Cannot figure out my activity level

TheStephil

Hello, my name is Stephanie. A quick little bit about me, I've never been extremely overweight but stayed a bit above average. I gain weight fast if I increase my eating habits even the slightest.

So I'm trying to figure out how many calories a day I need to stay the same weight.

I work in a office and get very little exercise at work. I walk two miles on my lunch 3+ times a week. I go to the gym for about an hour (30 min cardio, 30 min weights) 4-6 times a week.

I'm not sure if I'm still considered not active because I sit at work.

could anyone enlighten me?

Thank you!

Jenscan

I suggest setting yourself to sedentary then logging the exercise.

TheStephil

Thank you.

27strange

Ditto. Because you work in an office, set your lifestyle to sedentary and then log all those exercise calories you are burning.

If you were a restaurant server or construction worker I would say this is moderately active to active range and if you were a mailman who walked mail route this would be active for sure.

BeeElMarvin

I suggest setting yourself to sedentary then logging the exercise.

Yup, thats what I did.

hroush

You can start out at sedentary and then increase it if you need to. Also make sure you eat most of your exercise calories since you are exercising a lot.

TheStephil

My biggest problem is myfitnesspal says that 30 minutes on the ellipical is about 300 calories (and the machine's calories match this) but I don't feel like I'm burning that many calories.

Jenscan

MFP's exercise database is off on the calorie burn values for many exercises. Ellipticals are notoriously bad on inaccuracies because MFP can't tell how "hard" you worked, if you know what I mean.

If you can, I'd suggest getting a heart rate monitor to see what you burn. Select one with a chest strap.

melsinct

MFP's exercise database is off on the calorie burn values for many exercises.

This is the reason I don't log exercise in MFP. I work a desk job but set my activity level for "moderately active" to compensate for the exercise I do without having to log it. I think MFP overestimates by quite a lot on some of the cardio.

CountryDevil

You will actually burn more calories than you expect. Keep in mind that the MFP calorie counter is based on the type of active person you are and the other information that you enter. It then gives you the number of calorie per day and accounts for a certain number a "natural" calories that are burned during your daily activity. If you are once that works in an office, then sedentary is what you want.

Don't trust the number of calories that the elliptical and MFP tells you. I have found that it can be anywhere from 100-150+ calories off. If you want an accurate count of calories burned during a work out, then get yourself a Heart Rate Monitor (HRM). That is going to give you the most accurate count you can get.

dragonflydi

I suggest setting yourself to sedentary then logging the exercise.

Yup, thats what I did.

Same here ...

bentobee

My biggest problem is myfitnesspal says that 30 minutes on the ellipical is about 300 calories (and the machine's calories match this) but I don't feel like I'm burning that many calories.

I wear a HRM for workouts (Polar ft7) and I regularly burn an average of 10 calories per minute on the elliptical. Of course your milage may vary but it's not unlikely you do burn 300 for a half hour.