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Question About Steps

justified111
justified111 Posts: 18 Member
edited November 2024 in Fitness and Exercise
I like to be as accurate as possible when I log, almost obsessively. According to the MFP "steps calorie adjustment" each step taken burns about .1 to .2 calories. I've also seen that if I set myself to a sedentary lifestyle that should include 3000-5000 steps a day.

Here's my question. If I step less than 3000 steps in a day should I log a misc. calorie entry as (3000-Actual Steps)*.15?

To add to that should I be adding a manual excersize entry when I step over 5000 steps in a day (Actual Steps-5000)*.15?

Does that make sense to anybody?

Thanks!

Replies

  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,882 Member
    I just log whatever I consider "exercise".

    So I will log my walk on the way to work, at lunch, and after work ...... but I do not log the walking I do to the photocopier and back, to the kitchen and back, to the toilet and back, around the grocery store, doing housework, and things like that.
  • justified111
    justified111 Posts: 18 Member
    Interesting. It sounds silly but it does add up. If I lay in bed for an entire day (Not that I ever would) I would literally have 450 less calories to eat than I think. Alternatively, if I walk a lot one day but it's not "exercise" I should be eating more than I think since my morning cardio overwrites the "steps calorie adjustment"

    Curious what others think/do
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,882 Member
    I figure the stuff I don't log will cover any errors I make when I log my food.

    And it certainly won't add up to 450 calories!! I would have to ride my bicycle for over an hour or do a brisk 2+ hour walk for that!

    The extra, non-logged walking adds up to the 3000-5000 steps of a sedentary person and might, possibly give me an extra 100 cal to play with. So if I log a food item I'm not sure about and accidentally log it as 100 cal less than it should be, that's OK. I will likely have done enough exercise to cover it.

    This method works for me ... lost 25 kg that way. :)
  • Sassafras106
    Sassafras106 Posts: 73 Member
    It depends on how intense the steps are. Say I run, shop at the mall, and walk around my classroom looking at students' papers all in one day. All of those things are done at a different intensity ( from hardest to least hard in this particular list) they will have drastically different calorie burns. I would just go with the total number of calories burned in a day that mfp gives you
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,562 Member
    Your activity level already includes a certain amount of steps, so logging all of them (if you don't have an activity tracker that syncs with MFP) will cause you to double count and likely overeat. So set your activity level appropriately and log any physical exercise you do.
  • spiriteagle99
    spiriteagle99 Posts: 3,770 Member
    I don't sync my watch with MFP and I don't include steps, as such, in my daily exercise. I do log actual walks and runs, and I eat back all those calories. The step counter is odd, because walking I take shorter steps, so a certain distance may take 2500 steps for a mile, while running only 1800 steps equals a mile. Then wandering around the house going to the kitchen for coffee etc., I may have 1000 - 2000 steps before I even leave the house, and it's a small house. If I've exercised a bit more than I log, that's good because it covers any inaccuracy in my food logging. Any major exercise gets counted. That has worked well for me.
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,882 Member
    Sassafras106 wrote: »
    It depends on how intense the steps are. Say I run, shop at the mall, and walk around my classroom looking at students' papers all in one day. All of those things are done at a different intensity ( from hardest to least hard in this particular list) they will have drastically different calorie burns. I would just go with the total number of calories burned in a day that mfp gives you

    That's a good point too. I did a step challenge last October where we logged all our steps. Some of mine were briskly walking up 25 flights of stairs a day. Those burn more calories than a casual stroll to the photocopier.
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