how active am i?

bfbg1121

i'm trying to accurate gauge roughly how many calories i should be eating a day depending on how active i am. i'm 5'3, female, 100 lbs, and 18. i work out 5-6 times a week for 30-40 mins, doing either boxing or light weights, and i go for a 40 minute walk every single day in addition to working out.

since i'm at home, i'm making a more conscious effort to not be sedentary, so when i'm not working out or walking i make sure to stand up and walk around every 30 minutes or so, so that i don't sit for like 3 hours lol.

so would i be considered lightly or moderately active? thank you so much!

janejellyroll

By MFP standards, it sounds as if you are sedentary but doing a fair amount of intentional exercise (which MFP doesn't count in your base activity level). If you want to use MFP as designed, choose "sedentary" and then log your exercise and eat those calories back. Some people are concerned that MFP's exercise database overestimates the calories burnt through exercise, so they only eat back a portion of those (say, 50-75%) until they have a chance to track it against their real life results and then they adjust to eat more or less of those calories depending on how things have gone after a few weeks.

harper16

You are underweight for your height and current weight. Are you trying to gain weight?

bfbg1121

harper16 wrote: »

You are underweight for your height and current weight. Are you trying to gain weight?

yes i am! i'm trying to gain about 5 pounds.

janejellyroll

bfbg1121 wrote: »

harper16 wrote: »

You are underweight for your height and current weight. Are you trying to gain weight?

yes i am! i'm trying to gain about 5 pounds.

Then I would definitely begin with eating back 100% of your exercise calories and adjust from there as necessary.

harper16

bfbg1121 wrote: »

harper16 wrote: »

You are underweight for your height and current weight. Are you trying to gain weight?

yes i am! i'm trying to gain about 5 pounds.

In the goals I know you can set for gaining weight, but I'm not sure how accurate that is. I would log your exercise and be sure to eat back all those calories. Outside of the exercise is your daily life pretty sedentary?

janejellyroll

harper16 wrote: »

bfbg1121 wrote: »

harper16 wrote: »

You are underweight for your height and current weight. Are you trying to gain weight?

yes i am! i'm trying to gain about 5 pounds.

In the goals I know you can set for gaining weight, but I'm not sure how accurate that is. I would log your exercise and be sure to eat back all those calories. Outside of the exercise is your daily life pretty sedentary?

If I remember correctly, it's based on the same calories per pound calculation as the goals to maintain/lose weight, so if those two are accurate for an individual, then the "gain weight" should be pretty accurate as well (and I know I've seen some posters in the "Gain Weight" section of the forum who have self-reported having success with MFP's goals).

If the OP's goal doesn't produce the desired results, they can use the same tweaking one would use if an initial calorie goal for weight loss doesn't prove effective, just adjusting calories in the opposite direction.