What is the correct activity level?

8Nuya8

So, i went off the rails completely yesterday. Ate a lot of junk food and went over my daily allowance.
I havent gone over my daily allowance since i started logging more than 6 weeks ago. And so far I have been feeling completely fine. Have never felt exceptionally hungry. I never went to bed feeling hungry, or woke up feeling hungry. Have been eating full grain bread and things that make you feel full longer. It has worked very well so far.

So now yesterday: crap day, lot of junk food and as a result felt really bad. But today i want to have a look at what the reasons might have been.

4 weeks ago uni started again. Meaning for me: monday to friday labwork from 8am to 6pm. I have an app on my cellphone that claims to count the steps i take. Labwork means a lot of time on my feet, actually standing and walking for about 6 of those 10 hours. My cellphone counted my steps and on an average lab day according to my cellphone I walked about 17000 steps... about 1200 of those are walking up- or down-stairs (storage for lab equipment is on another floor than the lab i work in). That sounds like really a lot so i am not sure if my cellphone can be right. Sadly i dont have a real activity tracker (i hope to get one from my boyfriend for christmas though ).
In the evening i usually take a walk with my baby boy carrying him in a sling (about 30-60mins per day), i dont take the step counting cellphone on those walks and only log the walks with my baby, if they take more than an hour.

Sooo, now i have been wondering if i set my activity level correctly... Once uni started i changed it from sedentary to lightly active. Even at sedentary i lost more weight per week, than i set as a goal... (I originally set 0.5kg per week as a goal. now i changed it to 0.75kg per week, and like i said changed my activity level to lightly active), I have been loosing around 1kg per week for the last 3 weeks now... I use an app where I enter my weight every day and it said on average i loose 1.17kg per week, but i have only started using it 1.5 weeks ago. so that isnt a reliable average. Tomorrow is my next weigh in day on mfp.

So can someone please explain to me, if and why i set my activity level correctly? And how to know what the correct activity level is?
Thank you!

Tedebearduff

If you don't lose anything after 5 weeks reduce your calories by another 100 and try again.

No one knows your body better than you, no one can tell you what is the "right" activity level.

MinnieInMaine

Going by your description, I'd think Active would actually be more approriate for you. You're not just on your feet all day but actually moving about for many hours. But you could play it safe with Lightly Active for now and see how it goes.

With the amount you have left to lose, 1/2kg per week is more appropriate.