What's considered active??

kaimemo

Hello all.. I need to revamp my calorie allowance. When I signed up I put "active" as my level but I'm not sure that's correct. My job varies alot from day to day. Some days I may have more period where I'm sitting for long periods of time and others I'm on my feet practically all day. I do track my steps with my fitbit and I average 10000 steps per day. I do spin class 2x a day for at least 5 days a week. Should I change my level to sedentary or leave it at active?? Help please.

VintageFeline

If you have your fitbit synced set it to sedentary and let the adjustments be made automatically. At 10000 steps you'd be very active as per MFP measures but it's moot if you sync your Fitbit.

Exercise is separate from normal daily activity as MFP uses the NEAT method meaning purposeful exercise is logged as extra as and when you do it. It's not to be included in the activity level.

VintageFeline

And to add, you have to use common sense and reassess based on real world results over time, Fitbit and MFP are just mathematical estimates.

Wheelhouse15

Yes, you would be considered very active but really it depends on how you log your activities as well. Just remember that everything is an estimate so you'll have to adjust your diet based on your experience with your own activity level.

kaimemo

Thank you both. That brings me to another point.. When I spin I use a HRM that connects to my bike and the calories burned from that is completely different from my fitbit total calories burned. That HRM is strapped around my torso and the fitbit is on my wrist. Why a big difference?

I have my fitbit synced to MFP but for some reason my steps do not sync and if I use my fitbit to track exercise I end up having to track separately on MFP. Then I end up with 2 exercises on my fitbit app. So frustrating.

The reason for my original question is based on the fact that I am not losing weight.

Wheelhouse15

kaimemo wrote: »

Thank you both. That brings me to another point.. When I spin I use a HRM that connects to my bike and the calories burned from that is completely different from my fitbit total calories burned. That HRM is strapped around my torso and the fitbit is on my wrist. Why a big difference?

I have my fitbit synced to MFP but for some reason my steps do not sync and if I use my fitbit to track exercise I end up having to track separately on MFP. Then I end up with 2 exercises on my fitbit app. So frustrating.

The reason for my original question is based on the fact that I am not losing weight.

Wrist HRM is not nearly as accurate but estimating calories burned from HR isn't horribly accurate either. I would just take the lower of the estimates as a start then monitor how my weight was affected then go from there.

kaimemo

Thanks.. will try that.

VintageFeline

You also need to make sure your logging is tight. If you're not losing weight buy a food scale and use it to weigh all solids and semi-solids. Check nutrition info with the packet against what comes up on MFP (I have things come up incorrectly all the time).

Inflated calorie burns can be an issue but usually it's more to do with inaccurate logging.

Tacklewasher

I use a chest strap when I'm on the treadmill. I also have my watch on. My watch syncs to MFP through Garmin connect, but the chest strap doesn't. Yeah, the watch shows 30% or so less calories burned. I was counting this as bonus calories that I don't eat or drink back. I've since tweaked the Garmin software in such a way that what gets pushed through to MFP is close to what the chest strap shows by changing the activity level in Garmin (but not MFP). I still don't eat or drink all of the calories back.

MFP is set to sedentary for me.

Also agree the logging is most likely off.

kaimemo

VintageFeline wrote: »

You also need to make sure your logging is tight. If you're not losing weight buy a food scale and use it to weigh all solids and semi-solids. Check nutrition info with the packet against what comes up on MFP (I have things come up incorrectly all the time).

Inflated calorie burns can be an issue but usually it's more to do with inaccurate logging.

Thank you.. I do have a food scale but honestly I haven't used it for everything. I do have to tighten up on my tracking though. I will start to incorporate the scale into all my meal prep.

kaimemo

grmckenzie wrote: »

I use a chest strap when I'm on the treadmill. I also have my watch on. My watch syncs to MFP through Garmin connect, but the chest strap doesn't. Yeah, the watch shows 30% or so less calories burned. I was counting this as bonus calories that I don't eat or drink back. I've since tweaked the Garmin software in such a way that what gets pushed through to MFP is close to what the chest strap shows by changing the activity level in Garmin (but not MFP). I still don't eat or drink all of the calories back.

MFP is set to sedentary for me.

Also agree the logging is most likely off.

Thank you! I don't understand why the numbers are so drastically different. It's really puzzling. What I will do though is change my fitbit app and see if I come close to my other HMR.

SusanMFindlay

VintageFeline wrote: »

If you have your fitbit synced set it to sedentary and let the adjustments be made automatically. At 10000 steps you'd be very active as per MFP measures but it's moot if you sync your Fitbit.

Exercise is separate from normal daily activity as MFP uses the NEAT method meaning purposeful exercise is logged as extra as and when you do it. It's not to be included in the activity level.

You can pick any activity level you want if you have your FitBit synced. Personally, I prefer to choose the activity level that is a slight underestimate of an "average" day for me rather than just using sedentary as a default. I suspect this is personality dependent, but I like to have an accurate-ish goal in front of me all day rather than watching the calories climb all day.