Activity level confusion!!

Chunky2Slinky19

I'm new-ish and so confused about what to set my calories at.
I'm a mum to 2 girls and my activity levels vary. Some days I do around 12,000+ steps others I reach 6,000.
I swim once per week and walk everywhere.
And should i wear my fitbit or just log any "extra" calories from exercise
Tia x

Panini911

if you have a fitbit that can be useful.
i'd set myself as sedentary (activity level) and sync the fitbit which will give you the exercise calorie adjustment daily (eat at least a portion if not all those calories)

the swim log as purposeful exercise separately. eat those calories too.

lms_938

I am going through the same issue, wondering what settings to use. I decided to set myself as 'light active' (I swim or cycle most days) but if I have a very active day and I'm hungry as a result, I'll happily go over the calorie range a bit.

It's all trial and error really. Don't be fooled by the slick and easy interface provided by MFP. I put too much faith in it to begin with and wondered why I wasn't losing any weight. It's a very rough estimate which is useful as a starting point. Try it for a few weeks, then adjust as needed to reach your goal.

heybales

@Ims_938 - also be aware that the MFP activity levels are related to NO exercise (since that is all you listed for reasons to select Lightly Active).

Most people that get an activity tracker discover through adjustments they were not Sedentary - which is very true.

Sedentary is truly a bump on a log all day and weekends - not just a desk job. No kids, pets, household duties, ect.
Most even with desk jobs discovery they are really Lightly Active - and that is outside of exercise, and before being inspired to move more.

It is trial and error - but just as logging food by weight not volume is a more correct way of doing that side of the equation - nothing hurts starting the other side as best as possible.

Besides which - for a woman it can take a month of literally changing BMR before tracking can really be used to make an assessment of things - therefore 2 months to make a change and see if it was correct.

luaP852350

I'm confused by this as well 🤔 I wear my fitbit all day everyday I'm on my feet Monday to Friday 8am - 6pm May 6th - May 12th average daily steps is 6945 I'm currently set as lightly active?

heybales

luaP852350 wrote: »

I'm confused by this as well 🤔 I wear my fitbit all day everyday I'm on my feet Monday to Friday 8am - 6pm May 6th - May 12th average daily steps is 6945 I'm currently set as lightly active?

That is likely the correct level depending on how much distance is a result of those steps - distance is what the calories directly is calculated from.

But with syncing it doesn't matter - MFP is going to correct itself - either a small or larger adjustment depending on how far off you are on guess.

After a couple days you'll probably have an idea of what that adjustment is even if set to Sedentary and it's large, and you can plan accordingly.

The benefit of selecting sedentary has to do with nighttime - when you hit the couch and then bed.
MFP is going to estimate those hours at a burn rate for whatever level you selected. So if you go to bed early and therefore rely on some early sync to give final adjustment to eat to - Fitbit is going to inform MFP the next morning you did not burn at that higher rate, but sleeping rate.
So there will be a correction to final adjustment down.
Which if you ate to an early goal figure, you'd have gone over in reality as shown the next morning.

Lillymoo01

Panini911 wrote: »

if you have a fitbit that can be useful.
i'd set myself as sedentary (activity level) and sync the fitbit which will give you the exercise calorie adjustment daily (eat at least a portion if not all those calories)

the swim log as purposeful exercise separately. eat those calories too.

^^ this is what I do and it works well.