The Roots of the Equation

So my Fit Meter not only counts the steps I take, it also tells me how many calories I’ve burned based on what it measures as the intensity of those steps (whether I’m running, just walking around, going up hills/stairs, etc). This seems like it would be useful, especially because Wii Fit gives me a certain goal to meet every day. But where it gets tricky is if I want to also combine it with My Fitness Pal for tracking my eating as well. MFP makes certain assumptions about how many calories you burn in a day when they give you the goal of how much you can eat. But if I am using those assumptions, then I can’t use the calories on my Fit Meter as an accurate guide.

I’ve determined that the Fit Meter’s calculated calories only come from activity above sitting quietly, which has a Metabolic Equivalent of 1. So, using METs, I can figure out how many calories I should eat if I only sat quietly all day, or slept. (Sleeping has an MET of 0.9). If I sleep for 8 hours a day (I don’t, but better to overestimate that), and sat for the other 16, given my weight of about 100 kg I would burn 16*1*100 + 8*0.9*100 = 2320 calories per day.

So now I can accurately combine the two – if I tell Wii Fit I want to lose 1.5 pounds a week, it will tell me I need to burn 854 calories per day on my Fit Meter. So then I can finagle My Fitness Pal to let me eat 2320 calories per day, so that they align correctly – if I eat 2320 but burn an additional 854, I’m still losing. That way, if I wind up eating more, I know how much more I have to exercise to compensate.