Sedentary or lightly active?

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I am a stay at home mom. I have a 6 yr old and 3 month old. I cook and clean the house. But I do sit and watch tv. I have been goin for walks carrying my little one pretty much daily for abt 15 to 20 minutes. And now that summer is coming it won't be long and I'll be working in the garden pulling weeds once or twice a week and cutting grass with a push mower. I've had mfp set to sedentary for the past month and I've lost 6 lbs. The first week I had a calorie goal of 1200 to lose 2 lbs a week but I was miserable with that and moved it to 1400 to lose 1 lb a week.

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  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,182 Member
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    If you are in the habit of sitting most of the day, you are sedentary. I don't imagine you, with your children, do so.
    Call it lightly active and monitor your results carefully.
  • Tacklewasher
    Tacklewasher Posts: 7,122 Member
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    If you are in the habit of sitting most of the day, you are sedentary. I don't imagine you, with your children, do so.
    Call it lightly active and monitor your results carefully.

    I don't think any stay at home mom with 2 kids can be sedentary LOL.

    Couple of thoughts. One, 2 weeks is kinda too short of a time frame for judging progress. 4-6 weeks, including TOM, would be better. Second, the 6 lbs may be a fair bit of water weight and not really be fat loss. Third, 1200 is the minimum MFP will go so it may not have represented a 2 lb per week loss rate.

    Now, having said all that, what rate of loss you should pick will depend on how much you have to lose etc. But picking 1 lb is probably a good starting point. Adjust to lightly active and see what you lose over a month or so. If you feel miserable, add 100 cals or so. If you don't lose at a good rate (~1 lb per week or 4-5 per month) then make adjustments.

    GOod luck