How to track fitness (step trackers, HRM's, etc.)

jenring3

Okay. I'm not new to tracking - I'm actually a WW professional. But using this site as well now. I'm totally confused about tracking exercise and how to do it. I wear a Garmin Vivofit all day to track steps. When I run I wear a separate Garmin running watch. When I weight lift, I still use my Vivofit but I add the HRM so I can see actual calories burned during a lifting session (and BTW, I did read that MFP doesn't accurately count weight lifting but if it's a calorie burn from a device does that make a difference? Also, I'm not sure what info MFP pulls from Garmin and I'm not sure if any or all of those devices are being double tracked.

And, I'm further confused by the daily calorie goal setting and how calories burn factors into that. If all that makes sense, can someone tell me the most simple and most accurate way to set and adjust the daily calorie goal - including (or not including) the calories burned?