Activity level?

average2aphrodite

Since the pandemic hit and I lost my job, I've been working out more often and trying to eat healthier to lose weight. My workout schedule is Mondays -Thursdays I workout for 30 minutes a day, Fridays I jog 2 - 3 miles (35 min - an hour), weekends are my rest days.

I've had my activity level set to 'light activity' but since I've increased the amount I workout, I've hit a plateau in my weight loss. Should I increase my activity level to 'active' to increase my calories or stay at 'lightly active'?

harper16

Your activity level doesn't include your exercise. If you are using MFP to calculate your goals. You should be logging any exercise separate, and eating back those calories.

average2aphrodite

I'll have to start doing that. I've heard conflicting opinions on if you should eat back what you exercise so I never know which is correct.

AnnPT77

Here's why the "conflicting opinions": There are two different kinds of calorie needs estimators.

MFP asks you to specify your activity level in your daily life - job, home chores, etc. - before intentional exercise. It then calculates your non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT) - the amount it estimates you'd burn without any intentional exercise at all. Then, it takes the weight loss rate you request (X pounds or kg per week), and subtracts the related amount of calories from your NEAT (subject to minimums for eseential nutrition). Eat that many calories, do no exercise, it thinks you'll lose weight at the requested rate. (It's all estimates, right?).

Then, if you do exercise, you log it, and eat it back, because it isn't otherwise accounted for. You would, in MFP's estimate, keep losing weight at the same rate.

Makes sense? Move more, eat more; move less, eat less, basically.

The other kind of calorie estimator (many outside-of-MFP calculators) is a TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) calculator. It asks you to input your activity level including intentional exercise. It then averages that exercise over a week. For example, if you say you do vigorous exercise 3 days a week, it estimates the effect of that exercise, but averages it over 7 days. Those calculators, if requested, will also usually give you a weight loss goal (different ones calculate it in different ways, but it's some kind of subtraction from TDEE to build in weight loss).

The catch with TDEE calculators is that if you say you're going to exercise 6 days a week, and you only exercise 2 days, you're going to lose weight slower, or maybe not at all, because you're moving less than you said you would. You have to keep up your end of the bargain. (Also, it's still all just estimates.)

If you prefer to eat the same number of calories daily, and have a pretty consistent exercise schedule, then it's fine to use a TDEE calculator, set your MFP calorie goal manually, and eat the same number of calories every day.

If you want to use the MFP method, which will probably be a better approach if you have a more variable exercise schedule, then set your MFP activity level based on pre-exercise activity, log exercise as accurately as you can, and eat back a reasonable fraction of exercise calories. (Some people eat back only a percentage at first, like 50-75%, because they worry about overestimating them.)

Don't mix the two methods. Pick one or the other, NEAT or TDEE, and stick within its system. (There are tecnical reasons why, but that's more than I want to go into right now.)

Either way, it's still just estimates. So, stick to it with reasonable consistency for 4-6 weeks, and compare your actual average weekly results to anticipated/calculated results, and adjust intake if necessary. Your actual results can differ from the estimates, because people vary a bit. The first couple of weeks can be a water-weight roller coaster. If they look dramatically whacky in your personal data, ignore them, and use at least 4 later weeks. Premenopausal women should be comparing weights at the same relative point in at least 2 different menstrual cycles.

In your particular case, I suspect your daily life (pre-exercise) activity could have been lower when you lost your job. Only you know, but maybe your activity level (MFP NEAT method) dropped from lightly active to sedentary. That means a lower calorie burn, but MFP won't know that unless you reset your activity level. If you then increase your exercise, it expects you to log the exercise (not reset activity level), because it's using "NEAT method".

Pick a method, use the right calculator (actually an estimator!) for that method, follow its guidance and intended method, track your results, adjust. Success in calorie counting lies over in that direction.

Best wishes for much success!

average2aphrodite

That was very informative, thank you for educating me! I had originally filled out my calorie deficit using a TDEE calculator and not putting in/eating back the calories I've burned so I think I'm going to try it the MFP way and put in my exercises for a month or two to see how it goes.