What should I log for a 45 minute walk?

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PAV8888
PAV8888 Posts: 13,659 Member
edited April 2015 in Health and Weight Loss
Hello, glad you showed up!

I have to confess that I actually do know what *I* will log for my 45 minute walk!

But I am getting a little bit tired of seeing people advise others that they should not log walking as an exercise. Or imply in their posts that there is something wrong with eating back walking calories because walking is what? An inferior exercise?

Let's review here.

MFP has you eating at your prescribed deficit BEFORE you factor in exercise. Most people setup themselves in MFP as "sedentary".

"Sedentary" encompasses minimal movement throughout the day and generally once a person hits 5,000 steps a day they have reached those limits.

"Lightly active" ranges above 5,000 steps to almost 10,000 steps. Most people's energy expenditure at the 10K to 15K step levels corresponds to MFP's "active" setting. And as we approach 20 to 25,000K steps we start moving towards "very active".

If you are NOT setup as "sedentary" and if you are "walking" within the limits of the activity level you've chosen then YES, you should NOT log walking as exercise.

But if you walked 10,000 steps while setup as "sedentary" you most certainly SHOULD be accounting for the extra energy you've spent!
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Replies

  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
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    Yes indeedy!!
    I get around an extra 1000 calories for 20 something thousand steps. I cant remember the exact numbers.
    As if I'm going to ignore it and not count it..

    When I first started walking, my average daily steps were around 2000. Now I'm averaging between 20,000-25,000 a day. Surely it has to make a difference??
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
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    Oh and I have mfp set to sedentary
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    edited April 2015
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    GuitarJerry wrote: »
    So, what's the point of your post?


    Maybe because some people foo foo tracking walking as actual exercise... And count it as normal everyday activity, so don't bother logging it as actual meaningful exercise???

    That's how I read it anyway...
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,659 Member
    edited April 2015
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    GuitarJerry wrote: »
    So, what's the point of your post?
    So Christine shouldn't eat back an extra 1000 calories from walking?
    Should I eat back the approximately 700 extra calories I get from walking?

    The newbies reading posts that say "walking? I wouldn't log that" or "you could log walking if you really want to; but, I don't", shouldn't log and eat back their walking calories when they are set up as sedentary with 1000cal deficits?
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,659 Member
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    flyingtanuki wrote: »
    I use a fitbit to track the actual activity and adjust the calorie goal up or down to match variations in TDEE.
    I too use a Charge HR. Track your Fitbit adjusted deficit vs weight on a spreadsheet for a while. While initially the Charge HR was 100% bang on for me, approximately 30 days ago it started recoding less steps than before while giving a higher caloric total! I am still trying to figure out the % factor I will have to adjust to correct! : - )
  • angelexperiment
    angelexperiment Posts: 1,917 Member
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    Regardless I always log my walks and I do not eat back my calories. And I think walking is way underrated! The physical changes I see just from walking are phenomenal :p
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
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    angelexperiment wrote: »
    Regardless I always log my walks and I do not eat back my calories. And I think walking is way underrated! The physical changes I see just from walking are phenomenal :p

    Angel what kind of physical changes have you seen?
    I've only been walking seriously for the last couple of weeks. I'm shiny and new and still excited by the whole walking as exercise thing :bigsmile:


  • maidentl
    maidentl Posts: 3,203 Member
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    Thank you! I've been seeing this a lot lately, too. Everyone around here likes to tell people that 1200 calories is really low, and it is, but my sedentary TDEE is 1600. If I don't count my five mile walk then what? Or is the implication that I need to do something "more?" I mean, I don't know why people think walking is to be brushed aside. I can't speak for everyone, but I don't take a leisurely stroll, I walk as fast as my little legs will carry me.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,538 Member
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    If one INTENTIONALLY goes out to walk for a time limit, then it should be counted as exercise. You don't count walking to the bathroom, kitchen, to and fro from your chair at work as exercise. That's your NEAT.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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  • BWBTrish
    BWBTrish Posts: 2,817 Member
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    Sure walking counts as exercise and i eat 25% back of those burned calories too.
    Lost 85 pounds in 6 months ( ofcourse that is mostly my diet/eating less calories) But sure the walking helps me get fitter and fitter

    6 months ago i could hardly breath after a 5 minutes walk. Now i can jog for 20 to almost 30 minutes again.
    So walking is excercise when you get your heart rate up and indeed is not a stroll to the fridge lol
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
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    ninerbuff wrote: »
    If one INTENTIONALLY goes out to walk for a time limit, then it should be counted as exercise. You don't count walking to the bathroom, kitchen, to and fro from your chair at work as exercise. That's your NEAT.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
    9285851.png

    For me, anything over 2,000-3,000 steps is intentional.
    Getting over 20,000 takes me all morning, afternoon and night! I was still doing laps around my house last night at 8pm to get over 22,000 steps :grimace:
    I'm lucky I work from home, so I have the time to do it.

  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,659 Member
    edited April 2015
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    ninerbuff wrote: »
    If one INTENTIONALLY goes out to walk for a time limit, then it should be counted as exercise. You don't count walking to the bathroom, kitchen, to and fro from your chair at work as exercise. That's your NEAT.

    I agree that you are absolutely correct in terms of your definition. And without a step counter it would be the only way to go.

    However your method would run into a bit of a measurement problem: in my case (seeing Christine's post above, in her case too), almost all our movement is deliberate.

    There were many pre MFP days when I would end the day with 500 to 2500 steps if I had not taken the dog out for a walk, or gone out to see a client.

    And even I will admit that "sedentary" envisions SOME movement : - )

    Christine thinks 2-3K steps, I think closer to 5K steps should be excluded even if deliberate. So say about the first "half hour" of walking.

  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
    edited April 2015
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    Miles walked * body weight in pounds * 0.3 => calories burned walking

    There's no compelling reason to eat back walking calories unless you're talking about 2+ hours of brisk walking, because it is such a low intensity exercise and doesn't draw on the internal batteries the way something like running does. But if you want to - go for it! :drinker:

    Plus *so* *many* MFPers end up with such huge overestimates for walking calories that even eating back "only" 50% still ends up being more than they burned.
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
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    Mr_Knight wrote: »
    Miles walked * body weight in pounds * 0.3 => calories burned walking

    There's no compelling reason to eat back walking calories unless you're talking about 2+ hours of brisk walking, because it is such a low intensity exercise and doesn't draw on the internal batteries the way something like running does. But if you want to - go for it! :drinker:

    Plus *so* *many* MFPers end up with such huge overestimates for walking calories that even eating back "only" 50% still ends up being more than they burned.

    oh boy, don't be bursting my bubble :tongue: I'll give it 3 or 4 more weeks and then weigh myself. I haven't changed my eating habits much and try not to eat back my calories, which admittedly I've been struggling with. As long as I haven't put ON weight I'll be happy! These last few pounds I want to lose is just vanity weight, so what will be, will be.

  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
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    20k steps is going to be 12-15km for a normal sized human - I doubt you have much to worry about. :smile:
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,659 Member
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    In my case it is a 3.5 to 4 MET activity which means a NET burn of about 250 calories an hour, for on average 2 to 3 hours a day... hey: that equals my total deficit!
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
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    Yeah that's the km's my fitbit gives me.
    All I know is that most days my legs have been super sore. I literally struggle sitting down and getting back up!
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,659 Member
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    Christine the Fitbit adjustment cuts through any 'settings' issue in MFP.
    It essentially replaces the MFP "activity" setting with the calories expended as measured by Fitbit.

    The only problem I've run into is that with the latest firmware update on the Charge HR it has started undercounting steps and overstating calories burned, at least for me.

    My CICO based on my MFP logging and Fitbit "expenditures" used to be bang on in terms of correspondence to actual weight change. It looks to me like the burn is about 300 calories overestimated compared to before (with an average of about 19,000 steps a day)

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