Another activity level question...highly variable

Lobsterboxtops

I was showing MFP to my husband (he’s thinking of using it) but we were both a little stumped when it came to choosing his activity level.

Here’s the situation...

He’s a professional Firefighter. His weekly work schedule looks like this (X being a work day (24 hour shift) and 0 being a day off): X0X0X000

On the days he’s working he’d have a highly active setting, but on the days he’s off he would have a lightly active to sedentary setting. He has intentional exercise on both work and non-work day’s (not as consistent on the non-work day’s)


Obviously he’s an anomaly when it comes to activity level, and doesn’t fit into the averages used by MFP. The best solution I could come up with was to figure out the base for each setting then pick one and manually figure out the goal for the day that doesn’t apply.

I figured this would be a good question to toss out to the group, since I’m sure he isn’t the only oddball out there 🙃

panda4153

My suggestion would be to set it to Active, yes he might eat a little more on less active days but he will have a bigger deficit on his highly active days. Weight loss is about consuming less calories then you burn over time. One day to the next is not a huge factor it’s about consistency over time. Pick a setting stick to it for 2-3 months and track progress if losing too quickly you and up the activity level, too slowly back it down. The only way to know for sure is to try something and stick to it long enough to determine effectiveness. Weight loss is not linear you may see it go up and down one day to the next even one week to the next for all kinds of reasons. What you are looking for though is an overall downward trend. I actually weigh daily but use Happy Scale app to see my trend. It syncs with MFP nicely too.

Lobsterboxtops

I probably should have mentioned that I’ve been using MFP successfully now for about 3 months, so am comfortable with the concepts and overall success strategies. The specific question comes from a calorie goal that could very easily vary by 1000 calories depending on his work schedule. So I’m not sure that average would work in this case, where it would work perfectly fine for my situation.

spiriteagle99

With 3 days highly active and 4 days sedentary to lightly active, I'd go with a lower setting, enter any and all intentional exercise and eat back those calories, and allow some leeway for days that he is more active. Maybe eat at or just below maintenance level on days when he is really busy but at goal level on the days he isn't.

BarbaraHelen2013

I think I’d agree that setting the activity level to active to start with is your best way forward. Set that and a weekly loss target appropriate to how much weight he’d like to lose. I’d suggest starting at 1lb a week.

See what the numbers comes out at, go with it and have a look after 4-6 weeks to see whether any weight loss is as expected. It’s a process of experimentation for many people and particularly in circumstances that don’t neatly fit the normal criteria!

Ultimately, though, it’s about energy in vs energy out over time, so once you find the sweet spot it won’t matter that activity level is not consistent.

cmriverside

HE can also go to a TDEE calculator site like sailrabbit or scooby and set HIS calories that way. It's six of one half dozen of the other.

If he wants to log regular purposeful exercise, then Myfitnesspal's system is the easier and more nuanced, but a lot of people prefer to eat a set amount of food every day since it's just easier.

I say let him figure it out, he's going to have to decide how much he wants to put into this. I'm guessing that as a firefighter he's likely pretty fit already. He can choose Active on MFP and do that for a while and adjust or he can use TDEE and do that for a while and adjust. It's really up to him.

Lobsterboxtops

Thanks all. Yes it’s up to him to figure this out. But it did get me to thinking, which is why I asked. More of a question that got me thinking vs a problem that needs solved.

I feel for him because while he is very fit and active he does seem to have the build and shape of your average offensive lineman. He’s one of those big guys that is in good shape and exercises constantly but still has weight to lose (his words not mine). When we were last talking he did say that one of his challenges is that he eats the same if he’s working or not, which I agreed is probably the problem. Eating 3500 calories on a day where your activity level is super high with intentional exercise is a lot different than eating those same calories with little to no activity and no intentional exercise.


As an experiment I plugged in his numbers and on a sedentary day his base was 1680, on an highly active day it was 2850, active was 2400.

heybales

Just TDEE Please spreadsheet - better than rough 5 level TDEE charts from 1919 study.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1G7FgNzPq3v5WMjDtH0n93LXSMRY_hjmzNTMJb3aZSxM/edit?usp=sharing

Can figure out a 7 day block average too, one with work, one without.

I know a couple tried to break it out like that - and discovered that their 4 x 10 factory jobs just meant their chores were shoved into the 3 days making those almost as busy (never near sedentary when they thought about it), though exercise was spread throughout both types of days.