No one probably doubts what you’ve burned on a specific day, but from a diet perspective, the average expenditure on a weekly and monthly level is more significant.
Of course, that doesn’t change the fact that individual differences exist regardless, and everyday activity still has a huge impact. A friend of mine who trains goal-orientedly at the gym can eat 4000 kcal/day and stay really lean while weighing under 75kg. My own maintenance expenditure is ~3000 kcal despite being 10kg heavier. We are both about 180cm. What sets us apart is that he gets 20,000 steps every day on the farm on top of his workouts, while my own average hovers around 5,000. I should ask him sometime what reading his smartwatch suggests for his daily expenditure; I bet it’s a significantly higher figure than 4000 kcal.
Then there’s metabolic adaptivity; the body doesn’t have a precise threshold where you specifically gain or lose weight. Instead, by increasing calories, for example, the body also increases expenditure accordingly within a certain window. This is also an individual trait, both upwards and downwards.
A heart rate monitor is accurate for estimating heart rate and heart rate variability. Not calorie consumption.
Calorie consumption during a workout can be estimated quite accurately using a MET table Metabolic Equivalent, where you first estimate subjective exertion and the time spent on the exertion, and then multiply this by your weight in kilograms (this is how it’s done in practice, fine-tuning aside).
So, if a person weighing 100 kg estimates 1 hour and a run falls at point 8 in the MET table, the calorie consumption is approx. 800 kcal (100*1*8).
When estimating the MET value, you can utilize the RPE/Borg scale to assess exertion.
Resting metabolic rate can be estimated alongside it using, for example, the Mifflin-St. Jeor equation Resting consumption
A monthly average would probably give a more realistic picture of your expenditure. If you’re hitting 20k steps every day, that’s a massive amount!
Edit. Luckily I don’t move that much . It’s quite a struggle as it is to maintain my weight with one workout a day. Adding that many steps on top of it, I’d look like a scenthound.
I just have to comment on that. I’m in a similar situation where I don’t really seem to find the time for jogging/exercising, but here, for example, is last month’s summary from the Polar service; it probably includes 4 short walks. Yet there’s always pressure to exercise more, as if incidental exercise is nothing….
Just over 10 years ago, when I was driving an articulated vehicle in food distribution for a living, my step count for a standard workday was around 30,000–40,000, and for more than half of that, I was hauling a pallet jack and a heavy pallet behind me. Still, even that wasn’t enough for the doctor – because drivers don’t do anything but sit behind the wheel
Those are some wild step counts. I just finished a 12 km loop myself, walking at what I consider a relatively brisk pace of 10 min/km. I ended up with 22,000 steps for that day. It was a pretty normal day at work with a fair amount of sitting. Back when I was doing manual labor on a factory floor for 10 hours a day, my step count could reach around 30,000.
Wow, those are some step counts! My peak months are usually in the summer during vacation. They consist of jogging, dog walks, etc. Peak months are around 17k per day on average. Tracking is done on my phone, though, which records fewer steps than wrist-worn devices. Last year’s average was 13,821.
Jatkakaa hyvää duunia!
Running is different these days compared to before. As a high schooler playing soccer, I weighed 67 kg; while jogging during my military service, it was 72 kg; and after a gap decade, I’m now weighing in at around 95 kg.
However, I accepted a challenge from my friends and started aiming for a trail running event. Yesterday was the first test with a half marathon: the run itself took 2 h 10 min 44 sec. Since the goal was to run 6:30 per kilometer, the target was well achieved. The last kilometer was 5:32, including the toughest climb of the route.
It was also the 15th run of the running season, which started in mid-March.
An active lifestyle has likely made reasonably long runs possible right from the start, as stroller walks with the kid accumulate 15,000–20,000 steps daily, plus my own exercise on top. Daily figures on rest days are around 18,000–24,000, and on training days, 23,000–35,000 steps.
On Monday, I also started longer bike rides with a 50 km start, aiming to add 10 km per week until I’m cycling 100 km every Monday.
(Steps measured with a Polar watch, which also converts cycling into steps using some calculation.)
Training has been going quite well lately, and I’ve been following the Inderes forums less frequently, as my thoughts (in addition to work) have been so heavily focused on exercise. Although work has taken up a significant amount of time from training, the sessions I’ve managed to do have felt good. I’ve now adopted an attitude where the training done during the week is the most important, and everything on top of that is just a bonus, but weekends have then provided opportunities for harder training.
To add some concreteness to this message, I can mention the following recent “achievements”:
5 km new personal best (22:26): this came after a bike ride and it wasn’t even the intention to run fast at first, but my legs just took off and I decided to push harder since I felt so good.
New longest bike ride (76 km): the great weekend weather inspired me to go for a longer ride. For the future, I need to train my core and back more, as my lower back started to ache a bit towards the end.
Next, alongside running, cycling, swimming, and very occasional gym sessions, I’ll be adding orienteering to the mix, in hopes of surviving the Jukola relay a bit better than last year. I did try to go orienteering at some fixed control points once already, but I couldn’t find a single one. Around the third control, it dawned on me that perhaps I’m not actually that bad at orienteering, but the markers had simply been collected away.
My rhythm gets thrown off if I’m busy with work or other things in general. I would have the time, but my focus suffers and workouts get skipped. At the same time, my diet takes a hit. It’s the same thing if some part of my body is sore; I could still train, but for some reason, I just don’t end up going.
I have to tighten the screw now if I want to get in shape before summer. Get the routines back. Strangely enough, even though I’ve been in a deficit and my workouts have been hit-or-miss, my strength levels have increased. I don’t understand how that’s been possible, but I bet the body has stayed fresh due to low volume and the fact that I haven’t taken a single set to failure. For the most part, the sets have been long. There’s been some pain, for example in my forearms, and I haven’t been able to train biceps (the most important muscle). One thing is for sure: I don’t want to go back to 112 kilos.
The Salitreeni YouTube channel is, in my opinion, a really good fitness-themed channel; it offers straightforward, professional, and useful content especially for strength trainers.
This time, the topic was base conditioning training at the gym.
Do you want higher lifting totals and a stronger foundation for gym training? This video covers base conditioning training, which can help increase strength and improve performance at the gym.
The video explores base conditioning in gym training, its key benefits, and why a strong base helps both beginners and more experienced lifters achieve better results. We also go through what kind of gym program supports strength development, muscular endurance, and safe training.
This video is suitable for both beginners and more experienced gym-goers who want to build a strong foundation for strength training and develop their performance long-term.
In early April, I finally decided to take charge of my fitness. My weight loss project, which has lasted over two years, had certainly progressed (about 10kg dropped), but for the last six months, my weight had pretty much plateaued.
I’ve been hitting the gym 2-3 times a week and going on occasional runs, but as a remote worker, daily incidental activity easily tends to remain far too low.
I started going for a morning walk/run every day. I go for about half an hour, 4-5km, before eating breakfast. I got used to it quickly; now after a month, the morning outing already feels like a natural part of my routine!
Additionally, I decided to try out an app called Foodvisor to log my eating. I don’t exactly count every single calorie, but by using kitchen scales and the app’s AI features, I’ve been logging my meals daily to ensure I stay in a calorie deficit.
I can say it seems to be working! My weight has now dropped over a kilo in a month.
In Thundertep’s new video, Janette’s amazing performances are particularly admired.
In the new video, we cover Janette Ylisoini’s success in the European Championships and the Junior World Championships. Jarkko Perttula, also known from the channel, has competed in his first competitions under the WPC federation. Mitchell Hooper was crowned the World’s Strongest Man once again.
. It’s quite a struggle as it is to maintain my weight with one workout a day. Adding that many steps on top of it, I’d look like a scenthound.
My average is ~16,000 a day on a monthly level.
