Tracking work exersize?

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trackercasey76
trackercasey76 Posts: 780 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
So My wife just started MFP last week. She is a waitress and on her feet 6-8 hours a day. I set her up as "Active" in her profile. She just got a pedometer and wants to use that for a more accurate way to track her movement. My question is do I change her profile to sedentary then add the steps she does at work as cardio? I don't want to count that movement twice...HELP!!

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  • trackercasey76
    trackercasey76 Posts: 780 Member
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    Anyone?
  • iLoveMyPitbull1225
    iLoveMyPitbull1225 Posts: 1,691 Member
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    It is part of her normal routine, so no. She does not lead a sedentary lifestyle. If you try to cheat the system to make yourself feel like your working out more it wont work.
  • trackercasey76
    trackercasey76 Posts: 780 Member
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    Actually I am concerned about it saying she is working out more then she is. If she tracks with her pedometer AND MFP already has it built in she will be double dipping. She wants to track it accurately, and I need to know the best way to do it.
  • BrianSharpe
    BrianSharpe Posts: 9,248 Member
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    I'm not sure a pedometer is the most useful tool for this(they usually just measure number of steps in a given amount of time) , it sounds like something along the lines of a FitBit would be more useful to give the number MFP estimates a sanity check (I haven't used one myself - perhaps someone who has will chime in)
  • trackercasey76
    trackercasey76 Posts: 780 Member
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    I just ordered myself a FitBit If I like it we will get her one too. She just wants to be sure that MFP is not over estimating her "Active" job. MFP Tends to over estimate most thing I think.
  • trackercasey76
    trackercasey76 Posts: 780 Member
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    Any more suggestions?
  • AmyRhubarb
    AmyRhubarb Posts: 6,890 Member
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    Personally, I would just leave the activity level setting as active and not try to track the work into my exercise, because it's part of daily life, and not a planned workout. If you're worried about overestimation of MFP's definition of active, try it for a few weeks and see how it goes with that amount of calories. If it seems too high, drop it to moderately active or whatever the next step down would be, and see how that goes for a few weeks.
  • Tangerine302
    Tangerine302 Posts: 1,509 Member
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    I would also keep her as active and not try to use the pedometer to track. It would be a lot easier too. :) Some of the ones that have their level at something less seem to have to log every little action or movement throughout the day. I think it would get tiring to remember each thing you do.
    I keep mine at a certain level and only add something that I would do as extra like an exercise dvd, etc.
    Good luck to you! :)
  • myfitnessnmhoy
    myfitnessnmhoy Posts: 2,105 Member
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    So My wife just started MFP last week. She is a waitress and on her feet 6-8 hours a day. I set her up as "Active" in her profile. She just got a pedometer and wants to use that for a more accurate way to track her movement. My question is do I change her profile to sedentary then add the steps she does at work as cardio? I don't want to count that movement twice...HELP!!

    If I were her and didn't trust the MFP calculations, I'd use the FitBit or whatever tool you want to determine how many calories an average day burns, then see how that compares to the difference between "sedentary" and "active" and adjust my lifestyle setting accordingly.

    That way I'd get the benefit of knowing that the calorie burn estimates are somewhere near realistic without having to bother with logging every day.

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