How do I determine my activity level?

neeterskeeter

In the goals section I initially selected "sedentary" as my activity level because I sit at a desk most of the day, most days, for work.

However, I also work out almost every day, anywhere from 40 minutes to an hour and a half. Some days it is more -- skiing or running for hours -- but most days I get in a good, hard workout for about 45 minutes to an hour. Am I still sedentary or should I pick lightly active or active or what?

I'm trying to determine how many net calories I should consume. Right now my goals are set at 1200. So I try to eat 1200 on the days I don't work out (rare) and then eat most of my calories on the days I do work out. I'm not sure if this is the best plan or if I should increase my activity level/ calories because I am so active now.

Thanks in advance for any help.

neeterskeeter

In the goals section I initially selected "sedentary" as my activity level because I sit at a desk most of the day, most days, for work.

However, I also work out almost every day, anywhere from 40 minutes to an hour and a half. Some days it is more -- skiing or running for hours -- but most days I get in a good, hard workout for about 45 minutes to an hour. Am I still sedentary or should I pick lightly active or active or what?

I'm trying to determine how many net calories I should consume. Right now my goals are set at 1200. So I try to eat 1200 on the days I don't work out (rare) and then eat most of my calories on the days I do work out. I'm not sure if this is the best plan or if I should increase my activity level/ calories because I am so active now.

Thanks in advance for any help.

weesel80

I put my activity level as lightly active because I work full time in a hospital as a nurse, so I am on my feet for 8 hours a day. I also work out 6 days a week for an hour each day. I think your exercise is above and beyond what your activity level is on a daily basis. At least that is what I calculated mine as... If your job is sitting at a desk, then I think your activity level would still be sedentary, even though you work out daily for the length of time you do.

Any one else have any suggestions??:drinker:

firewalking

I sit at a desk all day too, but I work out 7 days a week for 2 to 4 hours at a stretch so I selected whatever the highest activity was and I'm still at 1200 calories. Fortunately, when you input your exercise your calories will automatically adjust. The 1200 is a minimum only...you should get lots and lots of available calories to eat when you enter your exercise.

Hope this helps!

Kimono

I think you just calculate activity level as your normal every day life, no including exercise. You add the exercise later.

neeterskeeter

OK thanks guys. Because I did a BMR calculator on another site and when it asked me for my activity level, under "active" it said "you exercise most days per week" so that's what good me thinking.

Also I was reading on another site about Total Daily Energy Expenditure, and it said that this should be *added* to the BMR and *then* you subtract a deficit to see how many calories you should eat a day. It calculated my BMR as 1340 and my TDEE as 530, which was 1870 total, so supposedly I should eat 500 calories less than that which would be 1370... which is a little more than the 1200 that MFP tells me to eat.

I still get confused by all of this and I have been doing it for awhile. I sometimes wonder if I am taking in too few calories based on my activity level when it comes to working out. But then I think, I'm a small-framed girl... 5'2" and 133 pounds or so, but my BMI is 24 when I would like it to be about 21. So maybe that is why I can only take in the minimal amount of calories.