WDYD for time in the pool?

macchiatto

Our pool just opened and I know I'll be spending a good bit of time in it over the summer with my kids. Calculating calories burned when I swim laps shouldn't be that hard but for a time like yesterday when I'm not wearing my Fitbit for 2 hrs while doing a mix of playing in the pool with the kids and standing around talking to other parents ... do you log anything for that? Obviously it's not a very high calorie burn but certainly higher than if I were sleeping. This is the one reason I almost got a Garmin instead of the Charge 2.

heybales

Neither are going to do well reading HR in the water for the units that are actually waterproof with HR.

That leaves steps as the means of estimating. But step impacts and calculated distance for using in a walking formula for calorie burn are meaningless for steps in the pool.

No, there really is no good method for attempting actual measurement during use.

Best you can do is create workouts for when you change activities, like into the pool to play and move around, then when you get out to sit for awhile and talk. Then you can use those times to manually log a workout for water aerobics if you think that active, or a different estimate of time if you think less than that.

Francl27

I'm probably going to spend some time in the pool this Summer... my plan is to just not log it and see if I can stick to my calories anyway. But it's not like undereating is really something I'm worried about.

macchiatto

That's helpful; thank you!

I'm just starting a recomp and trying to figure out maintenance calories so that's why I wondered. Heybales' suggestion makes sense, and I'll just keep an eye on all the numbers to make sure I'm not giving myself too much credit.