Trying to refrain from Calorie Obsession

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TheLuSir
TheLuSir Posts: 1,674 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Where do you get your calories burned info?

If it's not "exercising", should you include the calories in your daily expense? (Walking around the office, playing Kinect, shoveling snow, etc.)

Is it worth it to buy a HRM?

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  • Beckyloo80
    Beckyloo80 Posts: 1,088 Member
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    I have a ftbit that helps me when I have not done any sort of exercise. Typically i will log walking if I have spent the day out doing so. It really is hard. A HRM is a good idea, but unless you are wanting to wear it all the time, i would seriously look into a fitbit or something along those lines =)
  • caspergirl7
    caspergirl7 Posts: 590 Member
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    I use my HRM to get a more accurate account of calories burned but I only wear while I'm doing some type of exercise.
  • keepingm0tivated
    keepingm0tivated Posts: 39
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    Google a certain activity and a site with more information should pop up. c:
  • caspergirl7
    caspergirl7 Posts: 590 Member
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    fitbit would help you with the daily steps/calories burned. for me its not really accurate when i'm doing intense exercise.
  • TheLuSir
    TheLuSir Posts: 1,674 Member
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    Do you think it's necessary when trying to live a healthy lifestyle and not in some mode of competition? If I'm worried about the extra calories I'm getting from walking around at work is my focus misplaced?


    ***Any and all responses are helpful***
  • Beckyloo80
    Beckyloo80 Posts: 1,088 Member
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    fitbit would help you with the daily steps/calories burned. for me its not really accurate when i'm doing intense exercise.

    you def. want a HRM for intense stuff...... I have both, i love my fitbit as it counts my steps and lets me know what I have burned for how active I have been and I love my HRM for my intense cardio so I get a more accurate burn then what is on this site =)

    It's all preference.
  • Beckyloo80
    Beckyloo80 Posts: 1,088 Member
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    Do you think it's necessary when trying to live a healthy lifestyle and not in some mode of competition? If I'm worried about the extra calories I'm getting from walking around at work is my focus misplaced?


    ***Any and all responses are helpful***

    I don't think your focus is misplaced. I feel that my fitbit help me realize how active I actually am, and it really helped me in the long run. A fitbit really helps you know what you burn just for living..... you know, breathing, walking, sleeping and stuff like that........ like a TDEE monitor almost.......
  • khall86790
    khall86790 Posts: 1,100 Member
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    I intend to buy a HRM because I think it's the most accurate way you can keep track of real calories burned per day. Particularly if you are interested in the TDEE method.

    I don't log any physical exercise unless it's a walk over 20 minutes or my actual workouts for the day.
  • XX_Miss_RoseMary_XX
    XX_Miss_RoseMary_XX Posts: 274 Member
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    If it's not "exercising", should you include the calories in your daily expense? (Walking around the office, playing Kinect, shoveling snow, etc.)

    Is it worth it to buy a HRM?

    I don't log unless its "exercise" Because MFP already calculates your normal daily burned calories.. (Its under Goals for those of you wondering) So no.. Doing the dishes doesn't count. Cleaning the house TOP to BOTTOM however, does. I count shoveling too, because that's intense and not in my daily routine. I hope this makes sense.
  • weird_me2
    weird_me2 Posts: 716 Member
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    I set myself to "lightly active" originally and log what I do above and beyond the norm. I don't log the walking I do to/from work or around the office (over a mile on an ordinary day); I don't log normal cleaning or house hold chores, but stuff above and beyond, I do log.

    I don't think that logging those extras is a bad thing or getting away from the point at all. I actually enjoy seeing my exercise calories build up, plus I want my journal as accurate as possible food and activity wise to see if my actual losses are matching up with projected. I often don't eat all my exercise calories, but I still like to see my estimates. Plus, I think getting to log that bit of extra encourages me to add more activity. At work today, I walked 1 mile round trip to pick up some guacamole for my lunch. Not something I normally do, so I logged it as 15 minutes of walking at 3.5 mph, which is actually slower than I went, but I do like to err on the side of caution. On Tuesday, I spent almost 3 1/2 hours total shovelling about 8" of very wet snow. I rounded it down and logged 2 hours, but I can guarantee you that a couple of months ago, before I was logging everything, I probably would have said forget it and made my DH do all the shovelling by himself!
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
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    I make it up. I was using the MFP defaults, but they don't have Turbo Fire and I couldn't find anything in the database that sounded like Turbo Fire, so I just decided to make up numbers and stop trying to eat exercise calories. I determined by true TDEE by careful logging at maintenance for several weeks (not surprisingly, it didn't match the calculators), then decided on a fixed number of calories to shoot for. I shoot for an average over 7-10 days.

    I thought about not logging exercise, or only logging one calorie so it wouldn't add them on. But I went with making stuff up instead. I don't really know why.
  • micheleb15
    micheleb15 Posts: 1,418 Member
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    I have a Jawbone UP that keeps track of my steps and sleep. I dont enter my daily routine into calories burned. I live in DC and walk everywhere, but I do it everyday and don't consider it to be an exercise. I also don't enter cleaning, or cooking, etc. I think that would make me calorie obsessed. I try to make it as simple as possible. TDEE-20%, end of story. I only log calories burned when I put on my HRM and plan on working out, otherwise it's just a regular day.
  • mmapags
    mmapags Posts: 8,934 Member
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    I use my HRM to get a more accurate account of calories burned but I only wear while I'm doing some type of exercise.

    This. And even then it's just an estimation. Anything that is not intentional exercise is just part of you daily activity and shouldn't be measured.
  • mmapags
    mmapags Posts: 8,934 Member
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    If I'm worried about the extra calories I'm getting from walking around at work is my focus misplaced?

    In my opinion, yes. Absolutely!
  • jaz050465
    jaz050465 Posts: 3,508 Member
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    Most accurate way to work out calorie burn throughout whole day is the Bodymedia Fit device.
  • erinsueburns
    erinsueburns Posts: 865 Member
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    I now ONLY track daily activities if they are very much outside of my normal realm. Like normally for my job it is just walking, but a few times a year I am seriously hauling heavy stuff and really moving alot more. Or the couple of time sper year I have dinner parties o I am frenetically cleaning and spend 4+hours of cooking. Otherwise I figure it averages out. For a while I did set my stats to sedentary and wear a pedometer phone app to get an idea of how active I am through the day in reality, but that was a short term learning experience.
  • TheLuSir
    TheLuSir Posts: 1,674 Member
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    Thanks for the input, so far. This isn't just for me. I try to help my friends and family and I want to urge them to live healthy and fit. At the same time I don't want to create a psychotic health freak (no offense if there are any reading this). A lot of them are at the point where they'll believe anything a fit person tells them to do. So, I tread carefully.

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