Activity Level Question

itsallgood11
itsallgood11 Posts: 18 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I have been trying to calculate my BMR but I was wondering what qualifies for each category of “active.” I run 4 miles every other day or do 30-40 minutes of HIIT workouts. I am not sure whether this would be considered lightly active or more. I feel confused about how much I should eat and exercise to meet my weight goal

Replies

  • harper16
    harper16 Posts: 2,564 Member
    edited April 2020
    Your activity level doesn't include exercise. You should log the exercise separately, and eat back the exercise calories. Enter your info into mfp and let that help calculate your calories.

    How much weight are you trying to lose?
  • itsallgood11
    itsallgood11 Posts: 18 Member
    Just a few pounds.
  • harper16
    harper16 Posts: 2,564 Member
    itsallgood11 wrote: »
    Just a few pounds.

    If you need to lose under 20 set your weight loss at .5 to 1 lb a week. If you are wanting to lose under 10 lbs set your weight loss at .5 lbs a week.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    Why are you trying to calculate your BMR in the first place?
    That would be your calories at total rest and in a fasted state.

    MyFitnessPal calculates it for you when you enter your stats and then applies an activity multiplier (excluding purposeful exercise) and works out an estimate of your maintenance calories for a day with no exercise.
    You then choose your desired rate of loss, which should ideally be a slow rate with just a "few pounds" to lose and you get your calorie goal.

    Exercise is completely separate from your daily goal calculation and estimated after the event and not before - it is not intended for exercise to boost your rate of weight loss and is explicitly not part of your activity setting.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    itsallgood11 wrote: »
    I have been trying to calculate my BMR but I was wondering what qualifies for each category of “active.” I run 4 miles every other day or do 30-40 minutes of HIIT workouts. I am not sure whether this would be considered lightly active or more. I feel confused about how much I should eat and exercise to meet my weight goal

    BMR is the calories you burn merely existing. With MFP, you set your activity level as to the descriptor that best describes your day to day hum drum and tell the calculator how much you desire to lose per week and it will calculate a weight loss calorie target for you. Exercise is additional activity that is accounted for when you do it and then log it and then get additional calories to adequately cover that additional activity.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    Your activity level is irrelevant to your BMR, the BMR is the energy you use just existing.

    Is there a reason why you don't want to use MFP to generate a calorie goal?
  • itsallgood11
    itsallgood11 Posts: 18 Member
    I was looking up BMR to see how many calories I burn without doing anything and need just to maintain and then looking at how the amount of calories needed changes with the activity level setting on the BMR calculator. MFP also asks what activity level is but doesn’t explain what “lightly active” or the other definitions really mean. I am not sure if my activity level counts as lightly active or active and want to make sure the app reflects things accurately so I know how much to consume.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    edited April 2020
    itsallgood11 wrote: »
    I was looking up BMR to see how many calories I burn without doing anything and need just to maintain and then looking at how the amount of calories needed changes with the activity level setting on the BMR calculator. MFP also asks what activity level is but doesn’t explain what “lightly active” or the other definitions really mean. I am not sure if my activity level counts as lightly active or active and want to make sure the app reflects things accurately so I know how much to consume.

    Unless you are completely incapacitated and not eating BMR isn't a reflection of your maintenance calories. It isn't even as high as if you were in hospital in a coma but being fed!
    There is a BMR estimator in the apps section if you really, really want an estimate but by itself it's not really a useful estimate.

    You really don't need to overthink the activity settings - just pick the one that you feel best reflects your day to day physical activity excluding purposeful exercise but including job, home life, non-exercise hobbies using the brief descriptions given.....

    After a month of logging you will have a good idea of how your calorie balance is working out and can adjust if required.

Categories