Determining which activity level I am!

fivefootfitness

I'm a college student who is rather active, but I'm never sure which activity level to set my goals with. I live on a moderately sized campus and don't have a car with me. So, i walk to and from all of my classes (on average three a day, five days a week). I take a 1.5 hour Jazz dance class 2x a week, plus a movement for actors class, which includes about thirty minutes light cardio and moderate toning 2x a week. On top of that I work out at least 4-6 times a week, which includes about a half hour to 45 min of cardio plus strength and toning after.

I don't do very active things when I'm just bored (As in, the rest of my free time is pretty sedentary save for walking places). I'm trying to lose fat again (i did put on a few freshman pounds, but I actually think some of it might be muscle rebuilding and a little fat since i stopped running). I'm wondering if I might truly be eating too few calories, because despite yoga and running almost everyday this summer and performing for 2 hours of musical theatre every weekday + walking everywhere, I wasn't able to lose any weight then either. I usually aim for about 1000 calories since i'm already so petite (5'0", under 120 usually) (but always tend over, but not by ridiculous amounts. I am a horrible snacker, but not enough for my weight to absolutely never budge like this). Do I need to eat more? I ate very healthily at home but of course it's trickier on a college meal plan.

by the way, I'm sorry this got posted in maintaining forum, i don't know what happened......

Alta2000

Yes you are undereating big time! Try scoobie's to calculate http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

aprilslusher

Yes you are undereating big time! Try scoobie's to calculate http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

I agree with all of this! :flowerforyou:

TeaBea

I'm a college student who is rather active, but I'm never sure which activity level to set my goals with. I live on a moderately sized campus and don't have a car with me. So, i walk to and from all of my classes (on average three a day, five days a week). I take a 1.5 hour Jazz dance class 2x a week, plus a movement for actors class, which includes about thirty minutes light cardio and moderate toning 2x a week. On top of that I work out at least 4-6 times a week, which includes about a half hour to 45 min of cardio plus strength and toning after.

I don't do very active things when I'm just bored (As in, the rest of my free time is pretty sedentary save for walking places). I'm trying to lose fat again (i did put on a few freshman pounds, but I actually think some of it might be muscle rebuilding and a little fat since i stopped running). I'm wondering if I might truly be eating too few calories, because despite yoga and running almost everyday this summer and performing for 2 hours of musical theatre every weekday + walking everywhere, I wasn't able to lose any weight then either. I usually aim for about 1000 calories since i'm already so petite (5'0", under 120 usually) (but always tend over, but not by ridiculous amounts. I am a horrible snacker, but not enough for my weight to absolutely never budge like this). Do I need to eat more? I ate very healthily at home but of course it's trickier on a college meal plan.

by the way, I'm sorry this got posted in maintaining forum, i don't know what happened......

Yes, you are under eating. MFP as designed gives you a calorie deficit BEFORE exercise, and 1200 is the bare minimum it gives anyone. Those 1200 calories are a NET number..... meaning exercise calories are added back in. This is to keep the deficit from being too large. At really large deficits you are likely to lose fat + muscle mass.

Scooby's calculator will give you calculations for TDEE ....this includes exercise....many people start with that number & subtract a deficit from that.

GingerLolita

You definitely need to eat more! No one should ever be eating under 1200 calories. You can either set your activity level fairly low (maybe lightly active) and log the more intense exercises or set it pretty high (maybe active) and don't log exercise.