Active vs Very Active?!

klrobertson89

Hi!

I am a PE teacher, yoga teacher, and cross country coach. During the summer I am a lifeguard at the lakes in Seattle. My workouts vary from running, swimming, biking, yoga, lifting. I originally put down "active" for MFP, but I am starting to think it should be very active.

I love this app, especially since I can see which nutrients I'm lacking and if I've had enough balance in my daily diet and compare it to how I feel.

Thanks!!
K

lachivis

Yep! It's sounds like you should change that. You probably need more calories. You could always change it again depending on how active you are. Lucky you! I wish I could be that active!
Hope you reach your goals!

pmm3437

Personally, I don't try to gauge it at all. The classifications are subjective.

I start from Sed, and record any major activities ( workouts, etc ), where I have a chance to provide at least a semi-accurate estimate of calorie burns. This makes any error as far as general activity level guaranteed to work in my favor ( I've under estimated the baseline ).

In your situation, I would be more inclined to set my baseline to lightly active, to accommodate being on my feet most of the day, instead of desk bound. I am not sure I would set it any higher than that, unless I had a consistently, physically demanding job that had little variation in workload.

I would then record exercise for your instructor responsibilities based on actual participation level, and record your workouts normally like anyone else. This will give you the most accurate numbers to work with.

If your just looking to "ballpark it", I still probably wouldn't go for very active. Your PE teacher and coaching responsibilities probably don't rate higher than active, unless you are completing the program you are instructing alongside other participants. Record your Yoga instructor activity as a workout ( assuming full participation ), and your other workouts normally.

erickirb

If you set to very active I would suggest not logging workouts as "extra" calories burned.

gobonas99

pmm3437 wrote: »

Personally, I don't try to gauge it at all. The classifications are subjective.

I start from Sed, and record any major activities ( workouts, etc ), where I have a chance to provide at least a semi-accurate estimate of calorie burns. This makes any error as far as general activity level guaranteed to work in my favor ( I've under estimated the baseline ).

In your situation, I would be more inclined to set my baseline to lightly active, to accommodate being on my feet most of the day, instead of desk bound. I am not sure I would set it any higher than that, unless I had a consistently, physically demanding job that had little variation in workload.

I would then record exercise for your instructor responsibilities based on actual participation level, and record your workouts normally like anyone else. This will give you the most accurate numbers to work with.

If your just looking to "ballpark it", I still probably wouldn't go for very active. Your PE teacher and coaching responsibilities probably don't rate higher than active, unless you are completing the program you are instructing alongside other participants. Record your Yoga instructor activity as a workout ( assuming full participation ), and your other workouts normally.

Yep. All of that.

mikegettingfit

erickirb wrote: »

If you set to very active I would suggest not logging workouts as "extra" calories burned.

I agree with this... I do a lot of exercise every week in pursuit of my goals, but I log none of them in MFP. I use MFP as a nutrition tracker only so that I keep my caloric intake to X amount (whatever my goal is) and any exercise done on top of that is simply a bonus, as far as calorie deficits go.

erickirb

mikegettingfit wrote: »

erickirb wrote: »

If you set to very active I would suggest not logging workouts as "extra" calories burned.

I agree with this... I do a lot of exercise every week in pursuit of my goals, but I log none of them in MFP. I use MFP as a nutrition tracker only so that I keep my caloric intake to X amount (whatever my goal is) and any exercise done on top of that is simply a bonus, as far as calorie deficits go.

If you are set at sedenatry or light active you should be counting the exercise cals and eating them back, otherwise your deficit may be too large and you are not fueling your workouts.

MaSanWood

I use a heart rate monitor which gives me the idea how many calories I burnt on each work out, knowing I have to work out between 70% and 80% of maximum effort to lose weight. Then at the end of the day after tracking all my meals I add burnt calories.I log in work outs when I used the heart rate monitor but that is relevant too because I read before lifting weights and measure calories with it it could be missleading. I'm set as active.

mikegettingfit

erickirb wrote: »

If you are set at sedenatry or light active you should be counting the exercise cals and eating them back, otherwise your deficit may be too large and you are not fueling your workouts.

I totally understand that as I've been there. A couple months back I had to adjust my intake up by a significant amount because I wasn't eating enough for my daily output. I lost a lot of weight fast for a short period of time (65lbs in 9 weeks) and have since slowed way down into a healthier, more sustainable weight loss.

I know I'm dialed in now as I'm seeing significant changes in body composition more than overall weight loss.

Oh, and I believe I'm set at Active...

mkakids

MariaSWoodrup2015 wrote: »

I use a heart rate monitor which gives me the idea how many calories I burnt on each work out, knowing I have to work out between 70% and 80% of maximum effort to lose weight. Then at the end of the day after tracking all my meals I add burnt calories.I log in work outs when I used the heart rate monitor but that is relevant too because I read before lifting weights and measure calories with it it could be missleading. I'm set as active.

A HRM is only accurate (and never 100%) for steady state cardio. So lifting weights, or teaching with short bursts of activity followed by a couple minutes of inactive rest periods (or observation in the case of a teacher) will mess with the results potentially giving a VERY inaccurate result.

klrobertson89

Wow! Thank you everyone for such great replies!! I'll play around with the settings for a few months and see how it goes and how I feel.

CSARdiver

I realize that I'm preaching to the choir, but your success depends on your goal - if you want to maintain a deficit, then set your activity lower. Keeping in mind the large degree of error in nutritional labeling and exercise burn estimations (20% standard) if something isn't working, adjust your settings accordingly.

Welcome aboard!

shadowfax_c11

Wearing a fitbit really takes the guesswork out for me. While I am generally highly active 5 days a week I have two that can be lightly active or even sedentary. Fitbit adjusts what MFP says I should eat based on what it sees. Of course then those sedentary days really cut my allowance but it has really helped me to have a better awareness of my needs based on how active I am on a given day.