Lightly Active vs. Active

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  • Sunna_W
    Sunna_W Posts: 744 Member
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    Eating back calories - unless you are "highly active" running marathons is IMO counter-productive. It's like having a savings account and nickel and dimeing yourself to death. At the end of the day you'll have nothing in your savings account.
  • nosebag1212
    nosebag1212 Posts: 621 Member
    edited June 2017
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    Sunna_W wrote: »
    Eating back calories - unless you are "highly active" running marathons is IMO counter-productive. It's like having a savings account and nickel and dimeing yourself to death. At the end of the day you'll have nothing in your savings account.

    Yes because undereating and creating too big a deficit you originally planned for is the goal here right? smh
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,268 Member
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    PAV8888 wrote: »
    SezxyStef wrote: »
    and that is fine but if you look at the study I linked in you see that to be something other than sedentary (over 5k steps) would not be the norm for most people....otherwise they wouldn't be here to lose weight.

    Esp since MFP activity level SHOULD NOT include exercise....so without purposeful movement what I say stands...

    Yes it depends on the person...I am a desk jokey but do purposeful extra steps (not walks) and I get about 7-8k on a normal day...then I exercise...I am not sedentary...but lightly active.

    And by saying it depends it confuses the topic as the OP indicated that they had a desk job and their activity was from purposeful exercise...so in this case they need to set it to sedentary PER THE QUESTION.

    I am confused a bit Stef because specifically the study you linked to is one of the first ones that I read that clued me in that indeed my initial MFP setting of sedentary was incorrect and that I shouldn't have been scared to change it.

    You are correct that there is some topic drift here and that the advice to the OP (who did not indicate she was using an activity tracker) ought to be to set to sedentary or lightly active and count exercise separately and adjust as per trend of weight level results over a period of 4-6 weeks.

    However both Susan and I were addressing a subject that you too discussed. Namely the settings that should be used WITH an activity tracker. And on those settings we will have to agree to disagree as you seem to believe that the correct setting is sedentary + large positive adjustments, while I believe that both Susan and I feel that the best setting is one that generates smaller adjustments.

    The OP indicated a fitbit was in play 4 posts in...with her 13-15k steps (which is her exercise + daily movements)

    I believe the correct setting for the OP is sedentary yes...she has indicated that most of her movement comes from exercise so if that is the case then she is "sedentary"...

    I think that post weight loss and in maintenance or after you have gotten used to having your tracker and it is in tune with you and your movements aka stride length etc and you are moving purposefully without the exercise then by all means change your setting if you want...that is your choice. I don't have an opinion one way or the other which is the best...I think it's which ever one works best for the individual (outside the preview of this particular post)

    So I am not sure why the confusion. I am referring only to this post. Not anything else.

    I expect because you are referring in general terms that would cause the confusion for you...hence why I try not to muddy waters with outside info that doesn't pertain to this post.

    PS I currently am set to sedentary as my fitbit is new and I need it to get used to my stride etc. and yes i am getting larger adjustments....as soon as I am confident it has my stride in check etc I will move my activity level to lightly/somewhat active based on my 6-9k steps pre exercise.

  • hesn92
    hesn92 Posts: 5,967 Member
    edited June 2017
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    I thought that since I have a desk job I should be sedentary. But according to my fitbit I actually burn quite a bit more than that. Even on a "bad" day I still end up burning an additional 200 or so calories. I only get an average of 6000 Steps maybe. I would say I'm actually more like lightly active.

    If you have a fitbit that is synced to mfp, I don't personally think it matters what activity level you choose because it will adjust based on your activity for the day. If you move your activity level up make sure to turn on negative adjustments though.
  • SusanMFindlay
    SusanMFindlay Posts: 1,804 Member
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    Sunna_W wrote: »
    Eating back calories - unless you are "highly active" running marathons is IMO counter-productive. It's like having a savings account and nickel and dimeing yourself to death. At the end of the day you'll have nothing in your savings account.

    I don't run marathons. If I called myself "lightly active" like the site wants me to and didn't eat back my extra calories, I'd be undereating by 1000(!!!) calories every day. Except, of course, that after a week or two of that, I'd be so tired and hungry that I'd either binge or stop moving as much.

    Choosing not to eat back your exercise calories (assuming we're talking more than 100-200 per day) is what's counterproductive.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,872 Member
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    no44s4me wrote: »
    Per this article
    1) <5000 steps.d (sedentary);
    2) 5000-7499 steps.d (low active);
    3) 7500-9999 steps.d (somewhat active);
    4) > or =10,000-12,499 steps.d (active); and
    5) > or =12,500 steps.d (highly active)
    Has anyone figured out the corresponding activity factors (i.e. 1.25, etc.) for these step numbers?

    I haven't looked at this for well over a year if not two.

    With the understanding that the TDEE adjustment section is very much in need for a review and probably fully superseded by my "fitbit adjustment" spreadsheet and understanding that the formula I used to convert bmi to body fat is extremely rough.... the description of activity level correspondence that you seek can be found in this spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1D9ayGxT_UVw2PNI9kOYh0aIvRjCvHNZL7Z1rpLW7LKI/edit?usp=sharing

    A very important note: MFP does not take into consideration exercise which has to be added on top. The other activity factors in the spreadsheet are inclusive of exercise.

    Also @heybales used to have some very nifty spreadsheets available to help calculate tdee
  • no44s4me
    no44s4me Posts: 73 Member
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    Thanks for the reply and spreadsheet! I've had a FitBit for over 2 years and the question stuck in my head is "what would my activity level be based on that data without additional exercise"? I've had my FB linked to MPF before, but I prefer to work off a set number. My exercise and activity are consistent enough for this approach. I lost over 50lbs by the MPF method and have decided to go after the last 10lbs the same way. The only difference this time is that I didn't have a FB when I lost the weight (I used the exercise data from a Polar HRM before). My approach is to set my calories on my step level before purposeful exercise and add then add the exercise data from FitBit. I've got Heybale's spreadsheets too! I know a lot of people find all the numbers confusing, but I find them empowering. Thanks again!
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,268 Member
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    @PAV8888 why not just use the formula total calories consumed +(lbs lost x3500)/# days (given that days should be at least 21) and that 3500 is an acceptable number for how many calories are in a lb.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,872 Member
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    SezxyStef wrote: »
    @PAV8888 why not just use the formula total calories consumed +(lbs lost x3500)/# days (given that days should be at least 21) and that 3500 is an acceptable number for how many calories are in a lb.

    Days should probably be 28+ but yes, essentially that is the formula we all use for double checking one way or another.

    The spreadsheet above was for calculating TDEE and a cut to aim for when someone doesn't have fully logged days or is just starting out. It also highlights that large deficits are not very appropriate when TDEE is low due to being sedentary.

    The reason I linked to it is that someone asked about physical activity factor levels and their definitions and their correspondence to steps and I had sort of laid them out in there using a number of sources.

    If you're referring to the spreadsheet I sometimes post to help establish your "fitbit error" it does exactly what you say (well, of course it also allows you to play with the assumption that 1lb = 3500 and computes the difference between using scale weight and trending weight

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