Unusual form of exercise

[KarenPianogirl]

Hi,I'm a 60 year old woman and got my fitbit at the urging of my daughter. For the most part, I've been averaging about 9000 steps a day. However, I've something odd and I'm not sure how to handle it. I've had some training as a classical pianist and have just noticed that when I practice, I am given steps and active minutes on my fitbit. I kind of feel like this is cheating and wonder if I should take my fitbit off when I practice or is my practicing really giving me enough activity to count as fitbit points? Just wondering how anyone else feels about this. Thanks

[USAF-Larry]

If it were me, and I wanted to track my steps & distance fairly accurately in order to know how my fitness routines are progressing, I would take the tracker off when doing repetitive wrist movement activities such as playing a piano.  I have a friend that is a fast order cook, and he told me he takes his off when working the grill because he found that he was getting over 1,000 steps for repetitive tasks like scrambling eggs or flipping hash browns and pancakes.

So, it all depends if you want to track actual steps, or if you just want to see how active you are in a day, whether you wear it while practicing the piano.

[GershonSurge]

I started with a Zip and now, I have a Surge, too. I have one account for each. If I want to enter a challenge or an activity group, I use the Zip account as I feel the steps are more accurate.

Lately, I've started focusing on calories burned instead of steps. Even though the steps are not valid while playing the piano, the calories are because they are based on heartrate. I'd leave my Surge on to capture the calories.

The Surge often misses steps, too. If I'm taking slow steps, like during housework, they are often missed. At the end of a week, the Zip and the Surge are within one or two percent of each other.

If I were in a competition, I'd take the Fitbit off. Otherwise, I'd leave it on all the time. What shows on my profile is for my use and close enough for others who look at it. 

Overall, the Surge seems to overcount calories. For my exercise profile, it takes about a 3,800 calorie deficit to lose a pound. The deficit has been gradually decreasing lately. The Zip undercounts calories, so it only takes about a 2,800 calorie deficit to lose a pound.

If you want, you can start a workout as you start playing and see how many calories you burn. My guess based on other "exercises" I do is you would burn about 3 calories/minute. My BMR is about 1.2 calories/minute. By way of comparison, wiping kitchen counters is about 5 calories/minute for me. Vacuuming and painting are about 4 calories/minute. Cutting the lawn is about 7 calories/min. Weeding the garden is about 4 calories/minute. Washing the car is about 4 calories/minute.