Originally Posted by
burnthesheep
Everyone has to start somewhere. And 30min might be it. But, the 30min should in some way provide a path towards "progress". If today you walked a mile, then in a few months move it up to 1.5mi. Then move it up to a 2mi trot. Then eventually move it up to a 30min jog. No tracker required. Own a phone or watch? Time it. Areas have signs and trees and landmarks. Use those if not using GPS...
Also, fwiw, I don't use estimated calorie burns. I log KJ, which is the physical measurement of work. It's not a guess, it just is what it is.
I'm not bothering with the rest of the diatribe, but this is where you shade right into the nonsense zone.
People can have very different goals from that--they might just be trying to maintain, for example. You have to know a lot more about the individual and their resources/needs before you could make such a statement. You also don't know what else they might be doing with their calorie intake, or doing simple things like taking the stairs instead of the elevator. I avoid telling people what they "should" be doing (and my results have been good enough that I get asked a lot) even when I know their particulars, and keep it to "these things have worked for me" or "I know somebody this has worked for", and then they can decide if they want to try it.
Your energy output can be measured, the number of calories burned to produce that output is always an estimate except in laboratory conditions that would be utterly impractical on a regular basis.