Do I log my workouts if I have myself set to active?

MichaelRobinson1994

Hi everyone,

On here, I have my activity level set to 'Lightly Active' (I workout, but i'm a security guard, probably walking around 2 miles in an 8 hour shift, if that!) and in the 'Fitness Goals' section I have 4 workouts per week each lasting 60 minutes.

My question is, since I have those workouts in there, is my calorie goal automatically adjusted or do I still need to log my workouts?
I'm doing weight training 4 times a week, if that makes any difference - I know you burn a lot more calories after the workout than I would get from just logging the weight session itself.

Thanks

jemhh

MichaelRobinson1994 wrote: »

Hi everyone,

On here, I have my activity level set to 'Lightly Active' (I workout, but i'm a security guard, probably walking around 2 miles in an 8 hour shift, if that!) and in the 'Fitness Goals' section I have 4 workouts per week each lasting 60 minutes.

My question is, since I have those workouts in there, is my calorie goal automatically adjusted or do I still need to log my workouts?
I'm doing weight training 4 times a week, if that makes any difference - I know you burn a lot more calories after the workout than I would get from just logging the weight session itself.

Thanks

The part that I bolded above is actually not calculated into your calorie goal. MFP asks the question but doesn't really use it when giving you the goal. For that reason, I would suggest logging your workouts as the "lightly active" part only accounts for your movement at work and while you are not exercising.

cwolfman13

as was noted by jemhh, your fitness goals are just for you and have no bearing on how MFP calculates your calorie targets. if you haven't included exercise activity in your activity level, then it would be unaccounted for activity...this is actually the way MFP is designed to work which is why there is no mention of exercise in the activity level descriptors and this is the reason you log exercise and get calories to "eat back"...that's MFP's way of accounting for that activity.

That said, some people do include their exercise in their estimate of activity level...obviously in that scenario, that activity would be accounted for and an estimate of those requisite calories would be included in your targets...this is known as the TDEE method (Total Daily Energy Expenditure).

If you utilize MFP's method, just be cautious and conservative with your exercise burns. Until you're used to things, I'd suggest checking your estimates against a few different sources and also just exercising some good common sense...i.e. nobody is burning 1,000 calories for 60 minutes of moderately paced walking....