How should I rank my activity level?

kbrokop

I am a grad student so I spend quite a bit of time sitting and studying. However I do have to walk about half a mile every day from the parking lot to my classes and I end up walking around campus between buildings a lot, carrying my heavy 20lb book bag the entire way. In total I’ll spend about 40-50cumulative minutes walking around campus on a daily basis. But the rest of the time is, unfortunately, spent sitting at a desk.
I never log those calories as exercise, but I do spend quite a bit of my life studying. Would I be better off as sedentary or lightly active.
Thanks for the advice!

kbrokop

I should also mention that I work a very part time job, about 8 hours a week, in a busy cafe, which I also never count as exercise as it is my job, but I’m on my feet making sandwiches and a break neck pace. (We do 100 orders an hour some days so it gets crazy). Would that factor in to my activity level?

amusedmonkey

If you're not counting these as exercise, then lightly active is likely a good start. Everything factors into your activity level. If after a couple of months you find yourself averaging a faster loss than expected, then maybe setting yourself to active would be something to consider. Don't stress too much about. You can always re-evaluate if you're losing too fast/too slow.

jjpptt2

1 notch lower than whatever you think it should be. That's usually a good place to start, the re-evaluate after a couple of months based on how you're progressing.