What activity level would you say this is?

kerensoula

Hi all, I’m getting back into logging consistently and diligently the last 10 days or so after a bit of a break from calorie counting. Scale hasn’t moved so far which I’m not concerned about as my margins for losing are fairly small, and I’m not looking to lose a huge amount at a fast rate.

In terms of calculating my TDEE, I think I tend to underestimate my activity level and I have quite a large appetite for a small person, so I don’t want to be skipping out on any calories that I could be eating.

My stats are:
Female
118 lb
152cm (just under 5’0)

I work a desk job 9-6, but I go for a walk every morning, lunch time and evening when I am working from home, or else my walk to and from work achieves a similar amount of steps. I’m usually between 10,000 - 12,000 steps p/day Mon - Fri, and usually average around 15,000 - 17,000 on the weekend depending what I’m doing.

These steps include 3-4 works outs a week, which normally includes 2 x runs (1 shorter 5km and 1 slightly longer 8-10km), and 2 total body workouts, generally something like kickboxing/cardio blend, where I would work up a moderate sweat.

I’ve been inputting myself as ‘Lightly Active’ on the TDEE calculators I have been using (generally I would trial a number of them and deduce a reasonable number between them). But I’m just wondering what activity level others would consider this to be? Do people always take a conservative approach to inputting activity level? As noted at the beginning of my post, if I could get away with a higher activity level and benefit from the calories, that would be great.

Thanks in advance.

HoneyBadger302

Typically, "active" is over 10K steps/day. As long as you've entered your other information accurately, that would probably be about right, however, I doubt I would "add in" your exercise since it's not daily, and is already included in that step count. See how you feel after a couple weeks, and if you're starting to see the results you would expect after a month (typically takes my body several weeks to adjust to changes, so I like to use a month as a better gauge of "is this working?").

westrich20940

Do you log your high intensity workouts (the boxing...etc) and your 2 runs as cardio...?

That should give you those calories back to eat in MFP. I'd use Lightly Active or Active on a TDEE calculator to see what your maintenance cals are --- if you are trying to lose weight, subtract some (somewhere where it will not put you close/below your BMR, so you might not have much wiggle room)...and then log your cardio workouts (try your best to be as accurate as possible with burn) and then eat back 50-100% of those depending on how hungry you are....

For example --- I'm 5'3", ~116lbs and if I run 10K at like...5.5-6mph I'd burn like 400-500 (depending on elevation of my route) calories and you can bet I'm eating that back for sure. Bc I'll be ravenous. LOL. I am no longer actively losing weight but even when I was, I still ate back some or all of my workout calories. So yeah, it's totally possible that you are leaving well-deserved cals on the table!

nooshi713

Based on your steps, you are very active.