Proper estimation of walking

ladyoflyonnesse1
ladyoflyonnesse1 Posts: 3
edited November 14 in Health and Weight Loss
New here :0) I've been walking daily as a way to ease into exercise as I'm extremely out of shape and have exercise induced asthma to boot. I have heard that MFP overestimates calories burned. My phone says I maintain a little over 3mph over usually 45-60 minutes a day. I've been logging that exercise as "Walking 2mph" instead to try to compensate for MFP overestimating. I've been eating all those calories back. I'm set to 1lb a week and MFP is giving me 2020 calories a day so I usually end up eating somewhere around 2280 a day. Does this sound like a reasonable system? Thanks!

Replies

  • ladyoflyonnesse1
    ladyoflyonnesse1 Posts: 3
    Bump, any input? :0)
  • meritage4
    meritage4 Posts: 1,441 Member
    give it a week. See if you see any weight lose. If not fine tune it ie count less calories for walking or don't eat them back.
  • pap3rw1ngs
    pap3rw1ngs Posts: 58 Member
    edited March 2015
    I use the Runkeeper app for walking and I find the calories pretty accurate. They account for weight, speed and inclines. I've never really found that the MFP calories for walking are overestimated like some of the other exercise burns.
  • Phrick
    Phrick Posts: 2,765 Member
    meritage4 wrote: »
    give it a week. See if you see any weight lose. If not fine tune it ie count less calories for walking or don't eat them back.

    I agree with give it time - but it needs to be much longer than one week. Closer to 6-8 weeks before you can accurately assess the pattern, though most people don't have that kind of patience.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    ladyoflyonnesse1 wrote: »
    New here :0) I've been walking daily as a way to ease into exercise as I'm extremely out of shape and have exercise induced asthma to boot. I have heard that MFP overestimates calories burned. My phone says I maintain a little over 3mph over usually 45-60 minutes a day. I've been logging that exercise as "Walking 2mph" instead to try to compensate for MFP overestimating. I've been eating all those calories back. I'm set to 1lb a week and MFP is giving me 2020 calories a day so I usually end up eating somewhere around 2280 a day. Does this sound like a reasonable system? Thanks!

    I'd log the time and correct speed and then double click on the calories and manually half them

    You have a fairly high calorie allowance so it wouldn't matter if you didn't eat them
  • WalkingAlong
    WalkingAlong Posts: 4,926 Member
    Figure 50-100 calories per mile, at any speed. Fitbits have always given me about 100 but I think it's closer to 70-80 for me, but I'm not very large. But 100 is more motivating and is a nice round number.
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