Help with MFP Activity Level?

PlusSizeCinderella

Hello!

I'm wondering if anyone might be able to advise me - I know that the MFP activity levels do not include intentional exercise in their quota, but I am concerned that MFP greatly overestimates the amount of calories burned during the workouts that I do, and therefore I can't gauge quite how much I should actually be eating and don't want to overestimate!

I work out 6 days a week, and do a total of 8 hours a week at 60-85% elevated heart rate. More specifically I cycle for 60 minutes every day (except my rest day) and additionally I swim for an hour on two of those days. The rest of the time I am at a desk.

Other calorie calculators which do take daily/weekly exercise into the activity level have put me at high activity level, but I don't really want to overestimate my output, especially when it's so concentrated, and not spread over the day like as would be with a physical job.

Or, even better, if there's another alternative that you might suggest, I'd love to hear it!

Thank you in advance!

NorthCascades

If you have an activity tracker that will sync with MFP (a Fitbit, Garmin, some phone apps), you can set any activity level you like as long as you turn "negative calorie adjustments" on. That's not really what you're asking, but FYI.

The way MFP is set up, your activity level should either include none of your exercise (because it's all going to be entered as exercise), or all of it. And that only works if you have a pretty consistent schedule.

Most people think most of MFP's calorie burns are very "generous" and most people edit them down by about half. That seems to be pretty standard practice around here. If you're good about logging your food and your exercise and your weight, you'll have all the data you need after a few weeks.

I can say that I have a very accurate way of measuring how much energy I spend on a bike (a power meter, Garmin Vector 2), and every time I've put the numbers into MFP, it's about 200 % of reality for me.