Ok so today I walked for an hour with my son, at about 2 miles per hour. We walked for an hour and the distance was 2 miles. Sooo I am pretty happy with myself and I immediatley come home and log it in Fitday and it says I only burned like 190 calories??!! How can that be, it seems like it would be so much more than that!

I guess I need to do something more strenuous...

There's a walking calculator under the fitness tools, but I think you are abour right- someone told me that covering a mile burns approx 100 cals (obviously this will vary depending on people's weight) whether you walk OR run- it's just the time difference and the cardio fitness that varies.

Well done on your 2 miles.

actually you'd be surprised. I do step aerobics and its HARD core yet it only burns 300 calories in one hour. The elliptical trainer, when I'm going 60-70 rpm, burns about 600-750 calories in the same duration and it doesn;t even FEEL like exercise. I don't even sweat 1/10 as much as I do when doing step aerobics. Personally, I think walking is a very low moderate exercise, like yoga, and should only burn so much.

Hmm yah I guess it does seem about right. I guess I had hoped it would be a little more than that lol. Ok I'll do my ab lounge tonight too then! Thanks!

I really, really believe that exercise is absolutely vital for overall health, but weight loss is going to be primarily through adding up what you eat! It takes FOREVER to burn off an Oreo cookie, so don't get discouraged about how many calories you burn off. I view the calories I lose in exercise as a bonus! Get moving, and enjoy life. If you count the food, the lbs will take care of themselves...

That's a good way of looking at it.. thanks freia!

Walking gets your heart pumping raises your heart rate and makes you stronger clears your head....don't look at the calories burned. Your buring calories reading this! It's discouraging on my treadmill when the readout tells me how many calories I have burned and then it does some fat count which is usually 1/4 of the calories burned. I have learned to put my sweat towel over that part of the readout and just concentrate on getting in my 60 minutes everyday. Most days I do 30 in the morning and then 30 late afternoon or after supper. My doctor said walking for 30 minutes is the same thing as taking med's for my blood sugar so rather than having to be on med's I take my dose of walking twice a day!

well, everyone burns calories at a different rate, so you may have burned more than that, but also walking takes a while to burn calories.

I've always thought that if treadmills, ellipticals and other exercise machines displayed calories burned in terms of actual food (Hooray! you burned off 3 french fries!) people would be a lot less inclined to have the "I worked out- now I can go EAT" mentality.

Congratulations on walking. It's good for you, it will help you lose weight, but by itself, it's not going to melt off the pounds. Keep at it though...those calories add up and soon you'll be doing 3 miles in an hour and that burns MORE calories

Mel

Yea I found out walking did not burn as much calories as I thought it would. It is something though. I still walk to reduce stress and take in the scenery. I burn more calories roller blading. So I do my aerobics and walking on the same day and roller blade on another day.

I gasp thinking I would burn more calories mowing HA HA! I burn just as much calories as walking when I mow. Bummer I thought it would be more.

Oh well it gets me up doing something anyways. better to be moving then sitting down.

I agree with Mel.

You have to realize though, that you burned about 200 calories walking 2 miles in that hour...but if you had spent that hour sitting on the computer-you would have only burned about 50.

Your body burns calories all day long-with everything that you do, so don't think of it as the only 200 calories that you burned that day...think of it as "extra" calories that you burned that day. You burn a few extra each day being more active with exercise, and you take in a few less each day with a reduced food intake-and that combination together is where teh weight loss happens.

I understand that you may only walk 2 miles per hour since you are with your son, but if you ever walk alone or on the treadmill-try for a brisk powerwalk at around 3 miles per hour!

While it is true that walking doesn't burn up that many calories... there ARE a lot of other benefits. Since I've been doing so much walking my overall health and energy has improved dramatically and I can feel and see muscles in places they were not there before! The other day just out of curiosity I was feeling around on my hips, butt, stomach, etc. with my hands when I was walking and was amazed at all the places I could feel the "pulling" -- so don't become discouraged by the low number of calories you seem to be losing! It's great exercise and can be done anywhere!

Even running for me (at my weight) only burns about 95 calories per MILE, of course thats doing an one mile in 11+ min so i cant complain about that!...

keep it up, soon you will be walking faster, burn more calories and look fabulous!

I'm sure there's an old thread around here somewhere about the cumulative effects of exercise. Ya know? It's not just eat, burn the calories, done. Exercising regularly makes your body more efficient at burning calories all the time????
Anybody know where we might find that thread?

So after reading this... I know that I need to exercise but I always freak out if I don't, I always think I won't lose weight. But as long as I eat right and get in some exercise I should still lose? I usually freak about getting in 1-1.5 hours a day but I am worrid I wont get that much in the next little while. But maybe I don't need to worry about it?

I really don't want to slow down my weight loss but getting up, going to work, coming home, exercising, eat, shower, and go right to bed is getting kinda stressful lol.

Any thoughts?