Trying to lose weight but confused about activity level?

StinkyCheeze

I want to do the TDEE method to lose weight where I eat above my BMR but under TDEE. I'm confused about what my activity level though because people say sedentary is sitting at a desk all day compared to on your feet all day. Example- secretary vs retail. On the other hand, I've heard 10k steps is not considered sedentary. Here's the confusing part though. According to forums I've read, a lot of people who get 10k steps because of their occupation or sports, or they get it throughout the day. Me on the other hand... I work a desk job all day, however, I make sure to get 10k steps each morning from a long brisk walk before I start my day. What is this considered? I also do a workout like weight lifting 4-5 days a week when I get home from work. Does the 10k step thing make a difference when you get it and how "condensed" it is? I'm still unsure of my activity level.
I'm 5'5 and 135 pounds. I recently set my calories to 1500 and don't eat any exercise calories back. I literally started less than a week ago but am curious if I'm going about this correctly.

rsclause

I look at my activity as a general input and underestimate a little by not counting my running as part of my activity level. I let my fitbit and runtastic sync their activity to MFP and they don't duplicate when I where my fit bit when running.

TeaBea

For TDEE you don't want to use sedentary. For TDEE you want to include exercise you plan to do. Then you don't log the exercise in MFP.

For MFP you just use your job, and then log actual workouts.

SusanMFindlay

I would start with "lightly active" and go from there. It doesn't matter whether the 10,000 steps is spread over a day or whether you get them all on a long walk. Why should it matter if you get 10,000 steps over the course of a workday (as a teacher, for example) then come home and sit or if you sit at work but walk in your free time?

"Sedentary" is desk job + drives everywhere. You *could* log yourself as sedentary and add the walk as exercise everyday, but that is more likely to overestimate your calorie burn (and is more work than just picking the right activity level).

Based on my experience, 1500 cals will likely be a good place for you to start.

French_Peasant

On MFP I set myself as sedentary, then if I did a 10,000 step walk would log that as walking at 3.0 MPH (my normal stride) for 100 minutes (I calibrated my steps at an average of 100/minute using my fitbit). For weightlifting, you can use the circuit training entry, but the calorie burn from lifting is notoriously unreliable.

If you REALLY want to do TDEE and not have to log the daily 10,000 steps, I would look at the additional calorie burn it provide, then choose whatever activity level gives you a similar burn (inclusive of deficit to lose weight).