How to Track Miles Online for Weight Loss

Whether you are just starting walking for exercise or you've been doing it for a long time, it's rewarding to track both how far you're walking and how many calories you're burning doing it. Seeing the distances and calories accumulate will give you a sense of accomplishment and help you track your progress. Fortunately, there are many websites and mobile phone applications that can help you track miles online for weight loss.

Things You'll Need

  • Computer or mobile phone
  • Pedometer (optional)
  • GPS tracker (optional)
Show More

Instructions

    • 1

      Find the tracking website or application that you want to use. There are many websites and applications for tracking distances walked. Free websites like MyWalks.com allow you to enter the date, distance, time and steps taken. The website calculates your walking speed automatically. The log at TrainingLog.runnersworld.com is more detailed and allows you to track distance walked, heart rate, shoes walked in, temperature during walk, calories burned and other factors. Both sites require that you register and know the distance you walk each day.

      You can also track distances you walk using mobile phone applications like iMapMy for Android, iPhone and Blackberry. This application integrates with the iMapMyWalk.com and iMapMyRun.com websites to allow your workout to be logged and shared with others. Runkeeper is another similar application that allows detailed walking or running tracking. These applications also let you view others' walks and try them for yourself. Using a mobile phone application can be more convenient than wearing a pedometer or GPS tracker, since all you have to do is turn on a mobile phone application at the start of a walk -- or at the start of your day to track all of your walking -- and wherever the phone travels is logged as a distance walked. You have to be careful that you don't leave the application on during a drive because this will result in overestimating your miles walked.

    • 2

      Measure the distance walked. If you use a mobile phone tracking application, this is easy. Just turn on the application at the start of your walk and your phone will track the distance walked.

      If you prefer to use a pedometer or GPS tracker, you will need to track the distance that you walked and enter that distance manually into the website that you have chosen to create your log.

      A third way you can track your distance walked is to trace your walking route on a map or mapping website like Google Maps or Mapquest. Once you trace your route, you can measure how far you walked.

    • 3

      Track the calories burned. Most logging websites and applications track calories, but if you don't have access to a calories-burned calculator, a simple calculator, such as at HealthStatus.com/calculate/cbc, can allow you to enter your weight and activity -- like walking -- to calculate calories burned. For example, according to the HealthStatus.com calculator, a 160 lb. person who walks for 30 minutes at a 4 mph pace will burn 187 calories. Other websites, such as NutriStrategy.com, show calories burned for specific exercises.

      Either the application calorie tracking or websites will help you measure calories burned.