lightly active or sedentary

staceyb_2003

Please can someone help me i'm was on sedentary and doing a regular walk of an hour aday and that would burn me 210 cals on my hrm someone suggested i should be on lightly active and not add teh walk so i changed it on monday but i noticed when i was on sedentary i could eat a net of 1200 and tehn exercise cals and now i'm on lightly active i'm only to net 1270 , just 70 more than sedentary yet i'm burning a minimum of 210 extra a day , that would put me in a serious deficit though would it not ?

daydream58

The guided goals tool says lightly active is for nurses or salesman... meaning on their feet a LOT not just for an hour a day. If it was me, I'd put it back on sedentary and count my walk - but even then - only if I knew how fast I was walking so it would be an accurate reflection of my effort.

Elleinnz

Nope - I do not agree with the advice you were given - I would rather add the regular walk every day as exercise (that is what I do ....)
The "lightly active" is if you move more than average (a desk worker) in your job - where you are not quite sure how long the exercise is, and it cannot be measured...

thankyou4thevenom

I switched from sedentary to active when I got a job and got NO extra calories. I'm still losing at the same rate.

If I remember correctly you weren't losing weight at sedentary and counting the walk. That's because it was set wrong. You are lightly active. Okay so you only got an extra 70 cals. That's because really to have a 500 cal deficit at sedentary you should have been lower than 1200 cals but that's not going to happen on here because minimum cals MFP will ever let you go on is 1200. That's the basic amount the body needs not to go into starvation mode and get the right nutrients. There's a whole bunch of links about it in the link in my signature.

staceyb_2003

thanks i will give it a read

staceyb_2003

i'm just confused i keep getting told different things x

claire_xox

I have a similar problem. On days I have work, I work 8 hour shifts where I'm on my feet the whole time, It isn't exerting but it's still constant, then I have days off where I'm at uni and predominantly sitting the whole day. I can't be bothered changing it EVERY day so I just set it as sedentary, and feel less guilting when I eat a bit more on work days!

robin52077

Basically, the option that gives you the most calories per day to eat is correct.
Most people on here eat WAY too little and it is detrimental.

If switching levels only gave you 70 more it means that you were set too low to begin with. The calculator realized that for your height and weight your goal was too aggressive and would have taken you below 1200 so it stopped there. Upon adjusting, it went above 1200 by a little but that is still too little.
I suggest changing your goal to 1 lb per week instead of 2. Any time it defaults to 1200 either your goal is too high or activity level is too low.

caramkoala

I have a similar problem. On days I have work, I work 8 hour shifts where I'm on my feet the whole time, It isn't exerting but it's still constant, then I have days off where I'm at uni and predominantly sitting the whole day. I can't be bothered changing it EVERY day so I just set it as sedentary, and feel less guilting when I eat a bit more on work days!

That's what I do.

RAFValentina

bump

staceyb_2003

Basically, the option that gives you the most calories per day to eat is correct.
Most people on here eat WAY too little and it is detrimental.

If switching levels only gave you 70 more it means that you were set too low to begin with. The calculator realized that for your height and weight your goal was too aggressive and would have taken you below 1200 so it stopped there. Upon adjusting, it went above 1200 by a little but that is still too little.
I suggest changing your goal to 1 lb per week instead of 2. Any time it defaults to 1200 either your goal is too high or activity level is too low.

Thanks i had i set to 1 and a half lb a week changing it to 1lb that was recommended has gave me a lot more to walk with ... thank you for your info very informative :-) i've also decided to switch to sedentary and just eat back half of my calories burnt

HMonsterX

The easiest way is just to set it to sedentary then log all your exercise. I pretty much sit at my desk all day, and then burn 700-1000 cals 6 nights a week, and i call myself sedentary.