How to log slow walking?
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kiela64
Posts: 1,447 Member
I've been wearing an activity tracker, and sometimes I have eg. 15 min of walking at a 1.5mph pace (such as from the subway to a location), which doesn't appear to be a selection on mfp. The lowest is a 2.0 mph. Should I try to log this? (if so, how would you recommend logging it?) Or just leave it unlogged (as it's a small number of calories anyway)
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I'm not so sure about android but you can sync the iOS health app to myfitnesspal and it'll track your steps there and make a calorie estimation from it. I find it easier to do that than logging walking.0
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If it's the general walking you do almost everyday, I would take that into account when setting your activity level (sedentary vs. active), and not log it. If you want to log it, you could do a guestimate by logging a shorter time to take into account the slower speed. For instance, you could log the 15 minutes at 1.5 mph as 10 minutes at the minimum 2.0 speed MFP has as the base rate. It won't be exact, but it'll be something.0
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It's just an estimate, in my opinion, so closest description. I usually estimate on low side for exercise. By the way, I only log out-of-the-ordinary exercise. So lugging groceries up the steps once a week, vacuuming, walking to and from locations, definitely burn calories, but I don't log them as exercise. What do others think/do about that?0
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You create it and log it as “my exercise”. For example, per a calculator I found on line, someone who weighs 150lb, walking at 1.5 MPH for 15 min. Burns about 21 cal. http://www.exrx.net/Calculators/WalkRunMETs.html0
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Don't log it. It's your daily activity. It's a short walk. Did you do these walks when you were overweight?0
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huntersvonnegut wrote: »You create it and log it as “my exercise”. For example, per a calculator I found on line, someone who weighs 150lb, walking at 1.5 MPH for 15 min. Burns about 21 cal. http://www.exrx.net/Calculators/WalkRunMETs.html
Thanks. I'm getting the sense I asked a stupid question. Maybe it's not worth logging. I get these stretches on my activity tracker and it seems like it will be worth logging, then I calculate the pace & it's below 2.0 mph.I'm not so sure about android but you can sync the iOS health app to myfitnesspal and it'll track your steps there and make a calorie estimation from it. I find it easier to do that than logging walking.
I don't connect my activity tracker because it does this weird thing of adding 600cal "from exercise" before I even move when it's connected to MFP. I think it's just a communication issue, I think it's saying I'm just burning that much by existing, in its own system. But it communicates the total rather than just the exercise.0 -
No no. I meant...if these are activities you did/are doing while you are overweight, why start "counting" them now? Does that make sense? I didn't meant to make you feel unwelcome or something.5 -
If it's part of your daily routine, don't log it. If you are doing a separate workout that includes walking, log it.0
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Is your activity tracker synced to MFP?0
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You’re right that the activity tracker will use its own calculations, but if your stats (height, weight, age, etc) are the same, the calculations should be pretty close. If you’re getting wildly different numbers, it’s probably because you’re more active than you estimated in MFP. How many steps are you typically doing? If you put in sedentary (not active) and you’re doing 10k steps/day (for example), that would explain the gap. Also, if you have an activity tracker and it seems to be pretty accurate counting your steps (and HR if it has that), you should be able to just link them and not worry about logging exercise in MFP. That’s what I do, and I generally only eat back about a third of what my tracker adds for activity calories (with a sedentary setting in MFP).0
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So this is an example of why my activity tracker should not be connected. It gives the BMR as well, and those get connected to MFP as “exercise”. It’s not that it’s inaccurate it’s just miscommunicating.0
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A really great app for tracking pretty much any exercise is Endomondo. It's free, and uses satellite tracking. It can even save your routes and give you distance measurements.0
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You’re right that the activity tracker will use its own calculations, but if your stats (height, weight, age, etc) are the same, the calculations should be pretty close. If you’re getting wildly different numbers, it’s probably because you’re more active than you estimated in MFP. How many steps are you typically doing? If you put in sedentary (not active) and you’re doing 10k steps/day (for example), that would explain the gap. Also, if you have an activity tracker and it seems to be pretty accurate counting your steps (and HR if it has that), you should be able to just link them and not worry about logging exercise in MFP. That’s what I do, and I generally only eat back about a third of what my tracker adds for activity calories (with a sedentary setting in MFP).
The problem is more that I don't have a "typical" set of steps in the day. The upper limit seems to be about 8000, while a more moderate amount when I have tasks to do is about 4000, but on days I am at home (doing laundry, church, etc) I can have below 1000. Now the weather is nice I am also trying to go for a walk. I think this is sedentary.
And the steps are accurate, just the confusion ^ about what calories are exercise and what is just the app adding in the BMR from my stats as well when they connect. I like my tracker too because it will tell me how long I've walked/swam etc for. Because otherwise I do not know. Apps on the phone don't track that, just give me a total in the day or a distance.0 -
DancingMoosie wrote: »If it's part of your daily routine, don't log it. If you are doing a separate workout that includes walking, log it.
I guess the reason I wanted to log it is because I have no daily routine.0 -
No no. I meant...if these are activities you did/are doing while you are overweight, why start "counting" them now? Does that make sense? I didn't meant to make you feel unwelcome or something.
Okay, sorry I misunderstood your point.
I guess I thought to log all activity that was over maybe 10min sustained. So a 15min walk met that criteria.
I am also not supposed to do more than 25min of sustained walking/biking/swimming so it's important for me to track those numbers. Maybe MFP is not the place.0 -
Thanks. I'm getting the sense I asked a stupid question. Maybe it's not worth logging. I get these stretches on my activity tracker and it seems like it will be worth logging, then I calculate the pace & it's below 2.0 mph.
Not a stupid question at all, as far as the calories are concerned a mile walking is a mile walking (mass over distance....good old physics) the difference that pace makes is in respect to cardiovascular conditioning. A slow pace probably doesn't get your heart rate very high so there may not be much in the cardio side of things but you're still burning calories.
A reasonable formula for estimating the net calories expended walking is .30 x weight (in lbs) x distance (in miles)
If it's part of your daily routine I wouldn't log it, if it's deliberate extra activity then I would.0 -
You would only want to log something that put you in excess of what you selected as your activity level. Even a sedentary activity level setting will account for up to about 5,000 steps.0
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