My fellow teachers - step tracking question

bobbiedr
bobbiedr Posts: 260 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I am a 3rd grade teacher. I am constantly moving, whether it's walking around my classroom or taking my students to/from places in our buildings.

I just re-did my goal settings on MFP. I changed my active level from sedentary to lightly active. (This is the one labeled if you were a teacher.)

Here's my question for you fellow teachers. I plan on getting a fitbit within the next two weeks. Should I keep my active status as it is (lightly active) and still track my steps on MFP (for calorie burn), or should I change my activity level back to sedentary and track my steps?

I just want to make sure I don't over calculate my exercise calories.

Thanks in advance! :)

Replies

  • annaheyoolay
    annaheyoolay Posts: 100 Member
    I set mine to lightly active because when it was set to sedentary I would get huge adjustments at the end of the day. This has worked great for me! You won't have to enter steps into MFP, just link your Fitbit.
  • MeanderingMammal
    MeanderingMammal Posts: 7,866 Member
    In principle you should set it to sedentary, otherwise you are double accounting.

    That said, some people do struggle with the dynamic changes to calorie goals over the course of a day, but it shouldn't be that significant.
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,562 Member
    MeanderingMammal wrote: »
    In principle you should set it to sedentary, otherwise you are double accounting.

    That said, some people do struggle with the dynamic changes to calorie goals over the course of a day, but it shouldn't be that significant.

    No you aren't. The calories will end up the same either way, you would just get a larger adjustment with sedentary.
  • MeanderingMammal
    MeanderingMammal Posts: 7,866 Member
    malibu927 wrote: »
    MeanderingMammal wrote: »
    In principle you should set it to sedentary, otherwise you are double accounting.

    That said, some people do struggle with the dynamic changes to calorie goals over the course of a day, but it shouldn't be that significant.

    No you aren't. The calories will end up the same either way, you would just get a larger adjustment with sedentary.

    fwiw I've tested it. Setting to lightly active, with a step tracker, gives me about 300 cals extra for a similar day of about 9000 steps cf sedentary.
  • ScubaSteve1962
    ScubaSteve1962 Posts: 609 Member
    When you get your fit bit, look at your average steps in a day and set your activity level for that.
  • gaelicstorm26
    gaelicstorm26 Posts: 589 Member
    ScubaSteve1962 wrote: »
    When you get your fit bit, look at your average steps in a day and set your activity level for that.

    I second this.

    I would set your activity level to sedentary while you learn how many steps you are taking. I'm an educator and I move around the building all the time (and between buildings) but some days I'm still only taking 2,000-4,000 steps while at work. Once you see how many steps you are taking each day, adjust your activity level to reflect that to deal with large changes in calorie goals from Fitbit steps.
  • Maxematics
    Maxematics Posts: 2,287 Member
    I keep my level at sedentary on MFP and let Fitbit make all the adjustments. There are two settings for the Fitbit food plan; personalized or sedentary. Personalized readjusts your calorie allowance throughout the day based on what it predicts you will burn. I disliked the constant increase and decrease in my calories because of that setting, which is the default, so I changed to the sedentary setting which is where they start you out with a small amount of calories and as you move throughout the day, you earn more. I wake up with an allowance of around 1000 calories and by the end of the day I've earned 600-1200 more. I've been doing this since July and I've gone from 131 pounds to 116, so I'd say it works very well.

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