Activity level

northerngirl09

Can anyone advise me on how I should set my activity level om MFP? I currently have it as lightly active but I'm not sure if I've under-estimated that.

I'm an occupational therapist in a major hospital (UK based) specialising in amputees. I work on 5 different wards over 3 hospital floors but am a team leader so can spend proportions of the day sat on a computer. I walk approx 2k a day just to get to and from work and have a 5 year old to run around after!

I do body combat x2 a week and a mix of cardio/lifting in the gym x3 weekly. At weekends we are often out and about - park, shopping etc.

MFP has set my calories at 1250 (I'm 5' tall, weigh 140 lbs and am looking to lose another 10 lbs - have already lost 24lbs through SW). Most days I eat back most of my exercise gained cals and on the 2 days I don't officially exercise, I struggle to stay at 1250 - although it does seem to even out weekly.

Does this seem right?

malibu927

Look at your weight loss over the next month. If it goes quicker than you expect, then jump to moderately active.

northerngirl09

Thank you. I've lost 4lbs in 28 days which I thought was ok - not too excessive.

sijomial

Remember that exercise isn't part of your activity setting.

At least lightly active setting but agree with going by actual results - that way any logging inaccuracies get taken into account. You can manually adjust your calorie goal to fine tune things rather than playing with settings.

northerngirl09

Don't worry, I was aware exercise wasn't included when I set it, which is why I put lightly active. I'll see how it goes for the next month.

It was more that I keep reading that 1200 is the absolute minimum I should eat and therefore 1250 seemed low? I wondered if adjusting my activity setting would change that. I am small though, which I guess would account for the smaller calories needed? Plus looking at my weekly report, I am pretty even which I also read it better than checking daily.