TDEE - adding walking as exercise to caloric totals

rocket_ace
rocket_ace Posts: 380 Member
edited November 15 in Health and Weight Loss
so MFP asks you how sedentary your are in your daily life (I think for many with desk jobs...this is the lowest setting) and gives you a caloric goal. And then you have to add exercise....right?

I know this has likely been asked and answered a million times on these boards, but do people add general walking (not talking day long hikes...just walking a few blocks here and there)? for example...I have MFP set at sedentary - I work at a desk job in nyc...but I walk to work in the morning ...almost 2 miles taking about 25 min at a somewhat brisk pace...(from penn station at 34/7th to sutton place at 55th/3rd for you local people).... entering this into MFP gives me 200-ish calories more.... would you guys actually enter this in?

I also am starting to go back to a normal workout routine at night...jogging and weights...it makes more sense to me to enter these in over the walking...but should I just do it all? makes me nervous...

AS an aside, when I use to wear my fitbit (I have lost track of it), then the number used to get added automatically...and if I walked too and from work it ended up being more than 500 calories sometimes....and I'm supposed to eat that back?

Replies

  • Glndgd63
    Glndgd63 Posts: 13 Member
    for me personally, due to health issues, walking is pretty much the only exercise I can do, so yes I enter it. 2 miles is a long way (for me, I can only do about 1 mile at a time, on a good day). You don't necessarily have to eat back those calories, you could add them to your deficit to lose a little more quickly, and just use your workout routine calories as extra food.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    a couple of 2 mile walks I think is over and above sedentary - but I would be halving your mFP calorie guestimate on the calorie burn

    another option would be to get a fitbit or similar (you don't need the all-singing, all-dancing ones .. one of the cheaper zips is in my view better) and then link it to MFP, enable negative adjustments and eat those calories

    and I log work-outs separately (although a fitbit would also track your jogging / weights is diddly in terms of calories but amazing in terms of preserving LBM)

    worked for me :)
  • kamakazeekim
    kamakazeekim Posts: 1,183 Member
    Nope, I don't count walking towards my calorie goal.
  • vixtris
    vixtris Posts: 688 Member
    you could set it to lightly active. walking 2 miles to and from work isnt a bad workout! Then perhaps you wouldnt need to track the walking so you don't need to worry about eating those calories back.
  • SingRunTing
    SingRunTing Posts: 2,604 Member
    I do TDEE now, but when I was doing the NEAT method (MFP default method), I set my activity to "lightly active" even though I have a desk job since my goal was always 10,000 steps a day. I didn't count walking, I figured that was built into the lightly active setting.
  • snickerscharlie
    snickerscharlie Posts: 8,578 Member
    I use my Fitbit Zip to track my walking. I, too, am sedentary aside from my walking which is the only exercise I can safely do at this point. I will add swimming to the mix when and if summer ever gets here. ;)

    I now walk about 6 miles a day. I use about half of those extra calories earned to 'buy' treats and snacks that wouldn't fit into my daily allotment of calories if I didn't do the walking. So it's a win-win for me. :)
  • rayneface
    rayneface Posts: 219 Member
    If you do this walking every day for work, I personally wouldnt count it as an added exercise, but I would up my activity level to the one above desk job/sedentary.
  • eccapecca
    eccapecca Posts: 19
    ye i do add walking when i know im doing a lot in one day
  • pinkiezoom
    pinkiezoom Posts: 409 Member
    I am like you and have a desk job, but since changing my habits and getting fitter, i now walk a lot more than i ever did, and have my jawbone set to buzz if 30 mins pass and i have not walked, so I get up and walk around the block,so I do add my walked steps, as i used to move about 1000 a day, and now its around 5000, i also go to the gym and add that in too, however, i rarely touch my exercised calories, but i could if i wanted to, i would never eat all cals back though, it seems the rule of thumb, that about 50-75% is the norm to eat back, just to allow for any incorrect readings.
    Good luck x
  • DemoraFairy
    DemoraFairy Posts: 1,806 Member
    rabbitjb wrote: »
    another option would be to get a fitbit or similar (you don't need the all-singing, all-dancing ones .. one of the cheaper zips is in my view better) and then link it to MFP, enable negative adjustments and eat those calories )

    I'm also going to advocate this, I only do walking for exercise and my Fitbit makes my life SO much easier when it comes to knowing how much to eat. I usually walk about 3-4 miles at lunch, and another 4 miles if I decide to walk home, and tend to burn between 300-600 extra calories a day through walking, and those extra calories make all the difference. I set MFP to sedentary so that if I don't do any walking all day (which is often the case on the weekends) I don't have to worry about over-eating.

    If you can find your old Fitbit it really makes things so much easier. I almost always eat back all the calories my Fitbit gives me, I rarely get to the end of the day and have calories left over!
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    Just so you know

    In order to hit sedentary I need to walk between 2500-4000 steps a day (dependent on intensity of course) .. that's roughly 1.5 to 2 miles
  • rocket_ace
    rocket_ace Posts: 380 Member
    thanks guys - I just tried setting my activity level to 1 notch higher...so sedentary to now "lightly active"....my calorie allotment jumped from 1639 calories to exactly 2000 a day...that seems like a lot. but I guess I will try it for a week or two and see how it goes....funny how everyone else in the world seems to be telling men not to eat under 2000 calories no matter what...but it ain't always clear... ;)
  • Oldbitcollector
    Oldbitcollector Posts: 229 Member
    Yeah, I noted this too. MFP actually upped my caloric levels by +190 when it re-evaluated me at 10 pounds weight loss. For some reason it took my walking and biking entries and moved me from "Sedentary" to "Lightly Active" and decided I needed to eat more. <confused> I'm pretty happy with my current weight loss progress so I'm hesitant to consume more than I had been.
  • JoRumbles
    JoRumbles Posts: 262 Member
    I enter my walking on days when I walk to the train station (not every day due to various logistics!) because otherwise I have a desk job and am set to only 1,250 calories just to lose a pound a week- so I like seeing a couple of hundred calories added on to my allowance in case I feel extra hungry. I eat them back if I feel I need to, other days I don't eat any excercise calories back.
  • Josalinn
    Josalinn Posts: 1,066 Member
    I have entered walking when I do a lot more walking than normal. Today I was planning on cleaning up a highway with classmates but that got canceled. Since it is about a 6 miles of highway, I was going to add that. Now we are having normal class and I skipped the gym this morning. grumble grumble....

    Even so, just because I add the calories back in doesn't mean i will eat them back. And I only add 80% of what was calculated. My BF gave me a wii fit pedometer which counts steps and calculates my calories burned, so I just multiply that by 0.8.
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
    If you have your settings to sedentary then yes, add any exercise you do, even a short walk counts.
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