I've got the tool... Now what?

TheCaren
TheCaren Posts: 894 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Okay, I finally broke down and bought a pedometer. It's not super fancy, but it allegedly calculates my steps and distance (I had to plug in my "stride length") and calories burned (I had to plug in my weight).

Yesterday, it said I walked about 6200 steps throughout the day. This was not including any exercise. This was just my daily moving around. It said I burned something like 200 calories or so.

What do I do with this information? Do I plug it in as "exercise" and "earn" more calories to eat? Or is this movement considered what factors into my BMR so you don't put it anywhere on MFP?

Bottom line is, what do you do with the information you receive from your pedometer???

And out of curiosity, if you use a pedometer, how many steps a day is considered good (not including specific exercise)?

Replies

  • mygrl4meee
    mygrl4meee Posts: 943 Member
    I really wouldn't think you would eat back calories for daily activity but will be interesting to see what others have to say on this.
  • sandradev1
    sandradev1 Posts: 786 Member
    You actually answered your own question, in that you referred to it as being 'not including exercise'

    MFP is set up to eat back your 'exercise' calories, if that if the way you are doing this. My own opinion and how I see this is - is this activity something I did when I put the weight on and became unfit? or is it an exercise I am doing to purposely improve my fitness level.

    I have actually included my exercise into my calorie goal using the Road Map, so I don't need to 'eat back' my exercise calories. It makes it a lot easier.
  • FullOfWin
    FullOfWin Posts: 1,414 Member
    I think BMR is the calories you would burn in a coma. TDEE is what it would be included in, and should be accounted for with your activity level setting.
  • WendyTerry420
    WendyTerry420 Posts: 13,274 Member
    I think it is good information to have, but I wouldn't eat those calories back. If it were me, I would just use the notes section in the exercise diary to track it for informational purposes.
  • jaz050465
    jaz050465 Posts: 3,508 Member
    When I link my fitbit, I have to do 5000 steps until it gives me any e tra calories. This is when I set my activity level to sedentary.
  • kluvit
    kluvit Posts: 435 Member
    I agree with not really counting just normal steps from car to building, etc.; my rule is that I have to be wearing workout clothes or shoes for it to count unless I do an extreme shopping or cleaning day for a much higher level of activity than normal, then I typically only log about a third of the time in MFP as exercise.

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