Sendentary, lightly active?

shortntall1

I do not work outside the home. I walk almost every day and I do housework and sometimes sit to go on the computer/watch tv. I do laundry, vacuum, dishes.do groceries etc. I basically putter around. What activity level should I choose?

shortntall1

I ask because my scale hasnt moved since the 18th and I weigh/log everything and I had it set to lightly active.

5stringjeff

I have my settings on sedentary. I work a desk job, and at home I don't do much outside of typical housework. I've lost at about the recommended pace. So you might try using sedentary and see if that gets you at the right caloric deficit.

Vig83

I have a desk job as well and by the time my day is over the last thing I want to do is workout for an hour or two. Maybe I should start, but I have sedentary life style, watch my calories and am losing. It recommends me to eat 2,230 cals a day. I typically stick to 2,000 or less, but it's nice to know I have some wiggle room in case I want that little extra snack or alcoholic beverage once or twice a week.

stacysjourney

I am a stay at home mom and had the same activity level as yours for a long time. 6 weeks ago I changed EVERYTHING. From what I hate and how I ate it to my activity level. I started out on the treadmill for 5 minutes and worked my way up to 30 in a few weeks. I kept my speed slow, around 2.0 and pushed hard to get to my 30 minute mark. You can adjust that to what ever works. 6 weeks later I am down 30 pounds, and I am walking 5 miles a day on the treadmill with my speed at 4.2 and my incline is between 5 and 10%. I am not sure if this helps answer your question but If I can make this kind of change anyone can. Trust me

alisidewinder06

I have a desk job as well, I'm a banker, so I put mine at sendentary since I am sitting most of the day. When I come home I still do chores like cooking, cleaning, laundry, mopping, vacuuming, light dusting, etc. I don't however consider this when I log things in, I know it is work and can be quite tiring, I just don't consider this as activity.

gidget_05

I do not work outside the home. I walk almost every day and I do housework and sometimes sit to go on the computer/watch tv. I do laundry, vacuum, dishes.do groceries etc. I basically putter around. What activity level should I choose?

I am just starting myself, I do house chores really not on computer much until I started MFP. I started walking yesterday there is a track in front of my house. I am not very active. Okay I am rambling sorry

accelerashawn

I would choose sedentary given your description.

The way I understood it was:
Sedentary: Stationary and easy movements throughout the day.
Lightly active: Spend most of the time standing or moving about.
Active: Constantly moving about and carrying or moving items, playing sports.

MityMax96

start with sedentary
track progress over 4 weeks.
Tweak numbers as needed.

ILiftHeavyAcrylics

Well, I wouldn't be concerned over 9 days.

Sedentary is everything up to 5000 steps per day. When I stayed home and did chores I was lightly active. Now I work at a desk so I'm sedentary unless I make an effort. The important thing is to adjust based on your results so if you're not losing then going to sedentary might be the right move. But again, 9 days does not a plateau make.

rachelrb85

Lookin at your diary, your goal is set to 1300, I definitely wouldn't go lower than that. Based on your activities, I would say you are lightly active. If you set it to that, I wouldn't eat back your exercise calories unless you do a really active gym workout.

hill8570

I'd call it lightly active. I assume you've had it set to that since the get-go and were losing?

Looking at your diary for the last couple of weeks, I see a number of "over" days and at least one "quick add calories". Not sure what your weight loss goals are, but if you're shooting for a slow loss it doesn't take much overage to swing from "slow loss" to "no loss". You might want to go to "reports" and look at your net calories for the last couple of weeks -- you might find you're a bit over where you think you were.

OTOH, a nine-day stall isn't uncommon, especially if you're having bloating from your period or excessive salt intake.

cwolfman13

I ask because my scale hasnt moved since the 18th and I weigh/log everything and I had it set to lightly active.

Then you have your answer...reduce your calorie goal and activity level. These calculators are just estimates to get you started...you have to analyze what's going on, say over the course of 3-4 weeks or so, and make adjustments as necessary. If you're not losing weight then you're eating too much....it's that simple.

shortntall1

Thank you!!! The quick add day was the day I had chinese and I had no clue how to log that because we ate in the restaurant LOL..

cherrilovee

I would try doing sedentary just to see if that would get you at the right calori deficit in order to lose some of that weight. But don't worry about it too much because like I always say, "You didn't gain all the weight in a day, so you're not going to lose it all in a day." Be patient and it'll burn off

shortntall1

TY! I just switched it over to sedentary today so that may be why I look like Ive been over a lot Appreciate everything!

shortntall1

Left is sedentary..right is lightly active..heres the comparison. I see room for improvement. Weekends are hard for me because my husband comes home and we are good all week and we cut ourselves some slack..but I see, Ill have to reel in the slack LOL

SnuggleSmacks

I had the same question when I started because I have a very sedentary job, and sometimes my entertainment at home is the computer or Netflix rather than anything active. So I took the guesswork out of it by getting a fitness tracker. I have a Bodymedia, and I set MFP to sedentary and just let the Bodymedia make adjustments based on how active I am on a particular day. It's quite motivating, as I like seeing all the checkmarks when I reach my goals on the Bodymedia app, but also, if I want a little something extra to eat, I can just take a walk or jog or go for a bike ride and still stay within my limit. Knowing how much you actually burn on a daily basis is extremely helpful.

hill8570

Left is sedentary..right is lightly active..heres the comparison. I see room for improvement. Weekends are hard for me because my husband comes home and we are good all week and we cut ourselves some slack..but I see, Ill have to reel in the slack LOL

Agreed. Letting things go a bit on the slack days.

I compared a couple of two-week periods -- one starting July 8 (when I assume you were still losing OK) and one starting August 12. In the first period, you averaged 85 a day calories under goal (and that was with a very questionable "over" on July 19th -- I can't see how it would be humanly possible to eat that much in a meal), which in the second period, you averaged only 20 calories a day under goal (and probably less than that, since I assume you're logging gross calories for your exercise, and not net calories). Yeah, it's not a *huge* difference, but if you are only targeting maybe a half pound to a pound of loss a week, that loss of margin can be significant.

shortntall1

Left is sedentary..right is lightly active..heres the comparison. I see room for improvement. Weekends are hard for me because my husband comes home and we are good all week and we cut ourselves some slack..but I see, Ill have to reel in the slack LOL

Agreed. Letting things go a bit on the slack days.

I compared a couple of two-week periods -- one starting July 8 (when I assume you were still losing OK) and one starting August 12. In the first period, you averaged 85 a day calories under goal (and that was with a very questionable "over" on July 19th -- I can't see how it would be humanly possible to eat that much in a meal), which in the second period, you averaged only 20 calories a day under goal (and probably less than that, since I assume you're logging gross calories for your exercise, and not net calories). Yeah, it's not a *huge* difference, but if you are only targeting maybe a half pound to a pound of loss a week, that loss of margin can be significant.

That was a day we were up to our family camp (19th) at the lake..boston baked beans are high in calories (pork,molasses,brown sugar) and 2 johnsonville brats arent good either, calorie wise, plus I drank a bit. I dont know the dif between gross calories and net calories..off to google!

shortntall1

ok ye..those are gross calories..I hadnt started exercising yet

VeryKatie

I have a desk job as well, I'm a banker, so I put mine at sendentary since I am sitting most of the day. When I come home I still do chores like cooking, cleaning, laundry, mopping, vacuuming, light dusting, etc. I don't however consider this when I log things in, I know it is work and can be quite tiring, I just don't consider this as activity.

Samezees

shortntall1

I had the same question when I started because I have a very sedentary job, and sometimes my entertainment at home is the computer or Netflix rather than anything active. So I took the guesswork out of it by getting a fitness tracker. I have a Bodymedia, and I set MFP to sedentary and just let the Bodymedia make adjustments based on how active I am on a particular day. It's quite motivating, as I like seeing all the checkmarks when I reach my goals on the Bodymedia app, but also, if I want a little something extra to eat, I can just take a walk or jog or go for a bike ride and still stay within my limit. Knowing how much you actually burn on a daily basis is extremely helpful.

I want one of those so much

lemurcat12

I had the same question when I started because I have a very sedentary job, and sometimes my entertainment at home is the computer or Netflix rather than anything active. So I took the guesswork out of it by getting a fitness tracker. I have a Bodymedia, and I set MFP to sedentary and just let the Bodymedia make adjustments based on how active I am on a particular day. It's quite motivating, as I like seeing all the checkmarks when I reach my goals on the Bodymedia app, but also, if I want a little something extra to eat, I can just take a walk or jog or go for a bike ride and still stay within my limit. Knowing how much you actually burn on a daily basis is extremely helpful.

Same, except I used a Fitbit. I assumed I was sedentary based on the descriptions (desk job), but found that the walking I do to commute and go places for meetings and such and to shop (I live in a city, so one of my first things when deciding to get into shape was to just walk everywhere I possibly could) made me easily lightly active (I usually hit 10,000 or close). Seeing it on the Fitbit really helped, but I bet any pedometer or app that counts steps and lets you see how much you are moving would serve the same basic purpose.

The OP's description sounds like lightly active to me, but I agree with adjusting based on results.

doodlebug1966

Good Luck.I work at a job sitting 9 hours so going to try and get up early and walk on treadmill then do weight when I get home.

pita7317

Sendentary unless you are walking ? a couple miles a day.

Notreadytoquit

Everyone is different. I am disabled. A year ago if I got out of bed to shower it was a big deal. I'm doing much better now and most days am "active" at least 1-2 hours, some really good days 3 or 4.

I count all activity ... gardening, laundry, vacuuming, taking care of animals, walking dogs. Basically if I'm sweating I'm burning calories. I log them. If you friend me I'd be happy to share my diary.

If anyone thinks this can't happen to them, know I was a gym rat for over 25 years. Was extremely fit as a child and can outwork pretty much anyone my age and decades younger even with my disabilities. Just never stop moving.

shortntall1

thank you!!

CoachJen71

I do not work outside the home. I walk almost every day and I do housework and sometimes sit to go on the computer/watch tv. I do laundry, vacuum, dishes.do groceries etc. I basically putter around. What activity level should I choose?

I have a similar lifestyle and I set it for sedentary. I am exercising more, but I have my fitbit to help keep track of that. I try not to eat back too many calories over the week.

Ameenasmum24

When I first started logging on mfp I wasn't patient at all right now I'm also a stay at home mom so I do laundry etc...and when I feel up to it I walk a few times a wk for about an hr (2 miles) and at first I didn't notice anything until about day 15 of logging which was about last week and I lost 3 almost 4 pounds maybe more at this point it's ttom so I didn't check my weight this week what I'm trying to say is be patient I know it's so hard but just keep going and you will see results. I'm also set at sendentary I didn't know it was a lightly active but in my opinion I don't think it will matter I'm set at 1310 cal. A day and when I walk it goes up. But just eat well And don't give up. I hope I helped somebody. I should be telling myself these things as well.

Fit_Housewife

I'm a stay at home mom I got a fitbit to monitor my steps. some days I can sit more than others but on average I make 8000 steps a day and do 30 min on my elliptical 5 days a weeks and one 30 min strength training session with my trainer. I have it set as lightly active.