Walking

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n_green_l
n_green_l Posts: 74 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hello, I work an office job so put myself as sedentary. I'm walking more so today and yesterday I walked 7-8miles, do I log the miles I walked as exercise? Or does it not count as it's only walking...

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  • harper16
    harper16 Posts: 2,564 Member
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    I think you should, and remember MFP is designed for you to eat back your exercise calories.
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,970 Member
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    n_green_l wrote: »
    Hello, I work an office job so put myself as sedentary. I'm walking more so today and yesterday I walked 7-8miles, do I log the miles I walked as exercise? Or does it not count as it's only walking...

    If you're training for a marathon walking doesn't count, but in terms of calories, absolutely it does. Moving uses energy.

    You burn approx 1/3 your weight in pounds for every mile, above and beyond your BMR. So for easy math, if you weigh 300 pounds it's 100 kCal per mile; if you walk 10 miles that's 1,000 legitimate extra calories. More if it's hilly, but not as much more as you'd hope.

    It's probably better to use that formula and enter the calories it gives you, than to let MFP guess on this based on time.
  • JustJeff1977
    JustJeff1977 Posts: 27 Member
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    Note- Most calorie counts on apps (including MFP) overestimate your burn- some by alot. So eating back the calories, especially 8 miles worth can start to become noticeably counterproductive. After some research I found that subtracting 1mph off the MFP rate fixes it more or less.
  • Jthanmyfitnesspal
    Jthanmyfitnesspal Posts: 3,521 Member
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    If you actually walked 7 miles outdoors, then you can enter into MFP as a walking workout for the duration of the walk. There is an entry for each speed range. Using also your weight, MFP calculates a calorie burn that is pretty good. I did this method for a long time.

    You can also get a sports watch or use your phone (MapMyWalk) to track your walk and give a calorie estimate. You can link it automatically to MFP or type it in every time (which gives a lot of control to keep out bogus entries).

    Finally, if you get a sports watch, you can get it to estimate your daily calorie burn (TDEE) based on your stats plus your activity level. The accuracy of this approach is somewhat variable. You can fool the watch pretty easily into thinking you are active when you are not. So, if you do this, I'd recommend not eating back every calorie the watch gives you.

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