Q's about what level of activity I should pick for Weight loss

emm3rs

Hello all, I am confused about which level of activity I should pick on the MFP website here to help me calculate the amount of calories I should be eating to help with my weight loss goals.

I am 33, I exercise 6 out of the 7 days, one day intense (zumba, walk on incline or elliptical) the other 5, 30mins on my bike not leisurely, but not as strenuous as the other day.

I work 40 hours as a nurse and I am on my feet my entire shift.

SO, questions are:

1. Do I pick the active category or the lightly active.
2. Do I "eat back" the calories I earned from exercise.


I really appreciate your thoughts and help. I'm new to all this and I have over 100 lbs to lose, any help is greatly appreciated!

sammyliftsandeats

Your intentional exercise shouldn't be factored into your activity level - that gets added on separately if you are going to use MFP's method for determining calories.

However, I think you should pick the active category because of your job.

And because calorie burns for exercise can be overestimated (very much so using MFP's database), try eating back 50% and see how it affects your rate of loss.

Unknown

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annacole94

You can likely pick "active". Log your exercise separately from that, but not your work walking.
Alternately, pick "sedentary" and use a fitness tracker or phone app to add all your steps every day.

I eat back my exercise calories. So far, so good. Most of my exercise is just walking right now, though. I think the estimates on that are pretty good.

If MFP gives you 1200 calories, you've picked a rate of weight loss that's probably too aggressive. Losing 1lb a week and enjoying your life is more likely to give long term success than trying for 2 lb a week and being miserable.

emm3rs

awesome advice, thank you I will adjust accordingly.