What do you think my TDEE is?

Losingthedamnweight

Just wanted some opinions. I've been considering myself sedentary calorie wise but this is my daily routine:

I work as a Cna doing my usual fun 12 hour nights shifts. There's a lot of walking around, cleaning, lifting people (and do I include being smacked around by old people? Does that burn calories?) I try to get my 10,000 steps a day every single day. Even on days off. I don't go to the gym or anything yet. Just doing my job and my steps.

What do you think I should set my activity level at?

lcooper327

TDEE is not the same as activity level. On here, your activity is probably lightly active

segacs

Yeah, your job sounds like somewhere between "lightly active" and "active". You can try one or the other and see how it goes for you and adjust after a few weeks if necessary. Start with "lightly active" since it's the more conservative option, and if you're losing weight too fast after the first month or two, you can experiment with increasing it to "active".

MyFitnessPal uses the NEAT method (Non-exercise activity thermogenesis) which is a fancy acronym for the amount of energy you burn during your normal daily life excluding exercise. So your job would count, your errands and usual walking around, all that stuff. MFP will give you a calorie goal based on your weight loss goals and your normal daily activity.

If you do go to the gym or work out in addition to the above, you'd log that separately and "eat back" some or all of those exercise calories, on top of your base goal.

jemhh

How would that be considered sedentary? I am curious as to your reasoning behind that. You are at least lightly active. Like segacs wrote, I would even lean toward part way between lightly active and active.

segacs

Sedentary would be someone who has a desk job, drives to and from work and parks right nearby, doesn't walk around much, and spends most of the day sitting down.

I think that many of us with desk jobs are actually lightly active, once we crunch the numbers. For instance, even despite my desk job, I get to numbers that roughly approximate 'lightly active' just via my daily commute to and from public transit, my social activities, and the walking I do in my normal life by living in a walk-friendly neighbourhood. Once I resume cycling to commute, I might end up closer to "active".

Ninkyou

You are 1000% not sedentary. I agree, you're between lightly and active. Start with light and reevaluate in a couple months.

jemhh

segacs wrote: »

Sedentary would be someone who has a desk job, drives to and from work and parks right nearby, doesn't walk around much, and spends most of the day sitting down.

I think that many of us with desk jobs are actually lightly active, once we crunch the numbers. For instance, even despite my desk job, I get to numbers that roughly approximate 'lightly active' just via my daily commute to and from public transit, my social activities, and the walking I do in my normal life by living in a walk-friendly neighbourhood. Once I resume cycling to commute, I might end up closer to "active".

Yep. I maintain at 2450ish. I would have to set myself as lightly active in order to get the equivalent calorie goal with MFP. I'm an 8-5er with a sit down office job.

SezxyStef

jemhh wrote: »

segacs wrote: »

Sedentary would be someone who has a desk job, drives to and from work and parks right nearby, doesn't walk around much, and spends most of the day sitting down.

I think that many of us with desk jobs are actually lightly active, once we crunch the numbers. For instance, even despite my desk job, I get to numbers that roughly approximate 'lightly active' just via my daily commute to and from public transit, my social activities, and the walking I do in my normal life by living in a walk-friendly neighbourhood. Once I resume cycling to commute, I might end up closer to "active".

Yep. I maintain at 2450ish. I would have to set myself as lightly active in order to get the equivalent calorie goal with MFP. I'm an 8-5er with a sit down office job.

ditto here I have a desk job and average 10k steps without exercise....I set my activity level to lightly active and in the winter maintain on 2k and in the summer maintain on about 2300-2500 depending on my cardio.

Only other exercise is lifting.

Cortelli

Hi OP. I'm confused because it seems like you've been on MFP for some time (and I think you've mentioned in the past trying to track closely), but still come back to the forums every now and again to solicit generic answers like this. The best way you can determine your TDEE is to track your intake very carefully for 4 - 6 weeks while living your normal life and correlate that to weight lost or gained. Are you tracking food and bodyweight?

Losingthedamnweight

I have been here awhile. I just brought up this post because I was talking to somebody today about my daily budget and they said "whoa that's way too low! You need more than that!" Basically saying I'm starving myself. So I just wanted to see what you guys thought about it and how much I should be taking in.

And yes. I've been tracking food and weight and have been losing just fine! It was only that comment from someone that really...got on my nerves lol basically acting like I'm anorexic for eating 1500

Liftng4Lis

Lightly active for activity level, but your TDEE itself would include exercise that is not considered in that.