Need advice from people eating above BMR re activity level.

catbrand

Hi everyone,

I've decided to give Razique's awesome calculator a go ( http://interzone.kicks-*kitten*.net/Calculating_calories.xls ) as I've been having trouble losing since Christmas and I'm pretty sure it's because my calories have been all over the place lately, so this seems a good place to start. Anyway, I want to get this right and I'm unsure about my activity level.

On MFP I have myself set to lightly active and I eat back my exercise cals (I was also zigzagging), this worked until Christmas when I had a break and never really picked it up again, now I can't get things to work again.

I work in a kitchen 4 days a week ranging 4-6 hours, so quite an active job (I don't sit down anyway). I also walk to and from school 5 days a week (120 cals, I don't log it though) I walk the dog most days (usually 300cals), I do kickboxing twice a week for an hour on Mondays and 90 minutes on Thursdays (about 800 and 1100 cals once I've walked home) I also do other workouts during the week such as kettlebells (500cals) workout dvds (300-400cals) or cross trainer (500cals) All in all I'd say I work out about 6 days a week.

I would be tempted to say I'm 'moderately active' at 1.5 looking at that, but my worry is what if I can't always do the exercise? How about going for lightly active at 1.4 and zigzaggng between that and 1.5? Or am I totally overestimating myself and should I be sticking at 1.3?

I hope all that makes sense!! Any thoughts would be appreciated!

Javajunkie67

I believe moderate is 3-5 workouts a week. So you should be fine at the moderate level. Try it for a month and see. You'll also have the ability to knock it down a bit when you get really close to your goal, that last ten sucks!

NotGoddess

If you have the cash you can invest in a fitbit or similar, but an inexpensive pedometer will give you a measurement for your non-workout activity based on steps:
sedentary <6000
light activity 6000-9000
moderate activity 9000-12000
very active 12,000+

catbrand

Thanks for the replies! I'm guessing this whole thing is really trial and error, but I will consider getting a pedometer. I would love a fitbit, but at the moment I can't really afford one. Maybe in the summer when I'm working more I'll look into it. Maybe I'll have a go at 1.4 for 2 weeks then I can decide whether I need to go up or down.