muscle (as well as fat). But yes, MFP overstates many things (it's just an estimate)......so an approach many people use.......manually LOWER the number of calories MFP gives you. Start with something like 60% .....and adjust down if you are not losing anything.

For a rough estimate, enter 100 calories for every mile you walked. Same goes for running.

Running burns approximately twice the number of calories per mile that walking does. So, NO. You might burn 100 calories per mile walking if you weight 250 lbs, but otherwise that is quite an overestimate.