Going for a stroll do you add that as exercise?

bextas
bextas Posts: 12
in Getting Started
We've done a good 30 minute walk this morning but I'm not sure whether to count it or not. I have a 17 month old little boy so whilst at work I'm say at a desk 3 times a week the other days we are out and about do any of you include a little work or just when you gym it etc? If i do count it it's something like 230 calories should I eat these or not? I'm on day 6 and have 140lbs to loose Saturdays my official weigh in day but I will weigh tomorrow as that will be a full week. This morning I was 6lbs down. Any advice very welcome.
Thanks
«1

Replies

  • nerdchiq32
    nerdchiq32 Posts: 20
    yes it is, you'd be surprised how much cals you can burn on a stroll :) and good job thats awesome!
  • rutheglen
    rutheglen Posts: 24 Member
    Yep. I put mine on mapmywalk, so it tells me how far and fast, with an idea of calories.
  • Nenny1985
    Nenny1985 Posts: 122
    definitely.
  • coaoalo
    coaoalo Posts: 104 Member
    I add anything that's not "usual" for me. So, I'd add a morning walk but not walking to work, even if they were the same length.
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    That depends on your settings. If you chose "sedentary" when you created your goals, it's fair to count in and eat back any exercise longer than 15 minutes.

    Keep in mind that the numbers you see here are gross numbers, they include what you would have burned if you had spent that time doing nothing. If you are planning to eat back, you should work with net numbers. Here is a calculator that would help you find your net calories:

    http://www.shapesense.com/fitness-exercise/calculators/net-versus-gross-calorie-burn-conversion-calculator.aspx

    example: you burned 230 calories walking 30 minutes. You enter 230 calories, 30 minutes and the rest of the info.
    Assuming a 30 year old 300 pound female who is 5'6 the result would be 181 calories you can eat back (enter your own info)

    Now what to do with that number? Edit your walk entry and reduce the minutes to get as close to 181 as possible, and there you have it. Your diary will automatically add those calories to your day for eat back purposes.
  • bextas
    bextas Posts: 12
    Thanks guys really helpful x
  • grandmothercharlie
    grandmothercharlie Posts: 1,063 Member
    I count it as long as it is faster than 2 miles per hour (pretty hard to go slower) and more than 10 minutes). My pedometer automatically calls that an aerobic workou!t. Get a pedometer or use MapMyWalk on your smartphone (I use pedometer on the indoor track and MapMyWalk outdoors). When you go to walk, set it. It will determine your pace, the "climb", and calories burned. It will sync and auto-upload to MFP
  • MaryGrace1965
    MaryGrace1965 Posts: 92 Member
    I also count it. I was very inactive before I started so to be honest anything was "exercise" for me. I also use a pedometer that automatically tells me how many aerobic steps I have taken. I usually wear my pedometer all day and then add it on MFP at the end of the evening.
  • LessHeavyVeggie
    LessHeavyVeggie Posts: 208 Member
    I think it's up to you really - if you feel it's exercise for you then of course add it!

    I walk to most places - depending on where I'm going a 45min/hour walk has become as routine as getting a bus for me so I don't bother logging it! (but I take that into account in my activity level anyway)
  • monk789
    monk789 Posts: 6
    You can count the stroll as an exercise. You well want to do more then that also. It seems like doing a variety of exercise is what keeps your body from getting stuck and makes it more interesting. I do Zumba, Speed Walking & go to the gym, I take turns. I hear that helps move your metabolism better. Good luck :)
  • sprucey85
    sprucey85 Posts: 64 Member
    Definitely add it, I sometimes have a walk around on my lunch break and will always add it under slow pace as I know I don't walk fast!
  • TheVirgoddess
    TheVirgoddess Posts: 4,535 Member
    I don't, but I have a FitBit that tracks that sort of stuff for me and will adjust my exercise levels accordingly.

    Before my FB, I did, but I'd always chop the time in half (I feel like MFP over-estimates calories burned). So if I walked around for an hour, I'd log 30 minutes. That's personal preference though :)
  • womichel768
    womichel768 Posts: 7
    congrats on being six lbs down already. that is awesome. and yes you should count it. keep up the good work.
  • ChrisUK70
    ChrisUK70 Posts: 54 Member
    My walking in a day adds up to about 300+ calories a day according to my Fitbit so definitely count it.
  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,603 Member
    I don't log exercise, but if I did, I'd count the walking. :)
  • hearthwood
    hearthwood Posts: 794 Member
    No I wouldn't add a 30 minute stroll as exercise, and definitely don't eat the calories you think you've burned back. Really if you're not pushing hard, sweaty, breathing hard, etc. you have to question the amount of burned calories. While walking or strolling gets the blood moving and it's a great start to move into other cardio type exercise, if you're not doing 10 thousand steps a day which equates to about 4.87 miles don't count it.

    I wear a Jawbone UP that counts the steps I take in a day, and if it comes in lower than the 10k steps it doesn't calculate any calories burned, and if I do get the 10 K, I'll get around 300 in a burn.
  • tryclyn
    tryclyn Posts: 2,414 Member
    I log all exercise as one calorie and call it good.
  • thavoice
    thavoice Posts: 1,326 Member
    We've done a good 30 minute walk this morning but I'm not sure whether to count it or not. I have a 17 month old little boy so whilst at work I'm say at a desk 3 times a week the other days we are out and about do any of you include a little work or just when you gym it etc? If i do count it it's something like 230 calories should I eat these or not? I'm on day 6 and have 140lbs to loose Saturdays my official weigh in day but I will weigh tomorrow as that will be a full week. This morning I was 6lbs down. Any advice very welcome.
    Thanks
    You have to be very careful in eating back perceived calories burned because many things totally overestimate the burn and you could find it being counterproductive.
    As for 230 calories......do you feel you walked 3-4 miles because 70-80 calories per mile is about the going rate of cals burned per mile walked and that is if you actually do it with some purpose and not just a nice and easy stroll.


    I saw someone over the weekend counted over 300 calories burned per game of bowling they played.
    Now, come on. They would have rolled at max 21 balls in that hour of time. One cannot tell me that the waving the equivalent of an 8-12lb kettle ball 21 times, over about an hours time, equates out to 330 calories burned
  • joolywooly33
    joolywooly33 Posts: 421 Member
    Yes I would, but I wouldn't eat back.....
  • truediamond11
    truediamond11 Posts: 14 Member
    I don't but then it is because I am thinking that this much activity you should build in ... workout is something extra. I aim to make lifestyle active and then workout is cherry on the cake :flowerforyou:
  • onionparsleysage
    onionparsleysage Posts: 103 Member
    I don't count every walk separately, but I do take it into account when I set my activity level. I find it tedious to try to track all of my walking, since I walk a lot.

    If I were you, I would log it being very conservative with estimating your calories burned until you get a feel for what your base calories actually are. It's frustrating to spend all of the effort to log everything when you're not seeing results because you're overestimating calories.
  • thavoice
    thavoice Posts: 1,326 Member
    I don't but then it is because I am thinking that this much activity you should build in ... workout is something extra. I aim to make lifestyle active and then workout is cherry on the cake :flowerforyou:
    I am pretty much the same way.

    Any activity for me is just a bonus burn and creating more of a deficit. I see people complaining how they didnt lose, or barely lose, and then you look deeper into their history and they eat back calories for simple things like gardening, housework, walk steps at work, etc.
    Cal burn is very difficult to accurately portray.
  • seltzermint555
    seltzermint555 Posts: 10,740 Member
    That depends on your settings. If you chose "sedentary" when you created your goals, it's fair to count in and eat back any exercise longer than 15 minutes.

    +1
  • Voww
    Voww Posts: 39 Member
    I'd definitely count it as exercise too, but if it'd been walking at a more leisurely pace would either try not to eat all the cals burned or enter a lower amount than MFP suggests ... as I'm short at 4'11'' sure I don't burn the cals suggested, not judging by results when wearing a heart rate monitor. I say 'try' not to eat all cals coz know I am not good at that part and usually eat the lot and then some - huh. You may have more willpower than me tho! :)
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    I don't count every walk separately, but I do take it into account when I set my activity level. I find it tedious to try to track all of my walking, since I walk a lot.

    If I were you, I would log it being very conservative with estimating your calories burned until you get a feel for what your base calories actually are. It's frustrating to spend all of the effort to log everything when you're not seeing results because you're overestimating calories.

    Unlike many other exercise entries which are usually overblown, walking is actually fairly accurate on MFP, and even a little bit under-estimated according to the most accurate calculations. For a really heavy person like myself even a leisurely stroll can burn a fairly high amount of calories. (a 60 minute walk at 2 mph at 0 incline burns 288 calories for me, 180 of which are the net eat-back calories)
  • ncl1313
    ncl1313 Posts: 237 Member
    Now that my son is mobile (he's 2) we do a lot more walking outside...around the block, to the park and back, etc. I was set at sedentary so I logged everything using the shape sense calculator someone else already mentioned back on page 1. It got very tedious trying to log every single walk since we're out multiple times per day. After awhile I decided to just up my activity level to lightly active and I've been doing fine with that since (I'm losing at a rate of 4-5 pounds per month). I only log stuff that's outside a typical day/week now, like if I mow the lawn or if we go somewhere that is extra walking over a longer period of time (like the zoo or an amusement park, etc.), or if I do an actual workout (rare). I just find it easier to have a set daily/weekly goal and just figure my activity as part of it.
  • godzillaXgirl
    godzillaXgirl Posts: 1
    If I stand for 9 hours a day as part of my work, do I count the calories that I burn during that time?
  • munky_do
    munky_do Posts: 40 Member
    Was surprised to find that even my 15 minute walk to work at a leisurely pace is supposed to burn 64 calories (when I enter it as an exercise on MFP). Hey I can use the extra motivation !
  • TutuMom41
    TutuMom41 Posts: 278 Member
    yes count everything. You can also count housework. If you take the time to add that one cookie you grabbed with out thinking then you should be able to add your stroll. The best way to gett an accurate picture of your life is to add as much as you can even a cookie and a stroll.
  • JenniferIsLosingIt
    JenniferIsLosingIt Posts: 595 Member
    We've done a good 30 minute walk this morning but I'm not sure whether to count it or not. I have a 17 month old little boy so whilst at work I'm say at a desk 3 times a week the other days we are out and about do any of you include a little work or just when you gym it etc? If i do count it it's something like 230 calories should I eat these or not? I'm on day 6 and have 140lbs to loose Saturdays my official weigh in day but I will weigh tomorrow as that will be a full week. This morning I was 6lbs down. Any advice very welcome.
    Thanks
    You have to be very careful in eating back perceived calories burned because many things totally overestimate the burn and you could find it being counterproductive.
    As for 230 calories......do you feel you walked 3-4 miles because 70-80 calories per mile is about the going rate of cals burned per mile walked and that is if you actually do it with some purpose and not just a nice and easy stroll.


    I saw someone over the weekend counted over 300 calories burned per game of bowling they played.
    Now, come on. They would have rolled at max 21 balls in that hour of time. One cannot tell me that the waving the equivalent of an 8-12lb kettle ball 21 times, over about an hours time, equates out to 330 calories burned

    THe one thing to remember is that the heavier you are the more calories you will burn than someone who is not. I weigh 366 now and thats the equivelent of two people. So it would be like a 180 pound person carrying another 180 pound person on their back, you cannot tell me that the same 70-80 calories that a 180 pound person is gonnabe the exact same as 366 pound person. Thats just hogwash.

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