Do you count your calorie as a Sedentary person when losing weight?
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The intent of MFP is to enter your lifestyle without exercise, get baseline calorie goal, then log your exercise in addition. Most people eat back no more than half of their exercise cals.2
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unnichaacko wrote: »unnichaacko wrote: »In my case, I am a pretty small person to begin with, 5', and weight hovers around 105-108. And being an animator I usually work 10/12 hours a day which should consider as sedentary I know but I always remember to get up from my chair every 45 minutes to do 5-10 push-ups/1 minute plank and some 2 minutes walk. I also am training for semi-professional ultimate which is four hours a week, in addition to that, I play soccer once a week, do manage to do two HIIT cardio a week and a very recent attempt of lifting 3 times a week. Now I accounted myself as sedentary and the amount that it gave me was so low, I don't think I ate that low even in my early teen. Even then, i followed it for five days and I feel my back is dying due to low amount of calories because I have been told there's nothing called over exercising but there's under eating. I think I am under eating at 1600/1700 calories. But my friend thinks, considering my height and weight, its the right amount of calories, if not more. So here I am, very confused.
Are you logging all your exercise? What did you set your goal at? For only losing a little bit it should be set at half a pound per week, otherwise you'll risk losing muscle instead of fat.
This is where I mixed up. I did add my exercise/activity (soccer/training) calories but I did not eat those up. I ate the amount it recommended which was 1580, so I ate about 1600 every day where I think most days after adding my activity I had about 2100/2300 calories, 3000 calories on a day even.
Keep in mind that exercise calories can be vastly off for some.unnichaacko wrote: »unnichaacko wrote: »In my case, I am a pretty small person to begin with, 5', and weight hovers around 105-108. And being an animator I usually work 10/12 hours a day which should consider as sedentary I know but I always remember to get up from my chair every 45 minutes to do 5-10 push-ups/1 minute plank and some 2 minutes walk. I also am training for semi-professional ultimate which is four hours a week, in addition to that, I play soccer once a week, do manage to do two HIIT cardio a week and a very recent attempt of lifting 3 times a week. Now I accounted myself as sedentary and the amount that it gave me was so low, I don't think I ate that low even in my early teen. Even then, i followed it for five days and I feel my back is dying due to low amount of calories because I have been told there's nothing called over exercising but there's under eating. I think I am under eating at 1600/1700 calories. But my friend thinks, considering my height and weight, its the right amount of calories, if not more. So here I am, very confused.
Are you logging all your exercise? What did you set your goal at? For only losing a little bit it should be set at half a pound per week, otherwise you'll risk losing muscle instead of fat.
This is where I mixed up. I did add my exercise/activity (soccer/training) calories but I did not eat those up. I ate the amount it recommended which was 1580, so I ate about 1600 every day where I think most days after adding my activity I had about 2100/2300 calories, 3000 calories on a day even.
Keep in mind that exercise calories can be vastly off for some.
My exercise calorie was pretty low. 250/280- ish but activity calories such as soccer game one, training for ultimate, swimming, all these were pretty high. I think I will eat about 2000 calories for three to four weeks to see what happens. Trial and error, that's about it now.2 -
unnichaacko wrote: »unnichaacko wrote: »In my case, I am a pretty small person to begin with, 5', and weight hovers around 105-108. And being an animator I usually work 10/12 hours a day which should consider as sedentary I know but I always remember to get up from my chair every 45 minutes to do 5-10 push-ups/1 minute plank and some 2 minutes walk. I also am training for semi-professional ultimate which is four hours a week, in addition to that, I play soccer once a week, do manage to do two HIIT cardio a week and a very recent attempt of lifting 3 times a week. Now I accounted myself as sedentary and the amount that it gave me was so low, I don't think I ate that low even in my early teen. Even then, i followed it for five days and I feel my back is dying due to low amount of calories because I have been told there's nothing called over exercising but there's under eating. I think I am under eating at 1600/1700 calories. But my friend thinks, considering my height and weight, its the right amount of calories, if not more. So here I am, very confused.
Are you logging all your exercise? What did you set your goal at? For only losing a little bit it should be set at half a pound per week, otherwise you'll risk losing muscle instead of fat.
This is where I mixed up. I did add my exercise/activity (soccer/training) calories but I did not eat those up. I ate the amount it recommended which was 1580, so I ate about 1600 every day where I think most days after adding my activity I had about 2100/2300 calories, 3000 calories on a day even.
So...I would set it to sedentary, log ALL your activity (including all your little 5 minute workouts etc) and eat back HALFto 75% of the extra workout calories...it's more accurate than trying to guess your activity level.
Then after a month, see how fast the weight has come off and adjust accordingly.1 -
The calories that mfp sets are just one calculation. I personally had a big problem with undereating by following mfp. I did the TDEE method (fat2fitradio is a good calculator). But, even with that I need to eat in the athlete range of 2000 to 2300 calories a day to maintain my weight. Whether I exercise or not. I'm 5'2", 102 pounds, in my late 30's. So, it's not necessarily true that petite, low weight people need to eat less. Just something to keep in mind if you feel underfed. If I want to lose weight (I don't) I would eat 1800 to 1900.2
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unnichaacko wrote: »unnichaacko wrote: »In my case, I am a pretty small person to begin with, 5', and weight hovers around 105-108. And being an animator I usually work 10/12 hours a day which should consider as sedentary I know but I always remember to get up from my chair every 45 minutes to do 5-10 push-ups/1 minute plank and some 2 minutes walk. I also am training for semi-professional ultimate which is four hours a week, in addition to that, I play soccer once a week, do manage to do two HIIT cardio a week and a very recent attempt of lifting 3 times a week. Now I accounted myself as sedentary and the amount that it gave me was so low, I don't think I ate that low even in my early teen. Even then, i followed it for five days and I feel my back is dying due to low amount of calories because I have been told there's nothing called over exercising but there's under eating. I think I am under eating at 1600/1700 calories. But my friend thinks, considering my height and weight, its the right amount of calories, if not more. So here I am, very confused.
Are you logging all your exercise? What did you set your goal at? For only losing a little bit it should be set at half a pound per week, otherwise you'll risk losing muscle instead of fat.
This is where I mixed up. I did add my exercise/activity (soccer/training) calories but I did not eat those up. I ate the amount it recommended which was 1580, so I ate about 1600 every day where I think most days after adding my activity I had about 2100/2300 calories, 3000 calories on a day even.
Did you lose weight when you did this? If you lost more than you expected, then definitely add some calories back in. However, if you lost less than expected, then you are either underestimating your calories in, overestimating your calories out, or some combination of the two.2 -
I don't, but that's because I don't have a sedentary job (retail worker). I'm set to lightly active and then I eat back most of the calories my Fitbit gives me.0
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With mfp, you put in your normal activity level without exercise. You are given a calorie goal that will allow you to lose weight without any exercise. Then you log any exercise you do and eat those calories... a lot of people just eat half to compensate for overestimation of calorie burns.
If you are on your feet moving all day then you are not sedentary. Sedentary is usually someone taking 5,000 or less steps a day.
I would not count normal daily house cleaning as exercise. I wore a pedometer for months and even with cleaning and stuff I had to purposefully walk at least 30 minutes in.addition to normal activity to get over 5,000 steps.2 -
CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »If you set it to sedentary, you should be sure to log ALL your exercise (including walking, cleaning etc) and then eat back half the calories from exercise for a month or so and then based on your rate of loss, adjust your calories appropriately.
I found it easier to keep it on sedentary because my exercise is sporadic.
cleaning should not be added as an exercise unless you rarely do it. if its something you do in your daily chores then it should be included with your activity level,same with cooking,food prep,etc
If you put in sedentary, it's not counting it. My point was that because I do a lot of cleaning on one day (like hours) and none the next...it makes more sense to keep it on sedentary and count all activity.
yes but its going to vastly overestimate how much you burn so why count it at all? I can see logging things like when you go to the gym,running,swimming,jogging,etc. I have seen people logging food prep,cleaning,etc and have very high burns for such a short time.Then they later wonder why they arent losing because they are eating most of those calories back.I dont count things like that because its part of my daily activity for the most part.3 -
CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »If you set it to sedentary, you should be sure to log ALL your exercise (including walking, cleaning etc) and then eat back half the calories from exercise for a month or so and then based on your rate of loss, adjust your calories appropriately.
I found it easier to keep it on sedentary because my exercise is sporadic.
cleaning should not be added as an exercise unless you rarely do it. if its something you do in your daily chores then it should be included with your activity level,same with cooking,food prep,etc
If you put in sedentary, it's not counting it. My point was that because I do a lot of cleaning on one day (like hours) and none the next...it makes more sense to keep it on sedentary and count all activity.
"Sedentary" does include *some* activity, which could include cleaning, during the day. It doesn't assume that you are bedridden. Of course, if you're cleaning for hours in a day, that goes beyond regularly daily activity and you should consider that if you're doing it regularly (but if you're cleaning for hours at a time regularly, then I would question whether "sedentary" is the best activity level choice for you).0 -
CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »If you set it to sedentary, you should be sure to log ALL your exercise (including walking, cleaning etc) and then eat back half the calories from exercise for a month or so and then based on your rate of loss, adjust your calories appropriately.
I found it easier to keep it on sedentary because my exercise is sporadic.
cleaning should not be added as an exercise unless you rarely do it. if its something you do in your daily chores then it should be included with your activity level,same with cooking,food prep,etc
If you put in sedentary, it's not counting it. My point was that because I do a lot of cleaning on one day (like hours) and none the next...it makes more sense to keep it on sedentary and count all activity.
yes but its going to vastly overestimate how much you burn so why count it at all? I can see logging things like when you go to the gym,running,swimming,jogging,etc. I have seen people logging food prep,cleaning,etc and have very high burns for such a short time.Then they later wonder why they arent losing because they are eating most of those calories back.I dont count things like that because its part of my daily activity for the most part.
Well...you can't stop people from choosing a ridiculous burn rate from the database. Not all options are unrealistic, and I did say to start out eating half the calories back for a month and adjust accordingly.1 -
janejellyroll wrote: »CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »If you set it to sedentary, you should be sure to log ALL your exercise (including walking, cleaning etc) and then eat back half the calories from exercise for a month or so and then based on your rate of loss, adjust your calories appropriately.
I found it easier to keep it on sedentary because my exercise is sporadic.
cleaning should not be added as an exercise unless you rarely do it. if its something you do in your daily chores then it should be included with your activity level,same with cooking,food prep,etc
If you put in sedentary, it's not counting it. My point was that because I do a lot of cleaning on one day (like hours) and none the next...it makes more sense to keep it on sedentary and count all activity.
"Sedentary" does include *some* activity, which could include cleaning, during the day. It doesn't assume that you are bedridden. Of course, if you're cleaning for hours in a day, that goes beyond regularly daily activity and you should consider that if you're doing it regularly (but if you're cleaning for hours at a time regularly, then I would question whether "sedentary" is the best activity level choice for you).
It's 2500 steps.0 -
unnichaacko wrote: »Ok so, I was confused how to ask it in one sentence discussion title question.
So here goes, when you are trying to lose weight, naturally you will cut calories and work out four to six times a week. So while logging in MFP, do you count your estimated calories in sedentary level and then add your workout calories? Or you log yourself as moderately active and then cut calories from that total amount?
Because if you put sedentary, and you are working out, I figured it gives a very low amount and then that you are eating that low amount in addition to working out. Isn't that really harmful for your body to eat such low calories?
I was confused at first too.
The answer is what is your activity level without exercise? If you mostly sit at a desk you are sedentary. If you are a wait staff / server, work in construction or do some other really physical job you are active.
That sets your calorie need to stay just the way you are. Then you decide how aggressive you want to be with weight loss from 1/2 pound to 2 pounds per week & it gives you a deficit. That is your target. If you exercise that day you get to eat back those calories, not every day, just the day you worked out.
In the beginning when you go from eating huge amounts of food or high calorie grazing all day, you will be hungry & irritable. This is when you start tweaking your program, to time when & what you eat. I don't particularly care for carrots but in the beginning I kept some in the office refrigerator & when the afternoon munchies it, I'd eat 3-5. All that fiber curbed my appetite but at a small calorie intake. Way better & far more nutritious then the afternoon candy bar or soda I used to drink.1 -
janejellyroll wrote: »CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »If you set it to sedentary, you should be sure to log ALL your exercise (including walking, cleaning etc) and then eat back half the calories from exercise for a month or so and then based on your rate of loss, adjust your calories appropriately.
I found it easier to keep it on sedentary because my exercise is sporadic.
cleaning should not be added as an exercise unless you rarely do it. if its something you do in your daily chores then it should be included with your activity level,same with cooking,food prep,etc
If you put in sedentary, it's not counting it. My point was that because I do a lot of cleaning on one day (like hours) and none the next...it makes more sense to keep it on sedentary and count all activity.
"Sedentary" does include *some* activity, which could include cleaning, during the day. It doesn't assume that you are bedridden. Of course, if you're cleaning for hours in a day, that goes beyond regularly daily activity and you should consider that if you're doing it regularly (but if you're cleaning for hours at a time regularly, then I would question whether "sedentary" is the best activity level choice for you).
It's 2500 steps.
Yep, which is why people who log everyday activities like cooking and cleaning may run the risk of "double dipping" on some days -- MFP is already assuming that you are going to do some movement as part of daily life.2 -
janejellyroll wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »If you set it to sedentary, you should be sure to log ALL your exercise (including walking, cleaning etc) and then eat back half the calories from exercise for a month or so and then based on your rate of loss, adjust your calories appropriately.
I found it easier to keep it on sedentary because my exercise is sporadic.
cleaning should not be added as an exercise unless you rarely do it. if its something you do in your daily chores then it should be included with your activity level,same with cooking,food prep,etc
If you put in sedentary, it's not counting it. My point was that because I do a lot of cleaning on one day (like hours) and none the next...it makes more sense to keep it on sedentary and count all activity.
"Sedentary" does include *some* activity, which could include cleaning, during the day. It doesn't assume that you are bedridden. Of course, if you're cleaning for hours in a day, that goes beyond regularly daily activity and you should consider that if you're doing it regularly (but if you're cleaning for hours at a time regularly, then I would question whether "sedentary" is the best activity level choice for you).
It's 2500 steps.
Yep, which is why people who log everyday activities like cooking and cleaning may run the risk of "double dipping" on some days -- MFP is already assuming that you are going to do some movement as part of daily life.
We'll just agree to disagree then. It worked for me losing 2 pounds a week. It's an option.
(and the once a week cleaning here is a solid workout
) 0 -
unnichaacko wrote: »unnichaacko wrote: »In my case, I am a pretty small person to begin with, 5', and weight hovers around 105-108. And being an animator I usually work 10/12 hours a day which should consider as sedentary I know but I always remember to get up from my chair every 45 minutes to do 5-10 push-ups/1 minute plank and some 2 minutes walk. I also am training for semi-professional ultimate which is four hours a week, in addition to that, I play soccer once a week, do manage to do two HIIT cardio a week and a very recent attempt of lifting 3 times a week. Now I accounted myself as sedentary and the amount that it gave me was so low, I don't think I ate that low even in my early teen. Even then, i followed it for five days and I feel my back is dying due to low amount of calories because I have been told there's nothing called over exercising but there's under eating. I think I am under eating at 1600/1700 calories. But my friend thinks, considering my height and weight, its the right amount of calories, if not more. So here I am, very confused.
Are you logging all your exercise? What did you set your goal at? For only losing a little bit it should be set at half a pound per week, otherwise you'll risk losing muscle instead of fat.
This is where I mixed up. I did add my exercise/activity (soccer/training) calories but I did not eat those up. I ate the amount it recommended which was 1580, so I ate about 1600 every day where I think most days after adding my activity I had about 2100/2300 calories, 3000 calories on a day even.
Did you lose weight when you did this? If you lost more than you expected, then definitely add some calories back in. However, if you lost less than expected, then you are either underestimating your calories in, overestimating your calories out, or some combination of the two.
I checked my weight this morning after reading your comment, I am at 104 and I started at 105, and its been only five days. I think for my height and weight, it's a lot too much to lose one pound in five days. And that gives me the idea that I was indeed under eating. And like I mentioned before, I have never eaten this few calories. This isn't working for me. I joined MFP not to lose weight but to to log food because I am super hungry after training and I always end up eating junks when I am hungry but after logging food in MFP, I am conscious of what I am putting in myself since I have to log them down later. But this few calories won't work for me.0 -
BinaryPulsar wrote: »The calories that mfp sets are just one calculation. I personally had a big problem with undereating by following mfp. I did the TDEE method (fat2fitradio is a good calculator). But, even with that I need to eat in the athlete range of 2000 to 2300 calories a day to maintain my weight. Whether I exercise or not. I'm 5'2", 102 pounds, in my late 30's. So, it's not necessarily true that petite, low weight people need to eat less. Just something to keep in mind if you feel underfed. If I want to lose weight (I don't) I would eat 1800 to 1900.
This is something I gotta tell my friend. Not all petite people need fewer calories. It's partly metabolism also I am assuming.1 -
unnichaacko wrote: »So while logging in MFP, do you count your estimated calories in sedentary level and then add your workout calories?
Yes.unnichaacko wrote: »Because if you put sedentary, and you are working out, I figured it gives a very low amount and then that you are eating that low amount in addition to working out. Isn't that really harmful for your body to eat such low calories?
Yes ... MFP gives you a low base amount.
But then you add your exercise calories to that.
If I exercise an hour or two, I might eat 50% of my exercise calories back.
If I exercise 2 or 3 hours, I might eat 75% of my exercise calories back.
If I exercise for more than about 3 hours, I'll probably eat somewhere in the 90% range.
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You have an activity level ..how much you move, walk, do basic housework, go to work, go out etc
And then you have purposeful exercise..workouts, jogging, swimming etc
MFP is set to estimate the first and give you a target to reach without the second. so you add the second on top
I don't see why that is so complicated0 -
unnichaacko wrote: »BinaryPulsar wrote: »The calories that mfp sets are just one calculation. I personally had a big problem with undereating by following mfp. I did the TDEE method (fat2fitradio is a good calculator). But, even with that I need to eat in the athlete range of 2000 to 2300 calories a day to maintain my weight. Whether I exercise or not. I'm 5'2", 102 pounds, in my late 30's. So, it's not necessarily true that petite, low weight people need to eat less. Just something to keep in mind if you feel underfed. If I want to lose weight (I don't) I would eat 1800 to 1900.
This is something I gotta tell my friend. Not all petite people need fewer calories. It's partly metabolism also I am assuming.
If by metabolism, you mean she's quite active, and probably has a lot of lean muscle mass then yes.1 -
You have an activity level ..how much you move, walk, do basic housework, go to work, go out etc
And then you have purposeful exercise..workouts, jogging, swimming etc
MFP is set to estimate the first and give you a target to reach without the second. so you add the second on top
I don't see why that is so complicated
For some people mfp sets the calories too low. Even the highest activity level is too low for me. Even when I was injured, so I was sedentary. And the exercise calories option isn't the best for everyone if they log all their exercise at the end of the day. The TDEE method based on calculations outside of mfp has worked best for me for over four years.0
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