Goal Setting Approach

JaxxieKat

I was wondering which approach everyone takes. I have a job that involves some manual labor and some sitting at a desk. I do moderate exercise at least 4 times per week for 30 to 60 minutes. I set my activity level to light activity, rather than sedentary, and do not track exercise. Does anyone else find this approach works?

MikePTY

Your job in and of itself is likely at least lightly active. You should either be eating your exercise calories back or setting your goal using a TDEE calculator and choosing active as your activity level.

sijomial

JaxxieKat wrote: »

I was wondering which approach everyone takes. I have a job that involves some manual labor and some sitting at a desk. I do moderate exercise at least 4 times per week for 30 to 60 minutes. I set my activity level to light activity, rather than sedentary, and do not track exercise. Does anyone else find this approach works?

Opposite approach for me.
I found the approach of setting an appropriate/accurate activity level and eating back all my exercise calories worked well both for weight loss and maintenance.

RelCanonical

If you find you're not losing after a month, it might be too high, but I think with the half-and-half desk and labor work, it might be about right. It's what I would choose if I were in your situation (I had the "easy" sedentary choice, lol).

ElizabethKalmbach

If you aren't big on making entries for all your workouts, TDEE is probably the way to go - but you need to be a more patient sort of person for this as it basically allows you to average things over time. You may find you need to tweak your calories up and down from one month to the next as you may not hit your calorie level quite right on the first go.

If you enjoy taking accurate notes and are very detail oriented (I'm so not.), or if your activity level has a lot of variability from one month to the next, you'll likely do better with MFP's NEAT+exercise method. I have used both, and they both work well - I am just so clockwork that I don't like having to fuss with exercise entries on my tiny phone screen.

HoneyBadger302

I use a TDEE approach and eat in a calorie range instead of a hard number. I find this approach works best for me. If I'm making all my workouts, I can eat at the upper end of the range and lose right on target, and if I'm not making all of my gym time, then I can either eat at the lower end or accept a slower loss. No matter what, it's a slight deficit for me as long as I'm getting my average workouts-per-week in (over time I'm pretty consistent with 4x/week regardless, but the plan is 5).

I prefer to eat about the same amount of food each day though, and find that MUCH easier from a mental and planning standpoint. Since my weeks are pretty consistent, that approach works for me.

Maxxitt

JaxxieKat wrote: »

I was wondering which approach everyone takes. I have a job that involves some manual labor and some sitting at a desk. I do moderate exercise at least 4 times per week for 30 to 60 minutes. I set my activity level to light activity, rather than sedentary, and do not track exercise. Does anyone else find this approach works?

It can work fine - just keep track of your scale data and how you feel. If you are feeling fine, sleeping well, and maintaining a reasonable weight loss (or maintaining if that is your goal) then there is no reason to worry. You can make a change down the road if your data or how you feel indicates some adjustments are needed.

cbihatt

My days vary on the amount of movement I do depending on what I have going on, but I would consider myself somewhere between sedentary and lightly active. I have my MFP activity level set at lightly active and I do not eat back my exercise calories. I run 3 times a week.

I am also very casual about my food tracking. I stick to my weekly calorie goal as best I can determine, but I am not always strictly accurate with my food tracking. I estimate a bit more than I probably should.

I have my goal set to lose 1 pound per week. In the beginning, I lost closer to 1.5 per week, but it’s slowed down over the last month and is right on target.

Your approach can definitely work, but you may find that your rate of loss doesn’t match your goal. So, it’s up to you how to handle that. You just have to monitor what is going on and adjust as necessary.

NovusDies

I set my calorie goal based on my results and I use the TDEE system. I calculate my 3, 6, & 12 week rate of loss in a spreadsheet and monitor it for any changes I need to make to my eating. I make most of my decisions based on 6 and 12 weeks because they "smooth" out the weight fluctuations.

lgfrie

I'm kind of in @novusdies boat. After six months of dieting, MFP tracking, and spreadsheets, I have my TDEE nailed down to the exact calorie. My spreadsheet now even includes a precise trend line of declining TDEE due to weight loss so I know how much less I can eat with every additional lost pound LOL

I just eat 875 less than my TDEE and lose the desired 1 3/4 pounds per week. Pretty simple system. It started out a lot more complex six months ago.

azayedcanada

Does anyone know a good exercise program that i can follow at the gym. i used to be sports active but due to knee injuries, i slowed down a lot and lost fitness. i am 43. i normally do cardio and swim but my job is sitting in desk most of the time. Thanks friends

Interpol888

Seconds turn to minutes - minutes turn to hours - hours in to days - days in to weeks, weeks into months, months into years

Choose your seconds well