Going for a stroll do you add that as exercise?

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  • onionparsleysage
    onionparsleysage Posts: 103 Member
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    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
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    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: 10,742 Member
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    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
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    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
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    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
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    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
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    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
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    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
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    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
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    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.
  • JenniferIsLosingIt
    JenniferIsLosingIt Posts: 595 Member
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    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.

    Agreed, and I try to do this exact thing right here, and if I am wanting to make sure I burn more than I eat I only count half the amount of exercise, and I DO NOT EAT BACK EXERCISE CALORIES. EVER>>> I did in the beginning and I was not losing. Now I am.
  • farfromthetree
    farfromthetree Posts: 982 Member
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    I only eat back half ,and if I am not hungry, I dont eat back any.
  • Linnaea27
    Linnaea27 Posts: 639 Member
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    I would count it, but might not eat back quite all the calories.
  • heybebe88
    heybebe88 Posts: 26 Member
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    If you download the Pacer app (it is basically a pedometer for iPhone), you can integrate it with the MyFitnessPal app and it will include it for you!
  • _lyndseybrooke_
    _lyndseybrooke_ Posts: 2,561 Member
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    I no longer log exercise for the calorie burn since I switched to the TDEE method, but when I was counting exercise I personally didn't count things like walking the dog. I just considered it a little leeway just in case I underestimated calories in or overestimated calories out during my regular workouts. If I really felt like I got a good workout in, I might log it, but a 20-30 minute walk with my dog doesn't really feel like much activity to me.

    I also do a 10-minute HIIT session for the first 10 minutes of my lunch break on weekdays and I never logged that, for the same reason. I don't own an HRM, so there's no way for me to know how many calories I burned during a leisurely walk or a quick cardio session. I do the lunch thing because I have a desk job and feel bad about sitting on my butt all day. I do that to make up for it; same reason I park on the 6th floor of the parking garage and take the stairs instead of the elevator to get to my car every day.
  • christinacrisfield
    christinacrisfield Posts: 77 Member
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    Use a pacer. It will count your calories but it will also motivate you to walk those 10,000 steps a day and more.

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