Question on sedentary section

ak1113

Is this totally just based on what type of job you do? I work from home so technically I have a sedentary job but I walk the dog 2 x's a day I do some light housework and I go to the gym 6 days a week...does that not count?
I'm confused. I put lightly active but even with that I only got 1290 calories a day...I'm scared to see what my daily calorie allotment would be if I put sedentary!
I'm also wondering how wearing the fit bit might change this once it sees how much I move in a day...or wouldn't it change it?
Does it adjust your calories based on movement?

malibu927

If you were set to sedentary, it would most likely give you 1200 calories; MFP won't drop below that while Fitbit will.

As you start to move more, MFP will calculate an estimated burn based on your Fitbit stats and add calories. But if you don't move or it's early, and you have negative adjustments checked (which is recommended), it will subtract them until you reach 1200. Example: my goal on here is 1640, lightly active as I work retail and am moving around a lot. So far I've walked 7044 steps today, and MFP estimates my intake should be 1989 calories. This will change again depending on how much more walking I do.

Kimsied

Is this totally just based on what type of job you do? I work from home so technically I have a sedentary job but I walk the dog 2 x's a day I do some light housework and I go to the gym 6 days a week...does that not count?
I'm confused. I put lightly active but even with that I only got 1290 calories a day...I'm scared to see what my daily calorie allotment would be if I put sedentary!
I'm also wondering how wearing the fit bit might change this once it sees how much I move in a day...or wouldn't it change it?
Does it adjust your calories based on movement?

It is based on the activity you do *outside* of any exercise that you would log on MFP. So, if you do not log your dog walking here, that can be included. MFP lists the type of job because that is a big part of how people spend their time. To some extent it doesn't usually matter if you choose the wrong activity level--as long as you don't choose too high. If you choose too high your allowance might be too high for your goals unless you enable negative adjustments. If you choose too low, then you will have a fitbit adjustment when your fitbit calorie burn is higher than what MFP expects.

About your starting allowance... I would suggest you put in "lightly active". If you see a pretty big fitbit adjustment every day, you could choose active (or if you don't log exercise on MFP). If you were set to sedentary, your allowance would still start at 1200 but your fitbit adjustment would be larger--so you would actually end up with a higher total allowance. I know this sounds counter-intuitive, but it sometimes is the case on MFP (it is for me if I am set to lose 1 pound a week or more). The reason is that MFP deducts your requested deficit off what it expects you to burn at a given activity level. If that results in an allowance lower than the minimum of 1200, it just sets you for 1200 with a slower rate of loss than requested.