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MyFitnessPal Community

Standing - how to count calories

Strudders67

Hi all, earlier today I spent a few hours helping out a community gardening group by being behind their stall selling plants. Whilst I won't have burned hundreds of calories, I must have burned more than if I'd just been sitting on the sofa at home. How do I track 'standing'? I obviously wasn't absolutely stationary the whole time, but I wasn't walking at 2.5mph for the 2 hours either. My MFP profile is set to sedentary because that's what I normally am - I then track anything where I go out and do something active.

Replies

strshllw84

I have Google fit and it counts steps and also estimates how many calories a person burns in a day.

strshllw84

strshllw84 wrote: »

I have Google fit and it counts steps and also estimates how many calories a person burns in a day.

Though I don't usually use the estimated calories I burned in a day towards my calories burned.

heybales

In the scheme of a week, it's minor and basically inconsequential.

What is probably incorrect is your estimate of being sedentary - that's not a reference to a desk job as many seem to assume.
It means bump on a log all day AND weekends outside of exercise. No kids, no household duties, no pets, less than 4000 steps.

I'd say slight majority rate themselves wrong.

They discover that fact when they get an activity tracker, and before even being inspired to walk more, discover they already do more than 4K steps and burn more than sedentary estimates.

malibu927

Not enough to worry about tracking. Besides, sedentary does account for about 3000-5000 steps taken so you may be doubling up on calories.

comeonnow142857

I'm not criticising you, more power to you if keeping this close an eye on things works for you, It would drive me insane if I started tracking stuff like that... in work tomorrow (where I'll do 11 hours followed by gym) I might get a shift of 2.5 hours at the information counter, or I might be sitting down for 2.5 hours, or running up and down a stairs, or filing at high or low speed in a room full of boxes which can be cardio, or having adrenalin boosts from death threats or a relaxing glow from a particularly quiet afternoon... I would feel that the advantages in assessing to that level of accuracy would be wiped out by both noise, and the failure to do something with a higher payoff-time ratio.

All I know is that I'll be eating 1.5K calories and my co-worker is going to kick my *kitten* with planks at the end of it.

cmriverside

I agree, I wouldn't log it.

I also agree that unless you have no job, no kids, live in an apartment and don't go to school...you're likely more than sedentary. Jobs, kids, houses, pets, school all require quite a bit of movement.

Strudders67

I'm pretty sedentary. I lost my job last year and spend most of my day, every day, at my dining table with my laptop. I'm generally looking at job sites but otherwise just surfing. I don't track walking around the house, going to see my neighbour, walking to / from the station if I'm going out in the evening etc - but I do track gym sessions and any brisk walks that I do on days that I don't go to the gym, as they are outside of my norm of being sedentary. I figured that two hours standing at a fete, maybe taking a few steps either way every so often, was over and above 'sedentary' so worth tracking. If I was going to work 5 days a week, yeah I'd change my activity status and only track gym sessions but that's not my current situation.

TimothyFish

If you aren't doing something that can cause you to get out of breath it probably isn't worth worrying about.