Calories Consumed & Activity Level

krysmuree

Hi guys!
Quick question.

I tried to do a search but did not find anything specifically answering the question I have.

I track all of my calories burnt using a Polar fitness watch.
If I am trying to calculate how many calories I should be consuming, should I list my activity as sedentary and continue to input my caloric burn via my heart rate monitor? Or should it be listed as lightly active regardless?

Basically, what I am asking, is whether or not listing "lightly active" AND inputting my caloric burn from my fitness watch will result in an incorrect estimation of calories needed per day (since, if I remember correctly, lightly active automatically allots for a caloric burn in the equation)?

If I list myself as sedentary, the suggestion number of calories to consume is 1,500 to lose a pound a week.
If I list myself as lightly active, the suggested number of calories to consume is 1,800 to lose a pound a week.

I apologize if my question seems silly or obvious, and I'm sorry if it's confusing.
I just want to make sure I get off on the right foot, and it's been a couple of years.

Thank you in advance!

DX2JX2

I find it's easiest to set your baseline calories to sedentary and then to add all of your activities manually to that total. Just make sure to consider if you need to 'hedge' the calories given to you by your activity tracker.

If you decide to go with 'lightly active', then some of the activity tracked by the watch will already be included in your baseline but you won't really know how much.

krysmuree

Thank you so much!
That's what I thought but I wanted to be sure.

I really appreciate it!

tinkerbellang83

Are you manually adding your exercises or is your watch synced to your account? If it is synced to your account with negative adjustments turned on then it really doesn't matter which you have set yourself to as it will adjust up/down accordingly.

If you're manually adding, then you are as suggested above better off leaving it as sedentary.

krysmuree

I am manually adding!
However, I plan to look into syncing it to my account, so that is a great point.
Thank you!