Discrepancy between upping activity level and logging activity?

Faithful_Chosen

Hello everyone,

I'm still fairly new to MFP and I have question--perhaps a slightly odd one? I basically live a sedentary lifestyle according to MFP, as I have a desk job, but because I go out of my way to work standing or behind a bike desk and I take the bike over the car whenever I can, I end up probably closer to 'active'. As such, I have a goal about 300 calories above the 1200 sedentary goal MFP gives me. I say 'about' because the goal is actually 1490 and I have trouble dealing with that as I am just a tiny bit on the autism spectrum and I have a huge thing about round numbers (you should see me weighing my food and adding and taking away little chunks to round out the number). I have a good grip on this litte quirk, but to avoid frustrating myself with those extra 90 calories, I have set my activity level to sedentary so I can look at that beautifully round 1200 number and get excited to reach that goal every day. To make up for the missed activity, I log the hours I stand for work and (after using an online calculator to take out the calories I would have burned just sitting) and log those 'spare' calories as exersize. I do the same for times I take the bike over the car, etc. I don't count time spend doing dishes, cooking, doing laundry, etc. as those are chores I would have done had I been sedentary, too. Then I try to eat to at least the 1200 + 'sedentary calories' goal.

In short: I add calories burned by being more active during sedentary activities to my exersizes to make up for the deficit on my goal as I can't stand seeing that damn '90'. The calorie burn is usually pretty close to that ~300 (see what I did there? Can't help it :P) so I figure it's fair. It's also more motivating for me, but that is besides the point of the question. My question is: although it might be an unorthodox way to do things, am I messing anything up in my MFP calculations doing it this way?

Thank you very much in avance!

yarwell

1490 is a round number, it isn't 1489.5678 ;-)

I got lost in your explanation to be honest. For what it's worth :-

a) You can use custom goals to dial in any goal you want
b) you can manually enter any number of calories with exercise (including zero I think)
c) MFP's 1200 minimum is badly implemented and erodes your deficit a little when logging exercise

PAV8888

What you're doing should mostly work unless you over/under-estimate.

Sued0nim

You make it work for yourself - you can manually adjust your target goal to 1500 if you prefer

But really - burning calories by standing rather than sitting wouldn't be something I'd log

Cycling maybe - and then take 50% of what most calculators give you

Sued0nim

Your other option of course it to get an activity monitor like a fitbit which will automatically adjust your calories, but based on what you said I don't think that would suit you

Faithful_Chosen

yarwell wrote: »

1490 is a round number, it isn't 1489.5678 ;-)

I got lost in your explanation to be honest. For what it's worth :-

a) You can use custom goals to dial in any goal you want
b) you can manually enter any number of calories with exercise (including zero I think)
c) MFP's 1200 minimum is badly implemented and erodes your deficit a little when logging exercise

Intellectually, I know 1490 is a round number. I know that. But in my mind it looks exactly like 1489.5678 and it gives me anxiety. I know that is not a reaction most people have, hence the disclaimer. I'm sorry my explanation was unclear to you but you gave me very helpful advice! I didn't know you could put a number in manually so thank you very much! It's highly appreciated knowledge and very soothing. I will mark your comments about the 1200 deficit. Once more, thank you!

PAV8888 wrote: »

What you're doing should mostly work unless you over/under-estimate.

I try not to. Thanks!

rabbitjb wrote: »

You make it work for yourself - you can manually adjust your target goal to 1500 if you prefer

But really - burning calories by standing rather than sitting wouldn't be something I'd log

Cycling maybe - and then take 50% of what most calculators give you

I just discovered that you can add a calorie goal manually! Made my entire day! Thank you for telling me, too. I know most people wouldn't log standing over sitting, but with my measurements, it's about 26 calories an hour burn that I'd 'miss out on' if I wouldn't log it over my 1200. It doesn't matter for an hour or so, but I typically stand anywhere from five to nine hours (130 - 234 calories burn over the calories I would have burned while sitting) where I could have been sitting down--and for those numbers, I feel it makes sense as that is pretty much exactly the added calories I get from MFP when I also add biking. I might be crazy, though.

rabbitjb wrote: »

Your other option of course it to get an activity monitor like a fitbit which will automatically adjust your calories, but based on what you said I don't think that would suit you

Hahahaha! No! You are right! I tried that and it made me very unhappy. This works much better for my poor brain ;-) Thank you very much for the suggestion, though!

SezxyStef

rabbitjb wrote: »

You make it work for yourself - you can manually adjust your target goal to 1500 if you prefer

But really - burning calories by standing rather than sitting wouldn't be something I'd log

Cycling maybe - and then take 50% of what most calculators give you

This...MFP set mine at 1460...I upped it to 1500...easy peasy