Activity Level??

LittleQuelie

I can’t seem to find anything that defines the different activity levels. I work an office job and sit for most of the day, I got to the gym at least two times per week (once with a trainer) and play court volleyball one per week. Would this be considered “lightly active”? How much would I have to add to be considered “active”?
Switching over to good old fashioned calorie counting after too many years paying WW for a product I don’t believe in, and have had a rude awakening realizing I’m eating way more calories than I think I am... help!!

nighthawk584

it would be sedentary because your exercise is counted separately from your normal lifestyle of a desk job.

LittleQuelie

Ok so what types of jobs would one need to have to be considered active? Or, how much “activity” do I need to include each day to get out of the sedentary zone? I can’t really do much about my desk job, but does going to the gym every day do nothing to increase the activity level?

neyagoal

In my opinion, as you work desk job I think that qualify you for sedentary activity level and your workouts should be logged separately if and when u do them and you could eat calories you get from it (I would recommend up to 50%-as we often overestimate calories burned).

lgfrie

All of your intentional exercise (e.g. trips to the gym) is excluded from the MFP formula. You're supposed to give it an activity level that doesn't take into account trips to the gym, etc. Those get logged separately as "exercise calories" and get added to your caloric quota for the day.

So, excluding the gym trips, what you've got is an office job and occasional volleyball game (and presumably a few other active pursuits). That probably qualifies as lightly active. If you were just going to your office job, that'd be sedentary. That'd be true even if you went to the gym for 3 hours a day 7 days a week, because that's not counted in the baseline calorie quota; it's added to it.

The difference between sedentary and lightly active boils down to MFP awarding you a few hundred more calories per day to eat if you tell it you're lightly active. In my case, 320 calories, but it'll vary a little from person to person depending on your weight, age, etc. Those 300-ish extra daily cals are great to have if you actual burn them by being "lightly active". If you're just sitting at a desk, it could cause ~ 1/2 lb less weight loss per week than anticipated.

When I crunched the numbers from my scale and my MFP diary, it showed that my daily burn rate was at the mid point between sedentary and lightly active. Over time you'll figure out which one makes the most sense based on whether you lose less, more, or the amount that MFP predicts you'll lose, and can change it at any time.

I advise starting with lightly active. You'll get more to eat, suffer less, and possibly lose a tiny bit less weight, while you figure all this out and learn how active you truly are. Which are all OK things. That's much better than the reverse - being underfed and unhappy because you're more active than you think you are and aren't allotted enough calories by MFP for your lifestyle. Again, you can always change it later.

neyagoal

Also, I found that having pedometer/fitness watch worked for me to get from sedentary to lightly active as I would aim to reach certain no. of steps each day and do everything possible to increase my NEAT

Lindsay375

A job in a plant or distribution center, involving being on ones feet would be considered highly active. If you worked a desk job, but had to go to the floor a lot that could bump you to lightly active.

I consider myself lightly active, because I was set at sedentary(as a stay at home mom) but was losing faster then anticipated, so I bumped myself up and find I’m losing at the expected rate now.

LittleQuelie

Thank you everyone!!