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Steps

vickirigby28
vickirigby28 Posts: 2 Member
in Getting Started
Hi new here do you add your daily steps calories count to your exercise ?

Replies

  • mtaratoot
    mtaratoot Posts: 14,613 Member
    There is no way to directly convert your step count to your exercise diary. There's an answer in the HELP database that has the same workaround I was going to suggest.

    You can log "walking" in your exercise diary. You can either measure your actual strides and get a custom "steps per mile" estimate or just figure it's about 2000 steps per mile. You will have to make an assumption of your speed and then figure out how many minutes it would take, based on steps per mile and speed, to get it logged.

    Do you have a smartphone? My iPhone actually has a pedometer built in that I used to link to MFP before I got a Garmin wrist device. That might work for you if you have a phone, use the Health app, and link it to MFP.
  • zebasschick
    zebasschick Posts: 1,067 Member
    Taking random steps throughout the day does not equate to exercise calories. Mindful exercise - like taking a 45-minute walk without stopping - you can log as exercise separately. But taking a few steps to the kitchen, a hundred steps going to the mailbox, and stuff like that really doesn't equate to any particular calorie burn since you could be going at any speed and it's just a few calories.
  • mtaratoot
    mtaratoot Posts: 14,613 Member
    "Random steps" do add up.

    If you set your activity level to "Active," then they should already include a lot of those "random" steps. If you are set to sedentary, they can count.

    I set my activity level to sedentary even though I'm not. My Garmin device tracks steps whenever they happen as long as it's at least 20 or so steps at a time. They add up. I am mostly sure, but not 100%, if I set my activity level to "active," I would not get calorie credit until I had surpassed some number of steps in a day. I do know for sure that I get zero credit even for thousands of steps if I also do an activity that Garmin tracks. Those steps have to be over and above the activity.

    Doing it from an old-school pedometer worn on a belt wouldn't give that good of data, but it's something. Data is good. Track it! Use it when you look back so you can figure out what's working and what's not.

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