Which category of exercise do I fall into?

[HatchetJob]

I’ve been dieting for a few weeks. To be honest I am losing nothing.

I used a calorie calculator which set me at around 1600 calories as I picked moderate exercise. However I am worried what I do is a higher category of exercise and should be eating more calories.

all I am currently doing though is walking about 4 times a week. I am going to move onto more intense exercise but was waiting for it to cool down/lose a few pounds first. This is quite representative of what I’m doing though.

any ideas?

Wow aren't I discouraged by this thread. I walk 6 times a week about 8km and hour and I thought I was doing exercise lol

I'd not count those walks as adding up to 'moderate' either I'm afraid OP. I do a manual job 25hrs/wk (often doesn't include much walking, but is a lot of manual handling and my body aches afterwards), walk 5 miles/11k steps a day, and have coached swim training 3 times a week totalling 2.5hrs and ~5.5km. Between 7am and 9.30pm I'm rarely not on my feet doing something. I would describe myself as moderately active.

Like a PP, I'm focused on body fat % and shape rather than weight (there is a machine at the gym that measures percentages & weight for free).To lose weight too I'd have to give up wine and crisps, and I'm just not willing to do that! Things are definitely firmer than they were and I can notice a week on week improvement in my speed and distance in the pool, which is good enough for me!
I wonder if you aren't logging everything you eat/drink accurately OP? As well as the calculated exercise levels being off.

https://www.nhsinform.scot/healthy-living/keeping-active/getting-started/types-of-exercise

According to this a brisk walk is moderate exercise

I’ve used the fitness tracker on my phone and I did 6k in one hour. Fitbit isn’t great for distance.

A brisk walk - depends on how brisk though. And how far you go.

If you have been very fit before, I would focus on getting very fit again and eat what you need to fuel your body and don't count calories or weigh yourself at all. Diets don't work long term.

Walking is definitely good exercise though - in fact it's the best as most people find it easier to build some into their daily routine.

i did a lot of aerobics/HIT but I’m a bit scared for my knees these days. Hence why I want to drop a few kilos first. Even when I was doing that I walked a lot too as I thought it made a huge difference to my overall fitness.

Do not eat the calories you burn exercising.

If your only walking you will hardly be in the moderate exercise group let alone the intense one, you will be exercising moderately when you up what you are doing at the moment.

Those trackers notoriously overestimate calories burned. Unless you are doing a jog and uphill I really doubt you burned that many calories.
Don't count your calories back unless you are strenuously exercising.
I'd put you in 'light' category if that's your main form of exercise.

@HatchetJob i have arthritis in my knees and was also scared to get started but I'm doing weights to create stronger support for the knees, building up the leg muscles, hip strength and flexibility and core strength and posture.

I can now do an hour's cardio jumping around that 6 months ago would have left my knees aching for two days.

For me, losing weight to take pressure off the knees never motivated me. It was doing the targeted exercises to strengthen the muscles that motivated me to then eat better.

It might be when comparing exercise types, but 4 x brisk walks a week doesn't equate to moderate activity overall. A HIIT class is high intensity, but if you did one class (or even 2 or 3) then sat on your bum and didn't move for the rest of the week, you couldn't claim you were a highly active person. It's also why even though I do 2 high intensity swims per week (and one shorter more gentle swim), I am still in the moderate category.

I think you should not get discouraged by what everyone is saying here. Walking is still a good form.of exercise and opinios tend to differ even amongst professionals. Just like a previous poster said don't eat back the calories you think u have got from.working out. Use a tdee calculator but just class yourself as sedentary if you want to lose weight and keep it at that.

Walking briskly on the treadmill with a gradient my heart rate nearly goes up to the same level as when I run. Also cross trainer, rowing, cycling are all low impact, and weight training - building muscle mass - means you can eat more and also be less likely to get osteoporosis. I run on the treadmill and outdoors but most exercise I do is low impact.

I do three gym sessions of an hour to and hour and a quarter a week plus one yoga class and am also really active about the house and garden at the weekend, plus walk the dog most days (if I don't DH or DM does) - I average about 12,000 steps a day - that's about 6 miles a day in my steps. Sometimes I also fit in a 5k run. My job involves sitting down for a lot of the day though so I never know where I rate in terms of exercise. It doesn't matter though as I don't count calories. It's as much exercise and physical activity as I can reasonably fit in around work and family life without feeling like it takes over from everything else.

Walking is good exercise but people make the mistake of presuming a long walk will automatically going to help them lose weight. Plus you have to exercise at the right levels for your age and personal health circumstances.if you are a long standing dieter/calorie counter/yo yo weight person the challenge is your metabolism. Doing anything regularly exercise wise runs the risk of your body simply adjusting to it…which means you have to trick or shock your body into a different way of burning calories. So it might be for eg. On 2 of the walks you could go up and down a hill instead of your normal route alternate fast-as-you can walking with a slower pace. The importance of increasing your muscle strength is that any activity you then do will burn more calories. Longer doesn’t always equal better….you could do 3x 10 min chunks over the course of a day of going up and down your stairs which may be more effective than an hour long walk.

That looks a massive calorie burn for an hours walking - I usually burn 70-80 per mile max and I walk very fast and cross country so uneven surfaces. Jogging/running is around 100 cals per mile. Cycling is 30-35 cals per mile on the flat.

Could you incorporate some bodyweight exercises on your walk? incline pressups on a bench/fence, tricep dips on a bench, squats, walking lunges etc ?

It doesn't take 90mins to walk 6km at a "moderate" pace.
Therefore your definition of moderate must be very different to the official one.

It was 60 minutes not 90.

well I’ve been out again and tried to get into the cardio zone but it’s not easy. I can easily get into a pair of trousers I couldn’t a week ago though, so it’s doing some good.

OP I think you’d be better off just seeing your walking as part of your daily movement and not analysing it any further. Maybe count steps and aim for 70k a week. That’s a good level of activity/movement.

Do you have a good relationship with the scales? If you do I’d suggest weighing yourself everyday naked after rising and having your first wee. That way you’ll see the daily fluctuations which are normal but you can see trends over time. My Weight is a good free app for this.

Some resources you might find useful:

Emma Storey-Gordon - well educated PT with a serious science background. Find her on IG and her podcasts from ESG Fitness. She busts a lot of the myths and twaddle you read about eg broken metabolism, weight set point and other bollocks.

Graeme Tomlinson on IG on thefitnesschef_

Both support what they say with evidence.

I’ve followed them - thanks