How many more calories should I eat on days I’m more active?

bemyyfriend0918

Some days at my job I’m sitting at a desk all day, and other days I’m on my feet walking. I’ve worn a step tracker and I generally take about 3000 steps a day when I’m at my desk and 14000 the days I’m not. My calorie level is set to 1450 and I have my fitness level set to sedentary.

My question is should I be eating more on the days I’m walking more since I’m more active? If so, how can I determine how much more?

NovusDies

I am assuming your step tracker will not sync with MFP, correct?

How long have you been losing? If it is about 6 weeks we can use your own numbers to see how much more.

How many days a week/month are you hitting 14k?

bemyyfriend0918

NovusDies wrote: »

I am assuming your step tracker will not sync with MFP, correct?

How long have you been losing? If it is about 6 weeks we can use your own numbers to see how much more.

How many days a week/month are you hitting 14k?

So I’ve been losing for about a month, and it seems to be an average of 3lbs a week. I’ll hit around 14k steps every Monday-Friday from now until September 9th, then I’ll go back down to around 3k again for a couple of weeks. I’m wondering if I should change my activity level on MFP...but I’ve tried to research and I can’t seem to figure out if 14k would be just lightly active or active instead of sedentary which it’s set to now

NovusDies

bemyyfriend0918 wrote: »

NovusDies wrote: »

I am assuming your step tracker will not sync with MFP, correct?

How long have you been losing? If it is about 6 weeks we can use your own numbers to see how much more.

How many days a week/month are you hitting 14k?

So I’ve been losing for about a month, and it seems to be an average of 3lbs a week. I’ll hit around 14k steps every Monday-Friday from now until September 9th, then I’ll go back down to around 3k again for a couple of weeks. I’m wondering if I should change my activity level on MFP...but I’ve tried to research and I can’t seem to figure out if 14k would be just lightly active or active instead of sedentary which it’s set to now

What are your stats? Age, current weight, gender, and height. What did you tell MFP you wanted to lose each week? I am assuming 2 pounds a week. If it is 2 and you are losing 3 pounds that means you need to be eating 500 more calories per day all 7 days of the week.

NovusDies

Oh and to answer your question the general recommendation is for you to set it for 'very active' with that many steps.

PAV8888

NovusDies wrote: »

Oh and to answer your question the general recommendation is for you to set it for 'very active' with that many steps.

very active on those 14k days. at sedentary on the other 3k days. Probably active on average over 7 days.

echo average of about 500 Cal more per day for the week regardless of how achieved (by changing goals, by just eating more, by standing on head and rubbing belly! )

NorthCascades

If the tracker counting your steps syncs to MFP, just eat to the goal here. Easy peasy, nothing complicated about it.

lg013

I just wanna applaud you for wanting to lose healthy and slow down your weight loss to 2 pounds a week or less by adjusting the settings. That seems to be rare on here as many want to see a lot faster results.

I personally like keeping my setting to lightly active and adjusting daily if I’m moving around more...It’s still only a month in, and you tend to shed pounds quicker at first that many times includes some water weight. I’d try to move up around 200-250 calories per day and see what that does. If you are still losing more than 2 pounds, adjust up further.

bemyyfriend0918

Thanks everyone! I'm going to take your recommendations and implement them. For those who asked my stats are 5'4, 212lbs, 28 years old. My goal weight is 152lbs, so I have about 60lbs to lose. I'm not trying to rush the process, I think 2lbs a week is a good rate for now and as I get closer to goal I can lower it to 1.5/1lb a week instead.

My step counter isn't able to be synced with MFP unfortunately, but I think what I am going to do is change my activity level daily depending on how many steps I know i'll take. On days I take 3K i'll leave it as sedentary, and on days I take 14K i'll set it to highly active.

I also think i'll invest in a step counter that can sync with MFP later in the year. I can always adjust if it's not working

NovusDies

bemyyfriend0918 wrote: »

Thanks everyone! I'm going to take your recommendations and implement them. For those who asked my stats are 5'4, 212lbs, 28 years old. My goal weight is 152lbs, so I have about 60lbs to lose. I'm not trying to rush the process, I think 2lbs a week is a good rate for now and as I get closer to goal I can lower it to 1.5/1lb a week instead.

My step counter isn't able to be synced with MFP unfortunately, but I think what I am going to do is change my activity level daily depending on how many steps I know i'll take. On days I take 3K i'll leave it as sedentary, and on days I take 14K i'll set it to highly active.

I also think i'll invest in a step counter that can sync with MFP later in the year. I can always adjust if it's not working

Don't wait too long to lower to 1.5. Generally speaking you don't want to be losing more than 1 percent of your total body weight per week and you are getting very close to the line now. I think protecting muscle is pretty important so I would do it now but it is your call.

lorrpb

^^ Agreed , 2 lb per week is on the high side with 60 left to lose. Good job though!

cwolfman13

bemyyfriend0918 wrote: »

NovusDies wrote: »

I am assuming your step tracker will not sync with MFP, correct?

How long have you been losing? If it is about 6 weeks we can use your own numbers to see how much more.

How many days a week/month are you hitting 14k?

So I’ve been losing for about a month, and it seems to be an average of 3lbs a week. I’ll hit around 14k steps every Monday-Friday from now until September 9th, then I’ll go back down to around 3k again for a couple of weeks. I’m wondering if I should change my activity level on MFP...but I’ve tried to research and I can’t seem to figure out if 14k would be just lightly active or active instead of sedentary which it’s set to now

14,000 would be active

JAMeadEsq

You can set custom calorie goals for each day of the week (at least, with the premium version of MFP you can ... not sure on the free version). I run Tu/Th/Sat, with Sat being a long run where I burn at least 3500 calories and sometimes more than 5000. On Tu/Th I tend to burn 2500 - 2700 calories. On non-active days, I burn 2000-2100 calories. So, I set my calorie goals based on consuming 500 to 750 calories less than my typical burn for each day. It's easy to go in and adjust those daily goals, so if you're coming to a stretch of low-calorie burn days, you can adjust it. Just a thought.

kshama2001