Sedentary means how sedentary?

sola24

Not sure if I am posting this on the right forum but here it goes..

When we consider ourselves to have a sedentary lifestyle, how much sedentary does it imply?

For example, without my regular exercise my everyday lifestyle will be like this.

I wake up in the morning and cook/clean at times. I stay as a paying guest and my owner stays 3 floors above so I go there get my breakfast. I take the stairs of course. I get ready for office. I walk to office. Its around 2 km and takes me around 30 mins. I work a desk job. But during lunch usually i take stairs 2 floors up or down.. sometimes even walk to food court which is around 10-15 mins away. Evening I dont walk back usually as it gets dark so I take the cab back from office. Little more cooking/cleaning around. Then dinner and studies and off to bed.

Will it be considered as a pretty sedentary lifestyle? I have always considered myself very sedentary.

Pardon my english.. its not my first language.

meshashesha2012

i would consider that lightly active.

i consider sedentary waking up and pretty much saying seated all day.

Roaringgael

Check out exercise/ calorie amounts for the things you do.
Buy a pedometer if you can and see how many steps you take.
Your walking a minimum of 30 mins, so its not sedentary.

mungowungo

I would think that you were at least lightly active.

sola24

Check out exercise/ calorie amounts for the things you do.
Buy a pedometer if you can and see how many steps you take.
Your walking a minimum of 30 mins, so its not sedentary.

I get that 30 mins walk only 5 times a week. Weekends I dont. I go out though.. so probably walk around quite a bit.

gerry_jamison

I'd say lightly active, no more.

kagevf

yup, lightly active.
sedentary is ...you sit for at least 8hrs a day

Sarauk2sf

I agree that you are not sedentary. Put your setting at lightly active - see if your weight loss coincides (looking at a period of at least 4 weeks to minimize water weight fluctuations skewing results). Tweak up or down based on actual results.

JeninBelgium

I would agree that you are lightly active

Your English is fabulous, by the way. As for English correction, I would say "landlord" or "landlady" instead of owner- as they (hopefully) don't own you, just the room that you rent :laugh:

I am living in a country where they speak three languages, none of which is/are my mother tongue. Everyday, I say things which are ridiculously funny to the various native speakers, but they all appreciate the fact that I try to speak the local languages , but they seem to understand what I mean when I say things and hopefully I improve a little each day. Trust me, your English is far superior to my Dutch, French or my German (and any other language I might ever try to speak!)

sola24

I would agree that you are lightly active

Your English is fabulous, by the way. As for English correction, I would say "landlord" or "landlady" instead of owner- as they (hopefully) don't own you, just the room that you rent :laugh:

I am living in a country where they speak three languages, none of which is/are my mother tongue. Everyday, I say things which are ridiculously funny to the various native speakers, but they all appreciate the fact that I try to speak the local languages , but they seem to understand what I mean when I say things and hopefully I improve a little each day. Trust me, your English is far superior to my Dutch, French or my German (and any other language I might ever try to speak!)

Haha.. point to be noted.. We indians sometimes use really weird phases which can be normal to us but is hilarious to the rest of the world And I am much comfortable speaking english than any other indian language I can speak apart from my native tongue I guess.. Prefer english over hindi anyday...

I actually changed my activity level from sedentary to lightly active a month back because I was feeling restricted on 1200 calories. No weightloss last month(That might also be due to pigging out on festive days and new year) but I dropped half a kg last week. woohoo!!

Oh, I only get that walk 5 time a week when I going to work. On weekends I dont. Though I go out and probably move around a lot more than other days.

eldamiano

Isnt sedentary really a reference to your work? So office clerk, sedentary. Waiter/ress, active....

animatorswearbras

Personally I would say sedentary and input your 1hr walk to and from work (maybe at 2.5mph) or lightly active and don't log it

I agree 1200 cals is way too restrictive, I've set MFP to lose half a pound a week, sedentary, giving me 1450cals a day. If I exercise I lose more or bank it for the weekends as I'm usually terrible at being good due to either socialising or boredom when I'm not at work However this is just a strategy that works for me

piersonj

Isnt sedentary really a reference to your work? So office clerk, sedentary. Waiter/ress, active....

Sedentary, lightly active etc refers to the average amount of activity you consistently perform in your day to day activities. Since work takes up most of the day for the average person, examples of various jobs are given for the activity levels. I work at a desk job, but have found that I am actually about half way between sedentary and lightly active due to my specific job requirements. From the OP description of her day, it seems to me she has a couple of options.
1. chose sedentary and log all the walking as exercise each day
2. chose lightly active and see if her weight lose matches her set expectations and adjust manually after some observation.
3. chose sedentary and take any "extra" weight lose as a bonus

Which option is chosen with depend on the persons goals and priorities. For me, even though I have a lot of weight to lose, it is important that I lose at a rate of 1 to 1.5 pounds per week. I have found that if I lose more than 1.5 pounds in one week, I subconsciously hinder my weight lose efforts for the next couple of weeks. For others the primary goal may be to lose weigh as quick as possible or being able to afford (calorie wise) desert each day. That is why I like MFP so much, you can tailor it to your goals for weight lose and nutritional life changes.

sola24

Personally I would say sedentary and input your 1hr walk to and from work (maybe at 2.5mph) or lightly active and don't log it

I agree 1200 cals is way too restrictive, I've set MFP to lose half a pound a week, sedentary, giving me 1450cals a day. If I exercise I lose more or bank it for the weekends as I'm usually terrible at being good due to either socialising or boredom when I'm not at work However this is just a strategy that works for me

I was put on 1200 calories even at 0.5lbs per week loss. Hence I upped my activity level. That has put me on 1360 cals which is still less, but I can manage with that. Last month had too many days when I went wayy over my maintenance and I dont regret it but I didnt have any weightloss last month. I will see this month as well on 1360 calories and will readjust accordingly. I am already at a healthy weight so have very little to lose.

brevislux

I think sedentary means you get out of the house in the morning, get into your car, drive to work, go in, drive back in the afternoon and don't walk around much. If you walk a little bit I'd say it's lightly active.

257_Lag

I would go with lightly active also. I thought I was sedimentary since I sit at a desk most of the day but then I got a fitbit and found that I walked about 6000 steps on a normal day.

darrensurrey

i would consider that lightly active.

i consider sedentary waking up and pretty much saying seated all day.

Aye. Sedentary would be getting up, jumping into your car, driving to work, sitting at a desk all day, driving home, sitting in front of the TV all evening.

RawCarrots

Personally I would say sedentary and input your 1hr walk to and from work (maybe at 2.5mph) or lightly active and don't log it

I agree 1200 cals is way too restrictive, I've set MFP to lose half a pound a week, sedentary, giving me 1450cals a day. If I exercise I lose more or bank it for the weekends as I'm usually terrible at being good due to either socialising or boredom when I'm not at work However this is just a strategy that works for me

I was put on 1200 calories even at 0.5lbs per week loss. Hence I upped my activity level. That has put me on 1360 cals which is still less, but I can manage with that. Last month had too many days when I went wayy over my maintenance and I dont regret it but I didnt have any weightloss last month. I will see this month as well on 1360 calories and will readjust accordingly. I am already at a healthy weight so have very little to lose.

I'd guess you are quite short based on these numbers, in which case your only options maybe either stick with 1200 or increase your activity so you can eat more. If your TDEE is 1400 and you have very small deficit, it's very easy to accidentally go over, so you have to be meticulous when logging! I have few MFPs who are around 5'2 and they've all opted for increased exercise so they can eat more. Unfortunately there is no way around it.

sola24

Personally I would say sedentary and input your 1hr walk to and from work (maybe at 2.5mph) or lightly active and don't log it

I agree 1200 cals is way too restrictive, I've set MFP to lose half a pound a week, sedentary, giving me 1450cals a day. If I exercise I lose more or bank it for the weekends as I'm usually terrible at being good due to either socialising or boredom when I'm not at work However this is just a strategy that works for me

I was put on 1200 calories even at 0.5lbs per week loss. Hence I upped my activity level. That has put me on 1360 cals which is still less, but I can manage with that. Last month had too many days when I went wayy over my maintenance and I dont regret it but I didnt have any weightloss last month. I will see this month as well on 1360 calories and will readjust accordingly. I am already at a healthy weight so have very little to lose.

I'd guess you are quite short based on these numbers, in which case your only options maybe either stick with 1200 or increase your activity so you can eat more. If your TDEE is 1400 and you have very small deficit, it's very easy to accidentally go over, so you have to be meticulous when logging! I have few MFPs who are around 5'2 and they've all opted for increased exercise so they can eat more. Unfortunately there is no way around it.

I am just 5ft. :sad: I was working out twice a day but due to some commitments lately I can wrkout only once a day. I guess I just have to eat less till I can workout like before again.

JanaCanada

Log your daily walk to work as exercise, but do NOT log cleaning. cooking, etc. as exercise. Configure your levels at "lightly active" and eat back your exercise calories. Try to add some kind of workout 3 times a week for 15 minutes each time, even if it's doing at-home cardio (lots of good work-out videos on YouTube).

sola24

Log your daily walk to work as exercise, but do NOT log cleaning. cooking, etc. as exercise. Configure your levels at "lightly active" and eat back your exercise calories. Try to add some kind of workout 3 times a week for 15 minutes each time, even if it's doing at-home cardio (lots of good work-out videos on YouTube).

I do exercise everyday. I just gave my daily routine without the exercise to determine my lifestyle

Francl27

That's why I use scooby and TDEE-20% personally. Too much of a pain to figure out my activity level/exercise calories when I walk a lot.

rainbowbow

Sedentary lifestyle (according to MFP's calculation) would be similar to a desk or office job. It assumes you will burn about 20% more than your estimated BMR and it assumes you will take roughly 5,000 steps per day.

tempehforever

This sounds similar to me, and I count myself as "lightly sedentary." I had a hard time figuring out how "sedentary" I was, so I am glad someone asked this question! I have a desk job and sit for most of the workday, but I live in an urban area where I don't need to own a car, so I walk to the bus stop, to run errands, to appointments and meetings, etc.

I log my formal exercise separately. I don't log walking or biking when I'm doing so as part of my daily commute around town, or cleaning.

Followingsea

Sedentary is much more sedentary than that.

I have a Fitbit, so my MFP account is set to sedentary and to allow Fitbit to make adjustments to my caloric allotment for the day.

The only time recently I've been kept at a Sedentary calorie goal level was when I had the stomach flu recently and took fewer than 2k steps over the entire day. As a point of reference, it takes me about 8 minutes to take 1k steps at a moderate-brisk walk.

The bar for sedentary is set REALLY, REALLY low.

Sreneesa

That's why I use scooby and TDEE-20% personally. Too much of a pain to figure out my activity level/exercise calories when I walk a lot.

I use Scooby but also another as he had my fats way too low.

I also am very sedentary but when doing Scooby or the other one I put moderately active since I do workout five days a week and have for a few months. I guess that is right since those calculators count your exercise cals already.

Never really did get a straight answer when I have asked around.