Calories/day with a very active job?

paj315

My husband has been watching his calories and working out for several months now and he has done very well and lost about 25 pounds, but over the last month he has stalled in his weight loss. He has a very active job where he walks 5-10 miles perday (mon-fri) and the has been lifting heavy with me 3-4 times per week at they gym.

We have him set up to lose 1 1/2 pounds per week per mfp and then he enters his walking into the activity calculator each day along with any gym time. Somedays he gets a HUGE amount of calories!

Here's my question...since he walks everyday and his body is used to it, should he be putting it in as exercise each day?

We thought about just changing the activity level to highly active but then on the weekends when he doesn't do the walking his calories are way off. I just want to try to help him so he doesn't get discouraged and give up!

Don't know if this will help but he's 36 yrs old and 6 ft tall and 203 lbs.

Anyone have any advice???

heybales

Using the MFP method - yes, walking still counts.

Whether it's still a workout to him or not doesn't matter (like increased HR or breathing rate), you move the same mass the same pace, you are burning the same calories. So it counts.
But that would be my question on pace, because that bears a huge part of the calorie burn.

Plus, MFP already has a way to include increased daily activity in your base calories so you don't get the huge jumps to eat back.

Your Settings - Diet/Fitness settings for activity level. He should be set to Active it sounds like.

Then just log the lifting as strength training and eat those calories back.

The other problem with long periods of walking - that calorie estimate while very accurate, already include in it what was going to be burned anyway, not just in addition to.
So for your 1 hr of exercise, maybe looking at 83-100 calories maybe that the burn is overestimated. But when the walking is slow and long, it's not that much additional actually, and that fact can make a big difference.

Change the activity level to Active, log and eat back the strength training.

Allow for better planning too, calorie goal will always be higher, except for lifting days, when you'll want extra after the workout to enhance improvements.

Also, with right about 20 lbs left to lose probably, goal loss should only be 1 lb weekly.

Warn him his lifting is about to improve greatly with above changes to keep it reasonable.

paj315

Thanks that helps a lot!