Figuring out my activity level

InspirationKitten

Hello everyone!

I'm a long-term user of MFP who restarted her 'bettering myself' journey for the nth time using a different account now. I'm trying to take this more seriously and am in need of some help from you lovely people!

I can't figure out what to set my activity level at. I've scoured the many corners of the internet and can't figure it out. To give a better picture on what I do - I'm a Masters student that does a 10:00-18:00 internship in a lab, then I do waitressing three times a week. Since I'm given shifts at different locations and no week is ever the same, I will sometimes do two four-hour shifts after work, and then one day on the weekend, which usually lasts 8-10 hours. Sometimes I get six hour shifts during the week but this is rare.

Also, my daily step count averages around 7000 steps (excluding the second job) since I rely on my two feet and public transportation to get around, if that helps. I don't have time/money for the gym (yet).

SO, would this be lightly active? Moderately active?
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this, and apologies if this wasn't posted in the right forum

cdjs77

I think generally, anything under 5,000 steps per day is considered sedentary, so I would think 7,000 steps per day would not be much more than lightly active. I would choose the lower of the two (lightly active rather than moderately active) and see how your weight loss goes with that. If your loss is too quick, then you can bump it up to moderately active.

My schedule varies a lot as well, so I have my activity set as sedentary and track my steps with Fitbit and add any exercise I do. I find that's easier and more accurate than trying to "guess-timate" my activity level, especially since it can change at any moment.

Clobern80

Do you use FitBit or something similar to get your steps? If you use something that you can link to MFP, just link it and choose "Allow negative adjustments" and let it do the work for you for the most part.

If it doesn't link, then I would probably set it to moderately active and then adjust as things work or don't work.

workinonit1956

Even though my activity level is most likely “lightly active” (7500 + steps/day), I do as @cdjs77 and use “not very active” and let Fitbit take care of everything except logging food and non-step exercise. I start the day with a few “negative calories”, but I personally like seeing how Fitbit increases the calories as I move throughout the day. It syncs often enough so it’s not just a huge adjustment at night (for me anyway) —plenty of time for a nice dinner and snack in the evening:). Others like to start with a level that they feel is accurate and have less of an adjustment. All that said, you sound “lightly active” to me since MyFitnessPal is set up to *exclude* intentional exercise in our activity level.

stanmann571

clobern80 wrote: »

Do you use FitBit or something similar to get your steps? If you use something that you can link to MFP, just link it and choose "Allow negative adjustments" and let it do the work for you for the most part.

If it doesn't link, then I would probably set it to moderately active and then adjust as things work or don't work.

I'd question the 7K steps if walking is your primary transportation. Especially as a student. That being said, if you've got a tracker, just use it, and let the data inform MFP. Set and forget for 6-8 weeks and see if the results match expectation.

InspirationKitten

Thank you so much everyone for the advice! I'll look into investing in a fitbit at some point, but for now it'll be my iPhone step tracker.

PAV8888

Connect moves to MFP. 7k is lightly active. But student, plus job, and walks around campus and work would be expected to be about closer to 15k than 7k. To me total sounds as if your phone is not capturing all moment.