HELP! Lightly Active vs Active

rmeenen

I am teaching preschool this year and currently my status is set to lightly active. I feel that this was the perfect setting for me last year because I was teaching Kindergarten and while moving a lot I didn't feel that I was active the entire day. Now with preschool I am running around a lot more, lifting, moving, and carrying kids too! I'm not sure if I should make the change to active and how can I tell if it is the correct setting for me. Any advice or ideas are welcome because I'm not sure what to do!

ajbeans

I would just leave it where it is and see how you feel in a couple of weeks. If you're feeling run-down, or if you're losing faster than you should, or if your weight loss stalls, then try increasing the activity level setting and see what happens.

Lisa_222

Making the change to active will give you more calories, I presume. If it were me, I'd leave it as is unless you find that you are either excessively hungry or losing very fast. I'm sure its more or less an estimation anyway. I am in a quandry because I work 12 hour shifts 3 days a week where I'm very active and pretty sedentary the remaining 4. I don't know which way to go, so I split the difference. I guess we just need to gauge our weight loss.

Rae6503

I would just leave it where it is and see how you feel in a couple of weeks. If you're feeling run-down, or if you're losing faster than you should, or if your weight loss stalls, then try increasing the activity level setting and see what happens.

This. I'm set to active because I noticed I was still losing even while accidentally eating at maintenance. MFP doesn't know all. It's best to experiment and see what works and what doesn't then make changes from there.