Seeking advice on when to log "hiking" or "walking" on map my fitness??

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jess17ishappy
jess17ishappy Posts: 6 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I sometimes take long walks down our country roads and I call then just that, walks. And sometimes I'v went on actual trails maybe a bit rougher than a road and for a couple hours and in the past have called them hikes. Using map my fitness though there is a huge difference in calorie burn if u log under hike or trail! I can't afford a hrm currently so can someone please help me out?? I don't want to eat 200 calories that I never burned!

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  • nottellingit
    nottellingit Posts: 19 Member
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    I personally just don't bother logging physical activity to avoid this issue. Are you trying to maintain or lose weight?
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 24,909 Member
    edited February 2017
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    I choose hiking only when I'm climbing up a mountain and there's a decent elevation change + rough trail + climbing over logs or hopping from stone to stone + using my upper body to hold onto trees as I scramble up an embankment ...

    I think in the two years I've been here, I've only logged a walk as "hiking" 2 or 3 times.

    All the rest of the walking I've done (and I've done a lot!), I log as walking ... even if it is on a slightly rough trail with small climbs.

    Oh, and I do log my exercise here ... MFP is designed for logging both food and exercise. :)
  • rileysowner
    rileysowner Posts: 8,136 Member
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    If it is a trail that is maintained and not exceptionally difficult to navigate, I would call it walk. Hikes would be more elevation changes, needing to handle rough terrain, and the like.
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,970 Member
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    Hiking means a rough trail, a lot of uphill, and usually a backpack.

    An HRM really won't help with this.
  • treehugnmama
    treehugnmama Posts: 816 Member
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    I count hikes as walks.
  • tiny_clanger
    tiny_clanger Posts: 301 Member
    edited February 2017
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    I would buy a runners GPS and log with that, it will calculate your pace and pick up elevation, etc automatically and work out your calorie burn. It's also great fun - I bought my dad one for walking and he uses it just to track his routes and record fun things like nice pubs, good bird spots etc, on the diary area of the app.
  • sgt1372
    sgt1372 Posts: 3,979 Member
    edited February 2017
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    Log anything that you do that is more than you normally do, which is already taken into account in estimating your daily activity level on MFP.
  • treehugnmama
    treehugnmama Posts: 816 Member
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    I used to log as hikes when I manually logged....they were the off path crazy kind lots of Hill rocks to jump logs etc. I got a garmin and it logs it automatically and hike is not an option so I always log as a walk. I try not to eat back my exercise calories so for me it didn't really matter anyway...that being said if I've been super active I will eat more if I'm hungry.

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