Where do I lie between Sedentary and light exercise?

ultrahoon

Hi there,

I've just started with MFP less than a week ago. I've improved my eating and exercise habits a fair bit because of it. I started reading these forums today for more info, and now I am unsure if I set my activity level right at the start.

I work a desk job, and when I get home I generally spend most of my time at the computer. So I thought no problem, that's sedentary. But then I saw other posts about how if you walk to work and do your weekly supermarket trip, then you aren't really sedentary.

I used to walk for about 45 minutes each day on Monday to Friday getting to and from work, and then 45 mins for the supermarket on either Saturday or Sunday. Since starting up with MFC that changed to being an hour of walking per day, topping up my work/supermarket walking with whatever needed to hit 60 mins per day (tracked with smartphone app).

So what should I mark my activity level down as? This appears to be one of the easiest things to get wrong.

Thanks for any help.

NoIdea101NoIdea

You sound EXACTLY in the same predicament I was in (well, up until I moved house a couple of weeks ago and am now closer to work). But I have a desk job, not that active in the evenings, takes me 45 minutes to walk to work and then 45 minutes back again. I had no idea what to put down as my activity level.

I ended up putting it as sedentary; I figured that because I have done the same route for about a year, my body was probably used to it and so it didn't really count as 'exercise'.

Plus, I figured it would be better to be underestimating my physical activity rather than overestimating.

Plus, looking at it this way helped motivate me to do 'actual' exercise; I took up a martial art, weight lifting, little bit of running....

So myself, personally, would put it at sedentary to be on the safe side, see how that goes. If after a couple of weeks you think you are loosing too much too soon, or find that the calorie allowance isn't enough to keep you full, then it may be best to bump it up to lightly active. I'm going to repeat, this is me personally-there is no science behind what I've said, and I'm not telling you I am right, I'm just telling you how I did it

tanyamclattenburg

I was in the same boat. I have a desk job but I walk around the building all day (some days more than others), I walk about 10 mins between buses in the morning but not in the afternoon. I set my exercise level to sedentary as well. Like Noldea above me said, better have it too low than too high and end up getting frustrated and quit all together. I would rather see too much weight loss than none or a gain.

opalle

I work a desk job too. I put down sedentary and log all my activity (which would include all walking). I think people get stuck on thinking putting sedentary down is negative. All it does is calculated your daily calorie needs as someone who doesn't get much or any activity. You can still log in your activity which gives you more calories in your allowance.

For me, it's more important that I'm not overestimating my activity or eating more than I should and putting sedentary seems to work for me.

cwolfman13

just pick one and go with it...people get all hung up on these calculators and they treat the numbers as gospel. in reality, it's just a reasonably good estimate to get you started with...people seem to forget that real world results are what actually matters and that they should be making adjustments per those results...i.e. if you set light active and aren't losing then drop it down to sedentary...or simply customize your calories as per the math and your results.

basically get started...if you're losing too slowly then adjust calories down...if you're losing too fast, adjust them up.

ultrahoon

Excellent, thanks for your advice so far ladies and gents. I will weigh myself at the one and two week marks, and see if I am losing too fast etc. Generally speaking I've been using a cautious interpretation of things, sounds like I haven't made a bumbling error (yet!)

Sued0nim

Wolfman for the win

RenaTX

cwolfman13 wrote: »

just pick one and go with it...people get all hung up on these calculators and they treat the numbers as gospel. in reality, it's just a reasonably good estimate to get you started with...people seem to forget that real world results are what actually matters and that they should be making adjustments per those results...i.e. if you set light active and aren't losing then drop it down to sedentary...or simply customize your calories as per the math and your results.

basically get started...if you're losing too slowly then adjust calories down...if you're losing too fast, adjust them up.

I wish I could "Like" posts Thank You!

Mr_Knight

This is one of those "if you have to ask..." type questions.

If you have to ask, choose the lower activity level.