When to Start Counting Walking Minutes

nomasexcuses
nomasexcuses Posts: 17 Member
edited December 21 in Fitness and Exercise
My husband and I are going to DC for a day this weekend to do museums and the zoo. We are taking the metro into the city and starting at the zoo then walking to the national mall to do some museums and memorials/monuments. I don't typically count walking under my exercise log, but on a day like this, I know I am intentionally walking more than usual. How should I log the time? Should I wait until I hit my daily steps goal and then log the additional? Should I just log the big 3.8 mile walk from the zoo to the first museum? What would your suggestion be?

Replies

  • betsymoomoo
    betsymoomoo Posts: 71 Member
    I use the steps tracked in my smart watch to track my activity. But I don't eat back my exercise calories. I save them for my cheat meal if I want to eat something extra tasty.
  • steelergirl314
    steelergirl314 Posts: 17 Member
    First, have fun in DC! Second, what do you plan on doing with the data about your "extra" walking? Do you plan to track the walking for purposes to eat the calories back? For the sake of knowing how much more you did? I think those may help guide what you want or need to do with the data. For me, I use my smart watch to track all my activity through each day, but I specifically do NOT put that data into MFP because I was seeing that as an excuse to overeat/reward myself with food.
  • nomasexcuses
    nomasexcuses Posts: 17 Member
    steelergirl314 wrote: »
    First, have fun in DC! Second, what do you plan on doing with the data about your "extra" walking? Do you plan to track the walking for purposes to eat the calories back? For the sake of knowing how much more you did? I think those may help guide what you want or need to do with the data. For me, I use my smart watch to track all my activity through each day, but I specifically do NOT put that data into MFP because I was seeing that as an excuse to overeat/reward myself with food.

    I want to track the part of it that would be beyond normal day just to be able to see what it was worth for my body. But I don't want to over track and have MFP yelling at me that I ate too few calories because I don't plan on eating more than I feel like eating. We are going out for a day trip so I might indulge in something I normally wouldn't but nothing crazy.
  • peachvine29
    peachvine29 Posts: 400 Member
    I set MFP at sedentary as I have an office job. During the week, I add a conservative estimate of my exercise calories when I work out and then I eat them back. During the weekend, I am deffinitely not sedentary, and will usually add however many hours cleaning/walking I did (conservative estimate) and eat those calories back. It's working for me!
  • spiriteagle99
    spiriteagle99 Posts: 3,748 Member
    My usual movement without deliberate walks is about 2000 steps. (I'm very sedentary aside from deliberate exercise.) When I am walking a lot, but not doing specific hikes, I'll take my total, subtract 2-3000, and log that as my 'walk' for the day. So a day with 12000 steps would be about 5 miles.
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,463 Member
    nomasexcuses wrote: »
    steelergirl314 wrote: »
    First, have fun in DC! Second, what do you plan on doing with the data about your "extra" walking? Do you plan to track the walking for purposes to eat the calories back? For the sake of knowing how much more you did? I think those may help guide what you want or need to do with the data. For me, I use my smart watch to track all my activity through each day, but I specifically do NOT put that data into MFP because I was seeing that as an excuse to overeat/reward myself with food.

    I want to track the part of it that would be beyond normal day just to be able to see what it was worth for my body. But I don't want to over track and have MFP yelling at me that I ate too few calories because I don't plan on eating more than I feel like eating. We are going out for a day trip so I might indulge in something I normally wouldn't but nothing crazy.

    This concerns me that you don't wish to follow MFPs recommendations for eating back your exercise calories. User feedback indicates you should generally eat back about half your exercise calories because MFP tends to overestimate. People start to get into trouble when they decide not to eat any more than they "feel like". You need to intake additional nutrition to support your extra energy output. Especially since you are not accustomed to this level of activity.

    Walking calories are best calculated as bodyweight x .3 x miles. An extra 3.8 miles would burn about 190 calories for someone who is 150 lb. (150 x .3 x 3.8).
  • nomasexcuses
    nomasexcuses Posts: 17 Member
    lorrpb wrote: »
    nomasexcuses wrote: »
    steelergirl314 wrote: »
    First, have fun in DC! Second, what do you plan on doing with the data about your "extra" walking? Do you plan to track the walking for purposes to eat the calories back? For the sake of knowing how much more you did? I think those may help guide what you want or need to do with the data. For me, I use my smart watch to track all my activity through each day, but I specifically do NOT put that data into MFP because I was seeing that as an excuse to overeat/reward myself with food.

    I want to track the part of it that would be beyond normal day just to be able to see what it was worth for my body. But I don't want to over track and have MFP yelling at me that I ate too few calories because I don't plan on eating more than I feel like eating. We are going out for a day trip so I might indulge in something I normally wouldn't but nothing crazy.

    This concerns me that you don't wish to follow MFPs recommendations for eating back your exercise calories. User feedback indicates you should generally eat back about half your exercise calories because MFP tends to overestimate. People start to get into trouble when they decide not to eat any more than they "feel like". You need to intake additional nutrition to support your extra energy output. Especially since you are not accustomed to this level of activity.

    Walking calories are best calculated as bodyweight x .3 x miles. An extra 3.8 miles would burn about 190 calories for someone who is 150 lb. (150 x .3 x 3.8).

    So I went out and bought a fitbit last night. When you use the MFP logger, I find that the calories it says I burn for walking (even at a leisurely pace) are way too high for what I understand the realistic measure. Using your suggested equation, walking for around 6 miles (what we typically do when we do to DC based on map my walk) would equate to 486 calories (270*.3*6). It takes us about 3 hours to do the 6 mile loop walking at a leisurely pace. MFP would count that as close to 1000 calories. This is where I got concerned about eating back the calories. So I got a FitBit to track the activity better so I'm eating back the right amount.
  • MikePTY
    MikePTY Posts: 3,814 Member
    nomasexcuses wrote: »
    lorrpb wrote: »
    nomasexcuses wrote: »
    steelergirl314 wrote: »
    First, have fun in DC! Second, what do you plan on doing with the data about your "extra" walking? Do you plan to track the walking for purposes to eat the calories back? For the sake of knowing how much more you did? I think those may help guide what you want or need to do with the data. For me, I use my smart watch to track all my activity through each day, but I specifically do NOT put that data into MFP because I was seeing that as an excuse to overeat/reward myself with food.

    I want to track the part of it that would be beyond normal day just to be able to see what it was worth for my body. But I don't want to over track and have MFP yelling at me that I ate too few calories because I don't plan on eating more than I feel like eating. We are going out for a day trip so I might indulge in something I normally wouldn't but nothing crazy.

    This concerns me that you don't wish to follow MFPs recommendations for eating back your exercise calories. User feedback indicates you should generally eat back about half your exercise calories because MFP tends to overestimate. People start to get into trouble when they decide not to eat any more than they "feel like". You need to intake additional nutrition to support your extra energy output. Especially since you are not accustomed to this level of activity.

    Walking calories are best calculated as bodyweight x .3 x miles. An extra 3.8 miles would burn about 190 calories for someone who is 150 lb. (150 x .3 x 3.8).

    So I went out and bought a fitbit last night. When you use the MFP logger, I find that the calories it says I burn for walking (even at a leisurely pace) are way too high for what I understand the realistic measure. Using your suggested equation, walking for around 6 miles (what we typically do when we do to DC based on map my walk) would equate to 486 calories (270*.3*6). It takes us about 3 hours to do the 6 mile loop walking at a leisurely pace. MFP would count that as close to 1000 calories. This is where I got concerned about eating back the calories. So I got a FitBit to track the activity better so I'm eating back the right amount.

    As @lorrpb said, MFP tends to overestimate, so some people will start out eating half of them. So it seems like if you use the equation and get 486, then the "half of" MFPs 1000 works out pretty well for you.

    The only definite wrong number to use is 0. Because if you are doing more exercise, you need to fuel your body more.
  • nomasexcuses
    nomasexcuses Posts: 17 Member
    MikePTY wrote: »
    nomasexcuses wrote: »
    lorrpb wrote: »
    nomasexcuses wrote: »
    steelergirl314 wrote: »
    First, have fun in DC! Second, what do you plan on doing with the data about your "extra" walking? Do you plan to track the walking for purposes to eat the calories back? For the sake of knowing how much more you did? I think those may help guide what you want or need to do with the data. For me, I use my smart watch to track all my activity through each day, but I specifically do NOT put that data into MFP because I was seeing that as an excuse to overeat/reward myself with food.

    I want to track the part of it that would be beyond normal day just to be able to see what it was worth for my body. But I don't want to over track and have MFP yelling at me that I ate too few calories because I don't plan on eating more than I feel like eating. We are going out for a day trip so I might indulge in something I normally wouldn't but nothing crazy.

    This concerns me that you don't wish to follow MFPs recommendations for eating back your exercise calories. User feedback indicates you should generally eat back about half your exercise calories because MFP tends to overestimate. People start to get into trouble when they decide not to eat any more than they "feel like". You need to intake additional nutrition to support your extra energy output. Especially since you are not accustomed to this level of activity.

    Walking calories are best calculated as bodyweight x .3 x miles. An extra 3.8 miles would burn about 190 calories for someone who is 150 lb. (150 x .3 x 3.8).

    So I went out and bought a fitbit last night. When you use the MFP logger, I find that the calories it says I burn for walking (even at a leisurely pace) are way too high for what I understand the realistic measure. Using your suggested equation, walking for around 6 miles (what we typically do when we do to DC based on map my walk) would equate to 486 calories (270*.3*6). It takes us about 3 hours to do the 6 mile loop walking at a leisurely pace. MFP would count that as close to 1000 calories. This is where I got concerned about eating back the calories. So I got a FitBit to track the activity better so I'm eating back the right amount.

    As @lorrpb said, MFP tends to overestimate, so some people will start out eating half of them. So it seems like if you use the equation and get 486, then the "half of" MFPs 1000 works out pretty well for you.

    The only definite wrong number to use is 0. Because if you are doing more exercise, you need to fuel your body more.

    Whats confusing me is that is the equation is giving my 486 and MFP says about 950, should I be eating back half of 486 or half of 950? I just don't want to hurt myself by not eating as much as my body needs me to but at the same time, I don't want to overeat as this is a habit I have been working hard to break.
  • nossmf
    nossmf Posts: 12,060 Member
    Eat half of MFP. MFP says 950, then half is 475. Oh, look, your equation came out to 486, which is almost identical to the 475, which is where MikePTY noted the rule of thumb of "half MFP" works well.
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,463 Member
    edited June 2019
    Eat half of MFP to compensate for high estimates. If you have a more reliable number, as the time tested formula seems to be, ok to eat all. Track everything carefully and you can then evaluate how it works out for you after 4-6 weeks.
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