Activity level - opinions

x_Vicky_x_86

I'm sorry if this has been explained before but I wanted to ask people's opinions on what I should set my activity level as, I've changed it a couple of times between active and lightly active but can't work out which I should have it on, I have quite an active job as a home help/cleaner & am on my feet all day doing physical jobs, and am generally on the move still for a good 2-3 hours after work too doing my own chores or walking the dog, I also go on my exercise bike for half an hour 3-4 days a week, I've recently got a Fitbit and I generally do between 10-15k steps a day, TIA

queenliz99

Pick one and watch your weight and or measurements. Are you are getting results from your selected activity level? Great!! if not change your level up or down.

x_Vicky_x_86

I had it on lightly active for a long time & was trying to lose then, which I was, but needed to then put a couple back on to maintain a healthy bmi, now have put on so wanting to maintain more than anything, and tone, but I'm scared of continuing to put on (didn't like having to to begin with) so just want to make sure I'm eating the right amount, I guess that is the only way though, just see if my weight changes up or down after keeping it on one setting for a week or two. Thank you.

TonyB0588

vicky_hayes wrote: »

I'm sorry if this has been explained before but I wanted to ask people's opinions on what I should set my activity level as, I've changed it a couple of times between active and lightly active but can't work out which I should have it on, I have quite an active job as a home help/cleaner & am on my feet all day doing physical jobs, and am generally on the move still for a good 2-3 hours after work too doing my own chores or walking the dog, I also go on my exercise bike for half an hour 3-4 days a week, I've recently got a Fitbit and I generally do between 10-15k steps a day, TIA

What type of physical jobs are you doing? I almost think you should be listed as Very Active. Definitely not Lightly Active.

x_Vicky_x_86

What type of physical jobs are you doing? I almost think you should be listed as Very Active. Definitely not Lightly Active.[/quote]

Do you think so? I help elderly people look after their homes when they no longer find it easy to so its all cleaning tasks really, cleaning windows, vacuuming, dusting, mopping etc, for around 5-7 hours a day, the only time I really stop is if they make me a cup of tea for 10 mins or when I'm driving to my next customer, some are a lot more active tasks than others but I am always on the move.

sijomial

You don't state if you are doing the TDEE method, the MFP eat back exercise calories method or if you use your fitbit to make calorie adjustments.

But in the end if comes down to....
What have your results been when you have eaten at a certain calorie level for a month or more?
That's all you need to fine tune things, the rest is really just a way to get a start point.

(Adjusting calorie goal manually is less of a blunt instrument than fiddling with your activity levels.)

Christine_72

Set your activity level to sedentary, sync your fitbit to mfp and eat back the extra calories you are given. If you don't have your fitbit synced, then i'd set it to lightly active. It's all trial and error in the end, you will have to experiment until you find what's right for you.

Your fitbit may be accurate, mine overestimates. So start with eating back 50% of your burnt calories, and adjust up or down depending if you gain or lose.

x_Vicky_x_86

I have got the Fitbit synced but generally I use the MFP app to log all my food and extra intentional exercise, I keep an eye on calories burnt on the Fitbit but as I'm not sure how accurate it is I don't eat back what it says I've burnt, it doesn't seem to affect the amount of calories left in MFP even though it does on the Fitbit app, but I only go by the mfp calories like I say as that's the way I have always done it because it's logged every little thing I've eaten, at least the Fitbit calories burnt probably means I've got more calories left than I think because it's tracked what I've done all day, but not going to go down the route of eating all them back, I think it said I burn around 1118 a day just staying alive before any other movement at work or exercise I do. It's confusing but I think you're right, it is going to be trial and error, the scales haven't changed for about 3 weeks now even though some days I've been over my calories so hoping I'm doing ok. Thank you for te advice

trigden1991

Pick one, record your weight for 4 weeks, assess and adjust. Personally I'd say if you are on your feet and working constantly, I would pick a high activity level.

srecupid

Christine_72 wrote: »

Set your activity level to sedentary, sync your fitbit to mfp and eat back the extra calories you are given. If you don't have your fitbit synced, then i'd set it to lightly active. It's all trial and error in the end, you will have to experiment until you find what's right for you.

Your fitbit may be accurate, mine overestimates. So start with eating back 50% of your burnt calories, and adjust up or down depending if you gain or lose.

I found my fitbit to overestimate by alot if I was to start the day with exercise because it would assume i would keep around the same level of activity throughout the entire day and adjust accordingly. Personally I would set it to sedentary and see if you continue to lose weight. If you do then calculate the rate at which you lost to find your average deficit and then eat that much extra. It's all trial and error though. One thing I learned though is that negative numbers aren't evil. Set it to sedentary and if hungry at the end of the day don't be afraid to go negative.

Christine_72

srecupid wrote: »

Christine_72 wrote: »

Set your activity level to sedentary, sync your fitbit to mfp and eat back the extra calories you are given. If you don't have your fitbit synced, then i'd set it to lightly active. It's all trial and error in the end, you will have to experiment until you find what's right for you.

Your fitbit may be accurate, mine overestimates. So start with eating back 50% of your burnt calories, and adjust up or down depending if you gain or lose.

I found my fitbit to overestimate by alot if I was to start the day with exercise because it would assume i would keep around the same level of activity throughout the entire day and adjust accordingly. Personally I would set it to sedentary and see if you continue to lose weight. If you do then calculate the rate at which you lost to find your average deficit and then eat that much extra. It's all trial and error though. One thing I learned though is that negative numbers aren't evil. Set it to sedentary and if hungry at the end of the day don't be afraid to go negative.

I've got both mfp and fitbit set to sedentary. I think you'd run into the problems you mentioned if you had fitbit set to 'personalised'

srecupid

Christine_72 wrote: »

srecupid wrote: »

Christine_72 wrote: »

Set your activity level to sedentary, sync your fitbit to mfp and eat back the extra calories you are given. If you don't have your fitbit synced, then i'd set it to lightly active. It's all trial and error in the end, you will have to experiment until you find what's right for you.

Your fitbit may be accurate, mine overestimates. So start with eating back 50% of your burnt calories, and adjust up or down depending if you gain or lose.

I found my fitbit to overestimate by alot if I was to start the day with exercise because it would assume i would keep around the same level of activity throughout the entire day and adjust accordingly. Personally I would set it to sedentary and see if you continue to lose weight. If you do then calculate the rate at which you lost to find your average deficit and then eat that much extra. It's all trial and error though. One thing I learned though is that negative numbers aren't evil. Set it to sedentary and if hungry at the end of the day don't be afraid to go negative.

I've got both mfp and fitbit set to sedentary. I think you'd run into the problems you mentioned if you had fitbit set to 'personalised'

Not sure I sold it and bought the much cheaper mi band 2. I set it up with google fit and use it basically as a reference only. I moved to maintenance and am probably lightly active but, eat at sedentary. I have a little extra fat to spare but, i'm just sick of dieting. So if I lose a little extra I don't particularly care. I just do the math in my head at end of night if i want a snack. Google fit tells me how many calories i've burned total all day and i just subtract my MFP starting point to make my own adjustment

kirstenb13

I also think that it sounds as if you are pretty active, what you are describing is more than lightly active for sure. I have a way less active job (in a lab though so still some walking during the day) and get at least 15 k steps every day walking the dog etc and this puts me at least into active. And unless you are very tiny you burn more just staying alive than 1118.

LivingtheLeanDream

15k is active.
But it doesn't matter which setting you put mfp at, it will adjust your exercise accordingly and you'll get the same answer.
If you want to maintain your weight you need to monitor your total calories eaten over a few weeks and see if you are maintaining, if not adjust intake as necessary.

ouryve

Christine_72 wrote: »

Set your activity level to sedentary, sync your fitbit to mfp and eat back the extra calories you are given. If you don't have your fitbit synced, then i'd set it to lightly active. It's all trial and error in the end, you will have to experiment until you find what's right for you.

Your fitbit may be accurate, mine overestimates. So start with eating back 50% of your burnt calories, and adjust up or down depending if you gain or lose.

Aaargh!. Tapped out a long reply to this and then accidentally tilted my phone and lost it!

Tldr version, I can spend an afternoon busy in the kitchen and fitbit assumes I've spent it on my backside. It's generally bad at recording movements around the house for me.

I have it set to lightly active and mfp doesn't give me any extra calories until I've done a certain amount of walking. OP probably best setting to active and evaluating after a few weeks.

jeepinshawn

I got frustrated and disconnected mfp and my fitbit for awhile, then I set mfp to lightly active up from sedentary, and I ate at that, sometimes logging deliberate exercise and eating some of that back. I maintained fora month like that, if my focus were just on maintaining that's what I would do.

x_Vicky_x_86

Thanks everyone and sorry for my slow reply. I'm going to set it at lightly active, log my exercise & try to stay around the calorie level it says, but with my Fitbit often saying I'm burning 1500-2000 a day and it saying to eat 1400 a day I'm not going to be super strict if I do go over slightly by the end of the day.
I typed my height etc into a thing online which supposedly tells you what you burn just living and it said 118, I'm 5ft 2 and currently around 52-53kg, I have been down to 50kg before but needed to get my bmi up slightly so aiming to now stay around about where I am now and just work on toning up.
I think maybe keeping activity level at lightly active even though my job is quite active it will at least be more sure to cover my activity and maybe the days in a little less active, on the weekends or next week when I have a week off! That will be interesting, less activity, more treats...but hey ho, will see what happens