How far should I walk?

Options
Mabelline2022
Mabelline2022 Posts: 1 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I recently saw an app that you enter your height, weight, age and sex and it tells you how far you should be walking.
Is there something like this on My Fitness Pal?

Replies

  • stephie_nyc
    stephie_nyc Posts: 96 Member
    Options
    I don't think so. I would pick a step level that challenges you a little bit at first and maybe increase it slowly. For me, I aim to be a "lightly active" person so I have a 7k minimum.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,316 Member
    Options
    How much you should be walking . . . for what reason or goal?

    I don't think there's a standard, objective answer. (I kinda hope not: I don't do a lot of walking, just enough to stay conditioned to it, because I have crummy knees that don't like impact. A normal Winter day for me is maybe 3-4000 steps. Despite that, I'm at a healthy weight, and reasonably fit (based on objective measurements), despite that tiny typical amount of walking.)

    What goal are you trying to achieve by walking? It can certainly be helpful for either fitness or to burn some extra calories, for people who don't have weird body problems like mine to work around.

    If it were me, I'd be thinking in terms of how much time I had to devote to exercise, while still maintaining good overall life balance, i.e., enough time and energy for job, family, chores, other desired hobbies/activities. Then, I'd work up to spending about that much time walking (or doing other enjoyable exercise), starting with what's a tiny bit of a challenge now (but not punitive or exhausting), and gradually increasing duration, frequency, or intensity (pace) until that happy time and energy budget is reached.

    . . . which, in fact, is pretty much what I do in real life, it just isn't walking, it's rowing on water/machines, biking, and some other stuff. 😉

    Best wishes!
  • goal06082021
    goal06082021 Posts: 2,130 Member
    edited March 2021
    Options
    How far can you walk?

    How far do you want to walk?

    How far do you have time to walk?

    We, as a species, are pretty much the best at walking - humans are persistence predators, able to walk much longer and farther than most of our prey is able to run. So, the more walking the better, probably?

    edit to add: That said, walking is an endurance sport, so if you want to walk further, you need to build up to it slowly. If you're starting from nothing, ten minutes might be enough for your legs to ache and your lungs to burn. So you walk for ten minutes at a stretch, until it doesn't hurt, then you walk for eleven minutes.
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,970 Member
    Options
    Silly answer aside, I help maintain a hiking trail that goes from Mexico to Canada. You should check it out! It's really scenic. My section is 7 miles near the northern terminus.
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,464 Member
    Options
    The genetic rule of thumb is 30-45 min a day. For the average adult that’s 1.5-2 miles.
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 24,919 Member
    Options
    Mabelline2022 wrote: »
    I recently saw an app that you enter your height, weight, age and sex and it tells you how far you should be walking.
    Is there something like this on My Fitness Pal?

    I would think you could walk as far as you wanted to walk. Obviously if you haven't walked much, you'll want to start with a low number but if walking is your thing ... keep it up.

    I often try for an hour at lunch and about half an hour after work, when I can.
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,420 Member
    Options
    I think I saw some ridiculous ads on facebook about an app where you put in your stats and it tells you how far you need to walk to lose masses of weight. The walking distances or steps were ridiculously low. I mentioned 0.3*weight*distance, and was attacked by what appeared to be a bot army. :o:D

Categories