[UpDownAround]

10941 steps, 4.89 miles and 443 calories according to the watch. I logged it as 60 minutes of 3 mph for 240 calories.
1876 calories consumed, which is about 60 shy of the allocated calories. I was pretty full with about 300 left, but ate some walnuts and raisins since they are pretty calorie dense and got the total closer. I really don't like getting back into the habit of eating when I am not hungry.

Today I noticed my wath had about 1500 steps before I took a late walk. I have been doing some dumbbell rows and table pull ups; not sure if those are counted as steps from the motion; still wouldn't be close to that many.

So many variables. Is my base close to correct at 1700? How accurate are my exercise numbers? Is there a common food I am not recording properly?

I will weigh in the morning...

[UpDownAround]

Originally Posted by Tucson

For 11.54 miles, this is about 1154 calories using the 100 calories per mile rule of thumb. For me this would be 1208 calories. Your watch is calculating at 91 calories a mile, with mine at 105 calories a mile. However, you are in much better shape than I am. You have been exersizing much longer than I have. I would not be surprised if the actual value for you is closer to the 80 number you came up with.

I walk between 3 mph, and if pushing myself, close to 4.2 mph. Is this what you do? I am not walking up any hills, yet. I am thinking that these parameters that describe my situation and the rate I burn calories as a consequence may be helpful to you. Of course you have a different BMI than I do, probably also a different BMR.

I think I walk about the same pace. The watch is no help with figuring that out since it has the steps for milling around at work mixed in with the exercise steps. I might have an elapsed time of 20 minutes to take 300 steps at work from stopping in doorways to get or report status.

My BMI is 24.2 if I use 159 as the weight. I think my BMR is lower than it should be. The calculator says 1515.

[Tucson]

What is interesting is my watch app changes my BMR through the week. Most of the time it stays the same, which is 1479 for now. It has gone up as high as 2050 on a couple days. I do not know how it calculates this, but I remember reading that intense exersize can change for a period of time the resting metabolic rate of the body. Maybe this is the reason for the changes. I do not remember changing anything last week that could make this happen.

BMR calculators place me about 1650. But this can vary by a couple hundred depending on the formula used. I estimated my body fat by looking at many pictures online to be about 25% or a bit less where there is a guy in shorts that has a small roll of fat protruding over the waistband of the shorts. So a more accurate calculation using this figure is 1432 to 1545 depending on the formula used. I apparently have a lean body mass of about 123 pounds. This is as I would weigh with absolutely no fat on me. Just muscles and bones. I can spend $75 to find out the amount of body fat very accurately, but I will pass on this.

Why don’t you separate those steps during an exersize by using the activity monitor part of your watch. This is where you tell the watch when the activity (walking) starts and ends. The health and performance stats will be calculated separately for this walk. You can then review all of it on an activity by activity basis. Your wrist monitor should allow you to do this.

My BMI is 22.4. I weigh 174 and I am 6’ 2” tall. It started out as 30.2. Now that I see your BMI, I must be skinny compared to where I should be. Maybe my weight goal a while back of 182 would still be a good idea? Maybe a BMI of 23.4 will be better for me? I am going to have to figure this out. For now, I will just gain the weight back that I have recently lost, placing me back at 177 or 178. I do not want to grow out of my new clothes!

[UpDownAround]

160.4 this morning.

@Tucson,

I am lazy and sometimes forgetful. I like just walking without having to set the watch to anything. Since it isn't integrated with mfp, I have to enter that by hand, so making the adjustment for daily life is no big deal.

Your BMI is right in the middle of the healthy range. I do think the BMI normal/healthy range might be off by 1. I think for most people, 25 is healthier than 19. Life expectancy is better for people in the 25-29 range than for those in the 14-18 range. I do think they are right about 30 being obese though. It's not about how you look, it's body fat % that starts getting into the danger zone for complications.

I want my BMI at the upper end of normal because I have muscular legs and I trying to get my chest and arms built up a little again (not like a body builder, but with some definition). I am seeing a little improvement from the dumbbell rows, table pull ups (doing 20 at a time with legs fully extended) and push ups. Also paddling helps with that. Part of the reason to get the upper body in shape is for paddling.

[Tucson]

I think if I keep exersizing, like walking, I will eventually get my leg muscles to show definition. Since muscle mass weighs more than fat, I will begin to weigh more. I am thinking of gaining weight up to let’s say 180, similar to what you are doing, so I have fat to burn off for my exersizing. Hopefully I will end up trading fat for muscle mass. I will just think about it right now. I think my arms are too thin. So I need to do some upper body work.

By the way, where is everyone? No posters here for several days now.

[Cocosurviving]

MFP calories 1,200. Apple Watch steps 4,728
Water intake 67.6 oz. I have walked my dog several times today.

[UpDownAround]

Only 6117 steps today; rainy and had errands. One errand was getting my new phone switched out. Apps switched over okay and most kept settings and data, but the watch's fitness app required a new version and lost all history before this week (the watch still had the other days of the week). Old phone was having problems and I got a newer similar model, so switching phones is more of an annoyance than anything else. The fingerprint unlock is nice, though.
1856 calories consumed.

[Tucson]

I still weigh 174. My arms are thin now. This bothers me. I ate 2100 calories of food. I am basically on target for a day with no exersize. I am taking one or two days off between days of exersize. It takes me that long to recover from my all out exersizing. I changed a couple unrelated settings on my watch, and now I am getting steps and calories burned are incredibly high which are false values. So I will have to figure this out. It is still accurate for my walking exersize.

[Tucson]

I have two scales at 176 and one scale, which is suppose to be accurate in Amazon reviews, at 175. So I will go with 175 pounds. I am going to exercise two to four miles today. I am going to have to figure out how I am going to consume all the additional calories in food. Maybe I will have some mashed potatoes which includes milk and butter.

I found one of probably a couple reasons my watch ends up with total steps much to high. Activities in the kitchen totals up quickly. It does not start counting steps until 15 steps have been taken. Then it starts counting from 15. My kitchen is small. So this is not an issue. However, when using my hands, like for washing dishes, it totals this up as steps taken. Ordinarily, my watch is very good at counting steps.

[UpDownAround]

Do you like trail mix? Peanuts, raisins and chocolate chips or M&Ms are calorie dense. Buy them in bulk and make your own. Substitute your favorite tree nut if you don't like or can't eat peanuts.

[Tucson]

Excellent idea! I will work on that today. I have walked 4.36 miles, burning 462 calories. This is the first time I am sweating. This is a giood sign. I was doing sixteen minute miles. My heart rate averaged about 140, peaking at 163. A good cardio workout. My speed averaged 3.6 mph with as high as 4.5 mph in segments of my walk. My today’s goal is 2552 calories due to my exersize. My menu for today will have me consume 2532 calories. So I met my mark. FWIW I have walked a total of 9,903 steps so far. By the end of the day, I will have walked another one or two thousand steps.

What I did was walk as fast as I possibly could until I really needed to slow down. This pushed my heart rate into the 150s. I continued walking at a brisk pace. When my heart rate started to recover, then I did this again. In this way on the second attempt I had my heart rate in the low 160s. I will do this approach from now on. I will have a goal of doing this at least once per mile. Next time I will find my max heart rate by then doing this another time. Then I will add a few points to that heart rate and then configure my heart rate zones for my watch. Formulas, and there is more than one, has my max heart rate at about 172. Currently, my watch has it as 162. So that is obviously wrong.

[UpDownAround]

18719 steps, 8.25 miles 863 calories in 174 minutes according to the watch/app. I logged it as 120 minutes of 3 mph for 475 calories.
2015 calories, which is 160 short of goal, but I will grab a snack before bed and get closer. EDIT - added a banana and a few pita chips for about 150 more.
I weigh in the morning.

[Cocosurviving]

MFP calories 862 total. I know that’s low. I was not feeling good this morning. Apple Watch steps 2,878. Water intake 50.7oz. It rained pretty much all day. Me and my dog ran out and back in each time.

[UpDownAround]

160.0 this morning. In the right range and within a pound of the last 3 or 4 weigh ins.

[Tucson]

176 pounds today. I am not going to exersize today other that walking next door to the Circle K for hot chocolate. I have already had oatmeal for breakfast. Let’s see how long I do stay at 176 pounds. I have reviewed the last several weeks of calories consumed compared with calories burned. This assumes the calories burned is accurate. The initial seven days netted 1700 or 1800 calories. No wonder I was starting to lose weigh. The past week gave a net calories count of above 2100, where I should be. The timing of my calories burned increase is supported by my weight over the same past several weeks.

[UpDownAround]

So I got curious and used Strava (like Map My Walk) for part of a walk. I just wanted to get the speed. I tracked for 34 minutes and I averaged 4.2 mph. I don't always walk at that speed though.

[Tucson]

Originally Posted by UpDownAround

So I got curious and used Strava (like Map My Walk) for part of a walk. I just wanted to get the speed. I tracked for 34 minutes and I averaged 4.2 mph. I don't always walk at that speed though.

I am taller than you are. In order to get 4.2, edgng into 4.4, is when I walk very fast. You must of been getting quite a workout. Strava? I signed up but have not explored it much at all.

[UpDownAround]

I like Strava because you run one app and say what you are doing. I know Map My Walk could feed into mfp, but I am not sure I want that. I really don't like using an app that you have to remember to start and stop, although I pretty much always remembered when I ran.

13769 steps. About 6000 at the 3 mph pace, 6000 at the 4.2 mph pace and the rest just normal walking around and shopping/working. I logged 40 minutes at 4 mph and 50 minutes at 3 mph.

2130 calories. Still seems like too much, even though the scale indicates otherwise. This morning's reading of 160.0 is the second lowest ever, bested only by the 159.0 a few days ago. All readings have been under 161 for about a week.

[Tucson]

I do not understand something here. Maybe you can help me with this, UpDownAround. My watch has three ways of adding up calories. One way is actually with MFP. This is to add up calories from exersize that day, add this amount to my base calories determined for a person who lives a sedentary life, and end up with one calorie count that I need to consume in food. So this means 2090 base calories, added to 145 calories burned for the day from exersize, to end up with a target of 2135. Another way is to add up resting calories, which is BMR, and add the all calories from walking that day, including calories burned from exersizing. So this is 1666 for resting calories so far today, adding this to 207 calories, yields a figure of at least 1873. Lastley, adding all calories from walking to the base calories. So this is 207 active calories added to 2090 to yield 2297. So there is 2135, 1837, and 2297. Which one is correct?

I like the way that MFP does this since my base calories of 2090 should include the usual activity for a sedentary life style, which should be not that much including walking. In this situation, normal daily activity can include much more than from walking during normal daily activity. Also you and I have determined using the base calories in this way works. Now if I am more active, and skewing the results, I can recalculate base calories accordingly by selecting this as an increased activity with MFP.

The second way is the addition of rest calories with calories from steps taken during the day, which includes those from exersize. This looks to be the most accurate at first glance. I do not think this works. Calories burned in this way does not include other calories which are not from walking. The base calories should take this into avvount.

Using all calories from steps taken in exersize together with normal daily activity, adding this to the base calories, provides another value. This makes sense if a good part of the calories burned come from normal daily activity is not entirely reflected by the base calories. For instance, a warehouse worker would be walking on the job allot. However, selecting a higher activity level for the calculation of base calories should take care of this. But maybe not.

What do you think? This seems confusing, doesn’t it?

[UpDownAround]

Not BMR + exercise; that's too low. Probably the third mfp way. The only problem I see is that even sedentary has some expectation of walking so a few calories could get double counted. Most people in maintenance on mfp (or at least the ones discussing it) tweak the calories by hand instead of relying on mfp's calculation. They start with that third way and monitor weight and adjust the base up or down to compensate for losses or gains.

[Tucson]

Originally Posted by UpDownAround

Not BMR + exercise; that's too low. Probably the third mfp way. The only problem I see is that even sedentary has some expectation of walking so a few calories could get double counted. Most people in maintenance on mfp (or at least the ones discussing it) tweak the calories by hand instead of relying on mfp's calculation. They start with that third way and monitor weight and adjust the base up or down to compensate for losses or gains.

I see. That would be the more practical way in accounting for calories burned through the day. I will at the same time see if those extra calories added up from walking during the day aside from exersize has any relevance, and if so, to what degree. I think this can be used as a qualitative, not quantitative, measure of how active I was on a particular day. Time will tell.

PS I have made a trail mix of 1/3 sliced almonds, 1/3 of M&M-like chocolate candy, and raisins. I think I added too much raisins. But there is allot of calories there eating this mix.

[Tucson]

I walked 3705 steps which includes 1.25 miles of walking exersize for about 146 calories burned. I only exersized twice for brief periods of time. I walk around my townhome complex a few times, and walked to the Circle K which is next door to me. So this makes for a 2235 target. I went over by about one hundred calories. I did find out that the trail mix that I made contains allot of calories. But it tastes good.

[Tucson]

I weigh 176. For exersize, I have walked 4.45 miles with 467 calories burned. My average heart rate was 139 with a maximum rate of 159. So I ended up with a good workout, but not as good as last time. I think this was due to being still tired from the previously done exersize. My speed averaged 3.7 mph, which is not too bad at all. So this makes for a target of 2557 calories.

[UpDownAround]

OK. I have all kinds of confusing numbers. My watch/app says 17774 steps, 7.84 miles for 819 calories in 167 minutes. About 6000 of that I did earlier in the day. Late afternoon, I did a walk using Map My Walk. I decided to see what it would do linked to mfp. That walk was 10989 steps, 6.03 miles for 791 calories in 83 minutes. But in the entry it made to mfp, it was 383 calories.

I believe MMW got the steps and mileage right, so the steps to miles on the watch is off. It got 2.84 additional miles for almost 7000 steps, which doesn't make sense when 6 miles is almost 11000 steps. OTOH, I was taking bigger strides during the mapped walk. I was cruising during that walk; I averaged 4.3 mph for 83 minutes to go 6 miles. The big mystery is what happened to the 408 calories - the difference between what MMW reported and what it posted to mfp. I think the 791 is a fantasy number, but I am still curious why it didn't post.

I posted 45 minutes of 3 mph for 178 calories for the other (almost 7000) steps. That made my total exercise calories on mfp 561, which is believable.

I have about 160 calories left to eat. I will post that up later. I weigh in the morning; if I wake up a little on the early side, I may do a fasted walk before I weigh and shower. Tomorrow afternoon, I am paddling on a river. I will likely burn some serious calories.

[UpDownAround]

2256 calories! Seems like way too much, but I guess we'll see...