Excercise Intensity Level?

DamieBird

I'm trying to define my exercise intensity level, but not sure how to classify it.

Based on the definition of "moderate exercise = able to carry on a conversation" and "vigorous = unable to carry on a conversation", I do ~160 minutes of vigorous exercise (run/jog) a week, where my heart rate is up over 150-160, but I recover pretty quickly and bring in back down into the normal range within a few minutes after cool down. It's a lot of effort at the time, but I'm not absolutely exhausted after I've finished, for the most part (baring other factors like poor sleep the night before, etc). I'm doing less of it as I'm getting closer to my 5k in 30 min goal (yay for being faster!).

I also do between 140-210 minutes of moderate intensity exercise (walking) a week, where I'm usually walking at a quickish pace (at least 3.2) but able to carry on a conversation with no shortness of breath. I also want to add in 2x days of strength training in addition to cardio, but I'm looking for an idea of what my current exercise level would be classified as, on the whole, prior to adding in the strength training. TIA.

TR0berts

Are you trying to determine this for a TDEE calculator, or for your activity level here at MFP, or some other reason?

If TDEE calculator: then I'd say active.
If MFP, then it doesn't matter, as you don't count exercise in your activity level - it just gets added on as exercise.
If other, then I/we'd need to know why.

DamieBird

I'm trying to refine my TDEE, and working through the process of getting to the correct numbers after tightening up my logging for the last month or so. I've lost 20 pounds since starting three months ago, so I'm trying to account for weighing less and trying to also understand my calorie needs so that I can accurately come up with a weekly goal. After my last weigh in, I dropped 8lbs in a month (30 days), with is a tad faster than expected, which made me suspect that I've been estimating my TDEE incorrectly.

I understand the basics (or thought I did) of how to get to my own personal TDEE based on tracking CICO and comparing it to actual loss, but I had a few days in there that were just estimates (due to vacation), so I'm thinking that might throw things out of whack and I'm not *great* at math.

Also - I'm just curious .

*Edit to specify weekly goal vs. daily goal