Tracking non-exercise exercise

__Roxy__

I have spent many years using FitDay, and recently switched to MFP.

I stand and walk a lot at my job, but it's inconsistent so I didn't want to put my settings profile as lightly active - I prefer to put sedentary and then count any movement.

In FitDay, I could do this because there were exercise entries under "occupation" where you could select office walking, teaching, standing work, etc.

Is this not an option with MFP? Do I have to change my settings to Lightly Active, and increase my everyday calorie base? I would prefer to just add the hours I work each day because some days it is one hour, some days it is six - and some days I sit at work and some days I walk a lot.

ALSO - According to MFP, I should be eating 1350 calories per day (to lose 2lbs per week). With the exact same information (height, weight, age, activity level, etc), FitDay says I should eat 1650. That's a pretty significant difference - does anyone know why it would be so different, using the same data?

Thanks for any advice or tips.

malibu927

The best thing to do, if you can afford it, would be to purchase an activity tracker (i.e. Fitbit, Jawbone) to pick up how many steps you take and send that information to MFP. There have been days where I get out of work with about 5000 steps, and days when I leave with 13,000+.

It sounds like FitDay follows the TDEE method, which accounts for exercise, whereas MFP does not and you have to log those calories burned. It's all estimations anyway.

veganbaum

I would assume, without more information, that you do some form of exercise? As the PP said, that would account for the difference in calories between MFP and the other one. MFP won't count exercise until you actually enter it.

MFP is designed for your activity level to include your job, but not exercise. So, yeah, you'll have to make the decision as to whether you want to use sedentary or lightly active. But, sedentary is really only meant for sedentary - basically, you're sitting at a desk all day. You can always adjust as you go, based on results. A decent time frame before adjusting is probably about a 6-8 week period.

futuremanda

Fitday usually set my maintenance number at about 200 cals higher, and it worked really well for me. There are different formulas out there to calculate things.

You can try setting your goal to something less aggressive and see what you do lose. Maybe you'd be fine with more calories, especially if some days, your activity is higher than MFP is showing (without a fitbit or something to help out).

Personally, I'd set it to sedentary, and count the extra slightly more active days as an unknown bonus, and not sweat the odd day of eating 100 cals over target or something. Or get the fitbit or other tracker (I liked mine, but turns out I was allergic to it).

And btw, sedentary isn't as little movement as you'd think, at least on MFP. I can't remember the window of steps, but it's not hard for a truly sedentary person to actually be under those steps.

__Roxy__

Thanks everyone. Yes I do get exercise several times per week, and of course log that. I think getting a FitBit is a great idea. It would certainly help keep things a little closer to accurate (I understand they can never be precise, however).

I did notice that my cals are quite low with MFP (1350, and I'm 5'7 240 lbs - instead of the 1650 from F.D), so it's definitely incentive to move more (so I can eat more! haha)

I am happy with the site so far and once I can sort out how to account for my higher-movement work days, that will be better.

tekkiechikk

I have sort of the same situation... mostly sedentary, but there are days when I'm on my feet, lifting equipment, etc. I just don't count those activities as exercise.

If you find yourself losing too quickly (more than 2 lbs a week) that would be an indicator to perhaps up your activity level.