Do you log your steps?

hendersonandie · May 2018

What is everyone's thought on logging your steps as cardio in MFP? Along with the calories burned. I am new to this and dieting. And I would really like some feedback on what everyone is doing! ♥️

Dani9585 · May 2018

My Fitbit syncs to MFP (although not today, for some reason), so I don't log them.

rose2_0 · May 2018

No. My steps are included in my activity level. If I have a high step count one day it just evens out because there are definitely some low days during the month too.

Lillymoo01 · May 2018

I sync my mobile app Pacer with MFP. This is because my step count well and truly exceeds that of a very active person so even this profile would not suit me. This week I am currently averaging around 27,000 steps a day and I want to eat most of that back.

fr33sia12 · May 2018

I go for walks most days for exercise, so log that, but not everyday steps I just include that in my activity level. If I happen to take a lot of steps through out the day then that's a bonus, more calories burned. I'd rather under estimate calories burnt than over estimate.

Running_and_Coffee · May 2018

My Garmin syncs all activities and steps with MFP. I don't "eat back" anything, though. With the exception of maybe an 8+ mile run. I wouldn't eat an extra 100 calories for getting in an extra 1000 steps.

callsitlikeiseeit · May 2018

it falls under your activity level.

i know activity trackers have their fans, im not one of them.

erickirb · May 2018

hendersonandie wrote: »

What is everyone's thought on logging your steps as cardio in MFP? Along with the calories burned. I am new to this and dieting. And I would really like some feedback on what everyone is doing! ♥️

Nope, a number of steps would be assumed based on your activity level. if you have significantly increased your step count from when you set up on MFP you may want to increase your activity level (say from sedentary to light active). By increasing your activity level you will get more calories to eat as well.

malibu927 · May 2018

Anything above and beyond my set activity level (which is very active) comes over from my Apple Watch

Tacklewasher · May 2018

I use my tracker and have my activity level set to sedentary, so I need to eat them back or I would under eat. But if you are not using a tracker (24/7) and think your activity level is correct then don't eat them back. They would be included in your activity level.

jjpptt2 · May 2018

Personally, I do not. I set my activity level such that regular, day-to-day activity (steps) are included. I do still log intentional and dedicated exercise though.

tinkerbellang83 · May 2018

It depends on your method for counting them, if you're using a tracker/app that syncs with MFP your adjustment will account for your activity level (you will only earn additional calories for steps over and above those included in your activity level) in which case it's fine to log your steps. If you're not using something that syncs then just adjust your activity level to account for your non-exercise steps:

Sedentary is approximately 3000 steps per day, Lightly Active around 5000 steps per day, etc.

Your real world results compared to your expected loss is your best judge of how accurate your calories in/out are. If you're losing more than expected then eat more, if you're losing less than expected tighten up your logging, review for another 4 weeks and then adjust as necessary.

cqbkaju · May 2018

As many have said, walking i.e. "steps" is activity, not exercise.

smolmaus · May 2018

I let the Pacer app sync my steps to MFP and it does add calories but I don't necessarily eat them.

It gives me about 60kcal/mile walked which seems like about double what I should realistically be burning just for walking but on the other hand it does track with your maintenance calories being BMRx1.2 for sedentary (<3000 steps, the setting on MFP I use) to BMRx1.4 for lightly active (3000-10,000 steps) so you can make your own judgement about eating some amount of them back if you need them.

rsclause · May 2018

Steps are not cardio they are activity. My fit bit logs them for me. The weird thing is that if I use Runtastic to log my runs it counts the running calories burn but not the fit bit steps that occurred at the same time.

amgreenwell · May 2018

I've never logged my steps but I can only assume I don't take many. I work at a desk in a bank all day. I take two walks a day and try to get out at lunch but overall my steps are minimal. I do use map my walk when I walk so I can keep track of my calories that way and when I do cardio in the morning I use map my run or elliptical estimate of calories burned.
Since I'm not "active" I just set my calories to whatever it needs to be in mfp and then use my exercise calories if I want to eat something back.

tinkerbellang83 · May 2018

amgreenwell wrote: »

I've never logged my steps but I can only assume I don't take many. I work at a desk in a bank all day. I take two walks a day and try to get out at lunch but overall my steps are minimal. I do use map my walk when I walk so I can keep track of my calories that way and when I do cardio in the morning I use map my run or elliptical estimate of calories burned.
Since I'm not "active" I just set my calories to whatever it needs to be in mfp and then use my exercise calories if I want to eat something back.

You might be surprised, I work a desk job and even if I skip walking to/from work I get around 5000 steps per day just from walking up and down the stairs/ using photocopier/ housework at home. Which puts me at lightly active. If I am walking to/from work then that's closer to 11-12000 steps per day.

cwolfman13 · May 2018

hendersonandie wrote: »

What is everyone's thought on logging your steps as cardio in MFP? Along with the calories burned. I am new to this and dieting. And I would really like some feedback on what everyone is doing! ♥️

You would only want to log activity that isn't accounted for in your activity level. Even a sedentary activity level is going to account for around 5,000 steps.

If you're going to do something like this, the best way to go about it would be to get a FitBit or similar and have it synched to MFP and it will automatically start giving you more calories if your actual activity is beyond your activity level set in MFP.

When I logged, I personally never logged walking...I figured my 1-3 mile walk with my dog was just bonus activity and not strenuous enough to require more calories. I only logged more purposeful exercise. If I was walking a ton, that would probably be a different story.

PAV8888 · May 2018

You count calories in.

Your purpose for that may vary, as might your tolerance for approximations, but the act assumes that your intention is to count all the calories you're ingesting.

You count calories out.

Your purpose for that may vary, as might your tolerance for approximations, but the act assumes that your intention is to count all the calories you're expending.

Calories don't have moral values and they're not interested as to whether they were expended regulating your body temperature, running in the Olympics, or dragging yourself out of bed to pick up your sock.

The answer can only be that for the purpose of an accurate count you count every calorie expended... once.

If your activity level includes your walking, you don't add it. If it doesn't include it, you SHOULD.

The calories out don't become un-expended because they were not spent in a quality way, and the calories in don't become un-eaten because they were taken in eating a pack of Kale instead of a pack of Twinkies.

Anything beyond that is how we, as individuals, manage our caloric balance.

Personally I find it easier to offload the expenditure counting to a device, and to periodically check how well my tracking and my body's reactions correspond to how the device tracks, leaving me with a fairly solid grasp as to what I may have to adjust in order to decrease or increase a deficit or surplus.

ladyhusker39 · May 2018

Mine comes from my Garmin, but if I didn't log my steps (either manually or through a device), I'd be pretty low on calories as I average around 12k steps/day.

mbaker566 · May 2018

my garmin logs for me.

etherealanwar · May 2018

My fitbit logs in steps into MFP and accounts for any added extra calories. I try not to eat the extra calories though.

saragd012 · May 2018

I wear a fitbit so it tracks for me, when I didn't have the fitbit I had my settings on "lightly-active" and just tracked intentional exercise but I should have had it on highly active because I was losing when I should have been maintaining. I find that the fitbit helps me maintain more reliably.

rainbow198 · May 2018

No. I do have a tracker on my phone, but I only track fitness walking/running miles not daily steps. For me I don't count steps as exercise, it's just regular movement.

sgt1372 · May 2018

I only log steps (and associated cals) for long walks/hikes beyond my normal activity level.

mph323 · May 2018

I have my fitbit set to sync with MFP and MFP activity set to sedentary. My fitbit does a pretty accurate job of estimating calories burned for steps, and does differentiate between incidental steps, walking at a faster pace, running and cycling. I'm set to sedentary because I'm mildly OCD and was obsessing about getting the exact same amount of activity every day when I was set to active. This way I just let fitbit and MFP do all the work, and I eat back the calories to maintain my weight.

eta: To clarify, I only manually log activities such as cycling on my trainer where steps aren't counted.

Danp · May 2018

I have a very varied step count depending on how my day goes. Anywhere from 2000 steps to 15000+ steps.

The way I've approached it is to set my activity to sedentary and let the number of steps recorded by my android wear watch dictate my activity level that day. I then adjust my calorie intake accordingly.

Not sure if this is the smartest or wisest way to do it but it seems to be working for me so far.

babysaffy · May 2018

I used to log them but I stopped a few weeks ago because I've been in a plateau,/ slow weight loss for a while and don't want to eat back any overestimated burned calories.

Like others have said, it's all part of activity which we've already set to get our calorie goal so I feel like I was cheating to get more calories or a bigger deficit so my 5 week projected loss was inaccurate.

Semele0 · May 2018

Your steps should be counted as calories out, but there are many ways to do it:
1) If you own a fitbit or similar, then it will calculate them for you just sync it with the app. You can either put your activity level on sedentary and let the fitbit do the rest (it will add calories everyday, if you move), or select an higher activity level (in this case probabliy most days your caloris will remain fixed, bu they can go up or down if you move more or less the you activity level)
2) If you don't own a fitbit or similar but you do more or less the same amount of steps everyday, set your activity level accordingly
3) You don't own a fitbit and don't move the same everyday. I'm in this category, I'm sedentary and most days I will not move much, but then others I will go for walks or just walk to places. It happens two or three times a week, so enogh to make a difference. I don't want to buy a fitbit, though, so I downloaded the app google fit and set it up, synced with MFP, and it calculates the step I'm doing. It is less exact then fitbit, so I don't eat all of the supposed calories back, but I prefer to have some monitoring of my activity if I can.

candistyx · May 2018

I log them in apple health because I want to increase them but I don't worry about adding calories for them.

cheryldumais · May 2018

I am set as sedentary so I do log my steps. This is my only intentional exercise right now and I have lost over 100 pounds. The trouble comes when people add their steps in to their activity level then log them again. You have to decide. I work at a desk job so I am sedentary. I walk on purpose to get my body moving.

Do you log your steps?

Replies

Categories