Activity levels

fatjon73

Hello all

Been thinking this last week or so about my activity level and how you all think it should be set, I have my goals set to lose 1lb a week and I have my activity level as light active (I aired on the side of caution with my job activity)
Last week I set my wife up with an account too, now we are very different sizes, but we came out with the same daily goal to eat and it has set me thinking...

I am 5'10 17st12lbs and 42 yrs old, light active
My wife is 5'4 8st4lbs and 40, active

I am to lose 1 a week she is to maintain weight and we both get 1890 calories a day

My thought is would it be best to set my level at sedentary and then work out how many calories I use each day at work (using a pedometer or HRM maybe) and then log all that info, I have set mine at light active as I do a manual job on my feet all night for 9 hrs (but sometimes I do office work) so I set my level low thinking that would be better for me.
Doing this to me will mean that I am more accurate especially on my days off when I sometimes do nothing all day.

Is this a good idea or am I trying to be too accurate at this point in my journey???

Many thanks

Jon

segacs

Okay, two things:

1. It's probably just a coincidence that you and your wife got similar calorie levels. She's smaller than you so naturally, she's going to maintain on fewer calories than you. Even though she's active, at her height and weight, it's entirely possible that ~1900 calories is her maintenance range.

2. Anything you do -- MFP's activity level estimates, a pedometer or HRM -- is going to be based on an estimate. A pedometer will measure steps, and an HRM can measure burns during steady-state cardio. Neither of them can actually track how many calories you burn, any more than MFP can. It's a guess in all cases.

3. The general answer to this is: Try it. Do it for a couple of months. If you're losing weight at 1lb/week on average, great. If you're losing too fast (other than an initial water weight drop, which is common for newbies), then increase the activity level and eat more calories. If you're losing too slow, decrease the activity level and/or eat fewer calories.

4. Whatever you do, if you work out, you should log your workouts separately and eat back some or all of those workout calories. MFP's activity level will take your normal daily activity from your job into account, but it won't account for your workouts.

Good luck and welcome!

fatjon73

Many thanks for your reply....this is my second time using MFP now, I started on here about 3 yrs ago and I did lose 4 st then, so I am now back trying to lose some more another 2 or 3 would be nice, I am taking to much more seriously this time too, I am logging everything this time properly so I am getting a better view of what I eat but my wife's count really made me think am I doing it right...

I'm thinking that if I use a pedometer then I would work out how many steps I take for a mile (will count on a treadmill), then I would equate that to how many steps I do at work in a night a 2mph and use that as a base, 2mph is slow so I would be logging less than actual I hope so I should still see gains. I just wonder if anyone else does this or if they take there work into account in there activity level and do not log anything other than exercise. (which is how I have done it in the past, although I got good results, and I have kept it off too in the last 2 yrs, I did find my weight went up down like a yoyo so it was hard to make sense of how my food affected my weight)

I do analyse things far too much when I get into it but that's good for me as it will make me stick at it...

segacs

Most people either take their work into account in their activity level, or else they buy a pedometer that links with MFP and automatically imports steps and converts them to activity (e.g. fitbit). Either way is fine, it comes down to personal preference. I'd think that trying to log your normal daily activity manually would be somewhat tedious and probably not worth the effort, especially since it's not necessarily gonna be any more accurate than MFP's method.