yunalee

hi i'm wondering what calories i should count for a walk, my i-pod pedometer say i burned 329 cals for a 54min walk, while fitday says i've only burned about 250, which one should i take more to heart?

Kathy13118

Take the lower number. If it matters, then you will see the results in your weight. If you consistently overestimate your exercise, you'll just get discouraged. If you tend to underestimate, you'll be pleasantly surprised at how much more weight you lose and how much faster your diet progresses.

01gt4.6

Kathy,
that's a great way to look at it.

AvivaBha

I don't add a pinch of salt to my cooking, but, its worth taking a pinch of salt with calorie estimates.

underestimating the calorie burn could cause a person to not bother exercising (its not worth it for half an apple worth of calories etc)

overestimating the calorie burn could (as Kathy said) make someone feel disappointed when their weight tally doesnt match up (or even worse.. blame it on a poor innocent food they ate that day...lol)

but the main thing to realise about exercise is... .its ALL good.
doesnt really matter how many calories it burns.

it speeds up the metabolism (we all know thats a YAYYY result on its own)
it makes you feel great about yourself (another YAYYYYY)
it reminds you that you're supposed to be healthy
(less likely to eat bad foods to undo all that effort ...YAYYYYY)
it encourages the body to keep its muscle and get rid of fat (YAYYYYYY)
it builds physical strength that makes the daily grind more of a daily float...(YAYYYYYYYYYYY)
do I need to go on... oh why not.. one more important YAYYYY to come..

it doesnt matter one bit if you record it wrong...your body KNOWS what you did or didnt do...YAYYYY!!!!

bettmrr

All good points.

Plus if you know how long and how much effort it takes to burn off the calories you eat you're probably less likely to pig out on the more offending substances. (I did say PROBABLY)

KingFeckless

I was searching for a similar value for jogging, so I am not sure it applies here, what was generally used was the distance (in km) x your weight (in kg)

As an example from the time I used to run, a 8 km run would be with a weight of 80 kg -> 640 kcal.