Question RE: calories vs. exercise.

lawzee

With my settings on "lightly active" my suggested intake is 1320, while on "active" it's around 1600ish. However, I'm not entirely sure which one I fall under. I'm at the gym 3-4 times a week for 1-1.5 hours, alternating between cardio machines and water jogging or water interval classes. However, outside of the gym my lifestyle in general is not very active. Any suggestions on which setting to go with, since the 300 cal difference is pretty noticeable when preparing my meals?

hill8570

OK, assume you're acting working out for the full 1.5 hours, that's roughly 600 calories. Four days a week is 2400 calories. Averaged over the week, that's roughly 350 calories per day. So one way of looking at this would be to budget 1320 + 350 = 1670 calories per day, which is pretty much what you're seeing with the "active" setting. However, if you're only there 3 days a week, and maybe working out closer to 1 hour, that's only 170-ish calories extra, or about 1500 calories a day total. Big difference.

Personally, I would use the "lightly active" setting, and log your exercise calories as they happen -- that way you're not overeating if you have a week where you can't make the gym, etc. And, I would recommend only eating back part (50%, max) of those exercise calories -- almost everyone overestimates how much time they're actually exercising, as well as tending to underestimate how many calories they're consuming.