Just wanted some feedback

misspenny762

Hi all,

It's me again with another annoying question, haha. I have my activity level set to "Sedentary", although this isn't entirely true. I work part-time at a large retail chain which involves a lot of walking, bending, etc. 3-4 days a week. I also do a lot of shopping and going out etc on my days off, but I didn't want to pick "lightly active" and risk overestimating my calories burned. In general, I don't list my every day activity as cardio unless I'm doing significantly more walking around than normal (for example, when I go to Disneyland, I log that walking because it's a LOT).

Conversely, I probably underestimate my calories consumed a bit (I don't count cooking spray I use to make my pancakes, etc). I just kind of figure that the two probably even each other out, and hey, I've been losing weight at a steady rate of two pounds a day since I started MFP, so it can't be that bad. I wanted to get you guys' opinion on this, however. Do you think I should adjust my activity level or start really being a stickler about my food calories, or am I alright the way I'm doing it?

amysj303

I, like you, do some walking with my job, take the stairs several times each day but I only count "workouts" for exercise, and hardly anything else. It sounds like what you do is working so I would keep it easy.
Maybe when it stops working is when you need to re-evaluate, but it sounds like everything evens out.

hammycat86

I do the same. I don't really count activity unless it's an actual work out. If you're losing, I'd say whatever you're doing is working and keep it up!

xarrium

If you're walking around virtually every day you might want to switch to "lightly active"... if you're constantly under-eating (because you're actually lightly active when you say you're sedentary) it'll catch up with you in the form of a plateau... especially if you don't eat your exercise cals. In actuality, cooking sprays don't add that many calories, so I wouldn't worry about logging them even if you do increase your MFP activity level.

I'm the same as you, though--unless I actually work out of walk a lot, I won't log my day-to-day moving around (I consider it part of my "lightly active" lifestyle).