Lightly active or sedentary?

Jubee13

i am a teacher, and during the school year, I am definitely lightly active. However, in the summer, I am not nearly as active. I don't sit on the couch all day, but I'm not walking around nearly as much. I am wondering if I should change my settings to sedentary. What exactly is the difference between lightly active and sedentary? I exercise six days a week and add those calories in, although I try to underestimate my calorie burn and I usually don't eat them all back.

callsitlikeiseeit

i have mysef set as sedentary, but im probably lightly active at LEAST. i figure it gives me at least a little buffer for food and exercise errors

cwolfman13

sedentary pretty much means you're just sitting around most of the time. i have a desk job and spend 2 hours per day in a car commuting...and even with a desk job I never set my activity level to sedentary...I also have a 2 y.o. and a 5 y.o. and when I get home, I'm pretty much on my feet chasing them around, cooking, cleaning something up, fixing this or that, doing something in the yard, etc.

In my experience, most people aren't truly sedentary.

corryigo

Sedentary is really that, very little exercise and few steps I forget the exact# but it it like Under 4000 steps. I have a desk job but still would count myself as lightly active due to I still get well over 5000 steps on a lazy day.

JMC3Terp

I would do sedentary. Lightly active gives me 300 more calories to eat, but IMO if you are not on your feet moving for the majority of the day, you should be sedentary. then switch it back once school starts back up.

PAV8888

Sedentary... Less than 35 minutes of movement throughout the day / 3500 steps.

What I was yesterday till I went out for a 9+k walk at 10:30pm.

Got up, stumbled to the bathroom and kitchen. Sat at the computer. Went to the kitchen. Sat at the computer. Walked down to the car. Drove to a potential client's via McDonald's. Drove back and sat at the computer.

Had a total of less than 4000 steps by 10:30pm.

By the time you hit 5000 steps and/or 40+ minutes of moving around you're lightly active.

Many fitbit users start seeing positive adjustments when they exceed 3500 steps.

Comparatively, to ensure a lack of negative adjustment from the top activity setting at MFP i aim for 15+k steps.

Distribution and intensity of the steps throughout the day play a role too in that case, so it ranges from as low as 12k.

You are lightly active or more...

MamaBirdBoss

I have to get right at 10k steps in a day to escape sedentary. I think it honestly depends a lot on weight.

dargytaylor

I also have a desk job, and recently changed myself to lightly active ~ still loosing at the same rate and can eat a bit more!! I am up and down at work, walk around during lunch, cook, clean, etc when I get home ~ so lightly active it is! What I did before was log cooking, cleaning, etc and this elimates that (hence the reason I am still loosing at the same rate, lol)

betsytooley05

This interests me too.. I'm a retail manager for a large store and walk between 6-8 miles each day, five days a week but that's over the course of 9 hours. Other than general life this is the only exercise I get. Am I lightly active?

daniwilford

I changed mine to lightly active but I didn't get any more base calories, as I am short and not as heavy as I used to be.

Unknown

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Liftng4Lis

Start with sedentary, try it for a month and adjust from there.

Kimegatron

My 7 day average for steps is 5,225, as of today. Would that put me as "lightly active?" I have a desk job, but our desks raise to standing level. On good days, I will stand for close to an hour.