Choosing the right activity level

Sami_Kachai

Hello , this is my first time posting here , i've been using Myfitnesspal for about 10 months now , i lost about 20 kilos ( i was 81 in september , now i'm 58 ) , i'm a 22 years old male , 169 cm , and currently my goal on myfitnesspal is to maintain weight with the lowest activity level ( 1920 Kcal per day ) , well here is my problem , i can't decide what activity level i should choose , here is a list of my activity during the week :
-Monday : 4-7 min workout using the app sixpack promise , and 6-16 min using lumowell apps ( chest , legs and arms 6-16min each ) .
-tuesday :rest day
-Wednesday : 4-7 min workout using the app sixpack promise , and 6-16 min using lumowell apps ( chest , legs and arms 6-16min each ) .
-Thursday:only sixpack promise workout
-Friday:4-7 min workout using the app sixpack promise , and 6-16 min using lumowell apps ( chest , legs and arms 6-16min each ) .
-Saturday : rest day.
-Sunday : only sixpack promise workout.
Please keep in mind that i do 10,000 (on average ) steps everyday and i track them using Huawei Talkband B2 and it gives me approximately 300-320 calories burned .
another problem is that i can't add the exercices to myfitnesspal indivdually because for walking i don't really know the pace or the time ( i walk randomly throughout the day ) and i don't know the nature of the other exercices because each day they give me a variety of exercices so sometimes they are cardiovascular and sometimes they are strength .
PS: i'm currently a trainee in a company and i spend most of the day sitting on a desk and i try to walk as much as i can until i get home to finish my steps
i really need your help because i feel like i'm still losing weight and in the other hand i don't want to lose my abs , thank you for your help and sorry for my english .

psuLemon

Pick lightly active. Eat that same amount of calories (no workout calories) each day for 4 weeks. And then adjust towards your goal.

Sami_Kachai

Alright , i will try that , thank you for your quick replay , if you don't mind ,i just have one more question that's bothering me , let's say i logged some food into my diary ( respecting my macros ) and i ended up not eating a meal or 2 because i was too sleepy or i was extra busy , is it ok to integrate those meals tomorrow aside from my daily calories ? thank you for your time .

heybales

it'll make review and trying to figure things out more difficult if you leave what you didn't eat.

But before you delete what didn't happen - use the quick feature to copy the meal to the desired day, then delete it.

if you mean eat them the next day - sure. If willing to go low one day, be willing to go high another.

And so you understand the MFP activity levels - they are without exercise being accounted for - hence adding them when you actually do the workouts. Since you described all your workouts in detail, sounded like you thought that would be included.

You do more, you eat more.
You do less, you eat less.

Life lesson right there.

From those steps in daily activity - easily Lightly active, if not even higher.

And you wouldn't want to try to log them - no need, even if it was exercise walk.

As long as the distance is pretty close (your tracker may have stride length set for average daily pace - which is correct, not exercise pace - which would only be correct for that brief time, not rest the day) - the device will likely give really good estimate of calorie burn.
Formula's for walking calorie burn been around since earliest research which was always using treadmills or bikes.

Sami_Kachai

Thank you heybales for your reply ,so i should change the activity to lightly active even if i stop working out ? now that's a good thing to hear , let me make my second question a little more clear , because i didn't quite understand what you meant , let's say i have a limit of 96g of protein , 240g of carbs and 64g of fat daily , i always log my day before eating , that way i can be sure of what i'm doing , if i ate my carbs and fat ( leaving about 1 or 2 g for each ) and i eat about 10g of protein that day but i already logged a high protein meal that will provide 86 g of protein , and i didn't eat it , is it ok if i eat that same meal tomorrow ? i mean wouldn't my protein limit be reset if i sleep or if it takes too much time to eat those macros ? i'm sorry if i made my reply too long and sorry if it takes too much for me to understand , it's because i'm new to the system of calorie counting and the majority of people in my country neglect those things. thank you all again for your help , i really appreciate it .

rtogetfit93

@Sami_Kachai Just my opinion here!
Lightly active should be the level you choose, based on your job and steps taken daily. If you workout, that's a bonus, but the calculator for your TDEE should be what you expend every single day doing normal day-to-day activities. Your workouts aren't strenuous enough, combined with your sedentary job, to be at a higher activity level- if you feel you're losing too much too fast, you can eat back your exercise calories, but best to start at the lightly active level and adjust as you lose.

Yes, you can eat back the calories you don't eat one day the next- you just need to be at a deficit for the week as a whole, based on how much you want to lose each week (e.g. 3,500 deficit a week for a 1lb loss). Some people even have calorie/macro goals based on the week and then split into high/low days, or carb cycle, but as long as you're at a weekly deficit, try not to worry too much. You might be better off trying to eat the calories you have planned for the day if you're getting too anxious about eating them back other days, but it's entirely up to you.

Sami_Kachai

thank you !!