working out activity level

oonga
oonga Posts: 336 Member
OK guys I have been told that my understanding of activity levels is a bit off and i know in the Sticky on working out activity level ANewLucia comments on how most people underestimate their activity level. LOL

So I am a disability support worker so i am not as busy as say as nurse would be. On a 7.5 hour shift, the first half is spent assisting people out of bed, making beds, washing, getting breakfast etc... The other half is spent doing paperwork, hanging with the people who are at home that day, answering phone, answering door, maybe cooking dinner for the PM shift etc.... So really not an active job, but not sedentary either. I would call it lightly active? Do people agree?

I use a HRM for my exercise.

I tend to burn around 500calories doing exercise normally 6 days a week, i have just started a 1/2 marathon training program, the calorie burns at the start are not as high, the highest I burnt was yesterday on my weekly long run this burnt 650cals, then we took the dogs for a walk and burnt an extra 115cals.

My exercise program is something like this:
Mon: Fast-ish run at the moment around half hour burn about 300 to 400 cals. Including warm up and cool down walk.
Kettlebell class 45mins burns around 200cals

Tue: 1/2 marathon resistance training consists of things like push ups, ab work, lunges, squats, step ups and a small amount of cardio such as 1min burpees 1min skipping as a final blast. Burns around 300cals

Wed: Sprint intervals atm around 30mins all up burns around 300cals

Thurs: recovery jog burns around 300cals

Fri: core and stretch workout burns around 400cals

Sat long run burns 600 plus cals.

I am thinking of doing another kettlebell class on the thursday, even just on my own, repeating the circuit i do on the monday.

Before doing the 1/2 marathon training i was doing Jillian Michael's Shred or Ripped to up my calorie burn to be at least 500 a day to 600 cals burnt a day. The 1/2/ marathon training guidelines said not to overtrain so as to avoid injury. I am really enjoying Kettlebells and i don't think doing 2 lots a week would be overtraining. I am more of a cardio person than a weights person, so its a thrill to find strength work I enjoy with the kettlebells. I just love how i can get lost in my own world with cardio :) Strength work requires me to count reps etc etc LOL

So at the moment i am on holidays, and really being nice and lazy, bit of housework but no real work etc than my workouts. So i have set my TDEE at lightly active.

When i go back to work I was thinking of setting it at Moderately active. Work is slightly more active than chilling on holidays LOL plus my workouts on top of that :)

Does that sound reasonable?? Is that the levels you guys would set as well?

Sorry for the long post but this whole numbers crunching is doing my head in! I am going to get my partner to hide the scales too so i can't be put off by any weight gain over the next 4 weeks!! I know eating 1200cals a day apart from my one day a week splurge is not good for my body. My last few TTOM has been effected and i know that is an obvious damage to my body that is going to go against the reasons of me losing weight! To get healthy and fit!!

Replies

  • Jessica1274
    Jessica1274 Posts: 363 Member
    I would set it for moderately active. That sounds right to me.
  • ANewLucia
    ANewLucia Posts: 2,081 Member
    Yes moderate activity.
  • what about lifting heavy 4x a week? No cardio at the moment.
  • oonga
    oonga Posts: 336 Member
    Thanks guys! It is so tempting to keep it at lightly active!! Like ANewLucia said we tend to underestimate for fear of eating too much! LOL

    Dannyarguello not sure if you were suggesting i do lifting heavy 4 times a week and not do cardio? Not an option i love my running too much, its really therapeutic. I only do the strength stuff because i know how good it is for my body and health :)

    Or if you were asking about yourself? You do lifting 4 times a week and no cardio and were asking what to set it at?? If that's the case I can't help sorry, i had trouble enough setting my own! I will leave it for the more experienced ones to answer :)
  • Thanks guys! It is so tempting to keep it at lightly active!! Like ANewLucia said we tend to underestimate for fear of eating too much! LOL

    Dannyarguello not sure if you were suggesting i do lifting heavy 4 times a week and not do cardio? Not an option i love my running too much, its really therapeutic. I only do the strength stuff because i know how good it is for my body and health :)

    Or if you were asking about yourself? You do lifting 4 times a week and no cardio and were asking what to set it at?? If that's the case I can't help sorry, i had trouble enough setting my own! I will leave it for the more experienced ones to answer :)

    Yeah sorry about that .. just thought itd be better to hijack your thread instead of starting a new one:) So hard to know what to set it at huh? I have it set at moderate too and i guess i was hoping it might be light so i don't have to eat 3000 calories a day haha.
  • ANewLucia
    ANewLucia Posts: 2,081 Member
    what about lifting heavy 4x a week? No cardio at the moment.

    Moderate too.
  • oonga
    oonga Posts: 336 Member
    hahahah no worries on the hijacking, its not really anyway! Its a good way for all of us to learn :)
    Glad ANewLucia answered your question :)
  • oonga
    oonga Posts: 336 Member
    hmmm ok i know this seems obvious and like i should know this but i am a bit confused, though me and numbers in general tend to produce confusion LOL

    So while on holidays when my activity is pretty much my workouts, have set it on low activity ( i get i am moderately active back at work and will adjust cals then) my TDEE - 15% is 1500.
    So today i have managed to have 1405 cals, well haven't had them all yet, i have entered dinner etc into my diary, but thats what it will be at the end of the day. I might have a hot choc or a glass of almond milk or something to get me to 1500 as well :D

    But when i put them in MFP and i have just come back from doing my resistance training which ended up being 339 cals on my HRM. Now i am under the impression for resistance and such small burns i don't need to eat extra food.

    however when i enter my work out cals and food cals, then go to homepage thingy i am on 1067 Net.

    My BMR is around 1330, so does this actually mean that i am supposed to eat another 250cals?? or only if it was a cardio workout?? I mean there was a tiny amount of cardio 5min warm up run and 5 min cooldown walk and 1 min of burpees, the rest was all resistance!
  • ANewLucia
    ANewLucia Posts: 2,081 Member
    hmmm ok i know this seems obvious and like i should know this but i am a bit confused, though me and numbers in general tend to produce confusion LOL

    So while on holidays when my activity is pretty much my workouts, have set it on low activity ( i get i am moderately active back at work and will adjust cals then) my TDEE - 15% is 1500.
    So today i have managed to have 1405 cals, well haven't had them all yet, i have entered dinner etc into my diary, but thats what it will be at the end of the day. I might have a hot choc or a glass of almond milk or something to get me to 1500 as well :D

    But when i put them in MFP and i have just come back from doing my resistance training which ended up being 339 cals on my HRM. Now i am under the impression for resistance and such small burns i don't need to eat extra food.

    however when i enter my work out cals and food cals, then go to homepage thingy i am on 1067 Net.

    My BMR is around 1330, so does this actually mean that i am supposed to eat another 250cals?? or only if it was a cardio workout?? I mean there was a tiny amount of cardio 5min warm up run and 5 min cooldown walk and 1 min of burpees, the rest was all resistance!

    You always want to at least NET your BMR. That is why I chose activity level moderate because most workouts I try to keep in that range so I don't have to eat any extra. I just eat pretty much 1900 a day and know that any burn over 450 will mean more food for me. It just avgs out during the week...

    So yes, when you see your net on the homepage less than BMR start eating...
  • oonga
    oonga Posts: 336 Member
    ok thanks for the explanation :)

    So perhaps even while on holidays i should be at moderate not light?
    which would have me at 1750 cals per day with TDEE minus 15%
    Which would mean i would have been at almost my BMR today!!!

    Most calculators put me at 1330 including doing the maths the way you said in the sticky topic.
    Funnily enough MFP BMR calculator says 1239 cals!!! But i reckon considering all the other calculators i have used, and yes i have looked at few *blush* say 1330 i am going with that as my BMR LOL

    I ended up doing another short workout with resistance bands and some hand held weights that only burnt 120 cals but put me at 459cals burnt! I did have a bit more cals with a cappuccino :)

    Damn and i am pretty hungry now!! i should be in bed, but i could have had more food!! Gosh its amazing how a week of eating more daily, and i am already getting hungrier!!!

    I dont' know how i survived on 1200cals a day or 1100 some days and with 500 to 600cals burnt through exercise, not taking into account normal moving around at work and stuff!! not eating exercise cals?!?! ONce a week splurge day to eat what i want, but i would also burn 1000cals through exercise alone on that day!
    Heck most days i used to net around 500cals :( Amazingly i wasn't really hungry either!

    OMG does this mean my metabolism is starting to repair?? Is it possible it could happen so fast?? I was eating the 1200 cals thing for aobut 7months, so not a really long time in the scheme of things i guess :)

    Thanks for your patience ANewLucia!!! I think its all starting to click into place for me! :)
  • jen_fitnhappy
    jen_fitnhappy Posts: 102 Member
    Can I get opinions too please? :flowerforyou:

    I have been eating more for about 3 weeks. No weight loss yet, but I'm feeling a lot better! Last week was hectic because I was so busy at work, I didn't exercise... but I still kept my calories up! One benefit of this was a chance to help reset my metabolism LOL!

    Anyway, I have a full-time desk job and evenings other than dinner, etc I pretty much veg on the couch. Weekends are a combo of vegging and running around doing errands, cleaning, etc.

    Exercise consists of AT LEAST 4 days at an hour a day. I'm either on the treadmill run/walking or doing light strength training DVDs.
    Would I be Lightly Active (1.375) or Moderately Active (1.55)? Maybe even something in-between (1.46)?

    I fell victim to over-exercising and undereating in the past, so I'm going to try cutting back on workouts... to 4-5 days a week maybe.

    So, any thoughts on my activity level? I'm also wondering if everyone's adding in the extra 10% for digestion? I'm afraid of overestimating!

    Thank you in advance... LOVE this group!
  • ANewLucia
    ANewLucia Posts: 2,081 Member
    Can I get opinions too please? :flowerforyou:

    I have been eating more for about 3 weeks. No weight loss yet, but I'm feeling a lot better! Last week was hectic because I was so busy at work, I didn't exercise... but I still kept my calories up! One benefit of this was a chance to help reset my metabolism LOL!

    Anyway, I have a full-time desk job and evenings other than dinner, etc I pretty much veg on the couch. Weekends are a combo of vegging and running around doing errands, cleaning, etc.

    Exercise consists of AT LEAST 4 days at an hour a day. I'm either on the treadmill run/walking or doing light strength training DVDs.
    Would I be Lightly Active (1.375) or Moderately Active (1.55)? Maybe even something in-between (1.46)?

    I fell victim to over-exercising and undereating in the past, so I'm going to try cutting back on workouts... to 4-5 days a week maybe.

    So, any thoughts on my activity level? I'm also wondering if everyone's adding in the extra 10% for digestion? I'm afraid of overestimating!

    Thank you in advance... LOVE this group!

    You are moderate too:-)

    I used fitfrog to calc for me. Try that one at mod activity for sure, sub the 15% and net bmr if you have a high burn.
  • ANewLucia
    ANewLucia Posts: 2,081 Member
    ok thanks for the explanation :)

    So perhaps even while on holidays i should be at moderate not light?
    which would have me at 1750 cals per day with TDEE minus 15%
    Which would mean i would have been at almost my BMR today!!!

    Most calculators put me at 1330 including doing the maths the way you said in the sticky topic.
    Funnily enough MFP BMR calculator says 1239 cals!!! But i reckon considering all the other calculators i have used, and yes i have looked at few *blush* say 1330 i am going with that as my BMR LOL

    I ended up doing another short workout with resistance bands and some hand held weights that only burnt 120 cals but put me at 459cals burnt! I did have a bit more cals with a cappuccino :)

    Damn and i am pretty hungry now!! i should be in bed, but i could have had more food!! Gosh its amazing how a week of eating more daily, and i am already getting hungrier!!!

    I dont' know how i survived on 1200cals a day or 1100 some days and with 500 to 600cals burnt through exercise, not taking into account normal moving around at work and stuff!! not eating exercise cals?!?! ONce a week splurge day to eat what i want, but i would also burn 1000cals through exercise alone on that day!
    Heck most days i used to net around 500cals :( Amazingly i wasn't really hungry either!

    OMG does this mean my metabolism is starting to repair?? Is it possible it could happen so fast?? I was eating the 1200 cals thing for aobut 7months, so not a really long time in the scheme of things i guess :)

    Thanks for your patience ANewLucia!!! I think its all starting to click into place for me! :)

    I tell you once you start eating you don't want to eat less. I can't eat less than 1900 cals anymore which is my cut. When I workout I am hungry and I blow past netting my bmr and net most times my tdee cut and sometimes more if I'm still hungry (I will not go to bed hungry). Now that I am feeding myself healthy nutrients when I am hungry I eat, because my body isn't saying binge on carbs bec I'm starving myself...no it is saying, I burned up the good stuff you fed me bec I am revved up, burning efficiently and the fire needs some more wood..and I eat! And when you eat and realize that you won't gain bec you put in good nutrients...whew what a relief..guilt free eating. That was my biggest hurdle, not feeling bad about eating. Gosh I felt bad about the good stuff...whew glad I'm past that, i eat so much and see a leaner than ever me.

    So for me when I'm on vacay or not working out for a few I still eat my 1900, I just cant eat any less. And really when not working out I think most are still pretty active. I still climb 4 flights a couple times a day, chase a 2yr old, go to the bathroom that is too far away many times a day, pick up, laundry, etc...so I need my 1900...lol.

    Also I pray all are eating lots of good protein....that is what builds and repairs muscles. At 1900 cals my goal is about 166gr of protein. I want to keep as much muscle as I can and that is why I am ok with losing slowly. I much rather leaning out and keep the tone.
  • jen_fitnhappy
    jen_fitnhappy Posts: 102 Member

    You are moderate too:-)

    I used fitfrog to calc for me. Try that one at mod activity for sure, sub the 15% and net bmr if you have a high burn.

    I was hoping it would be moderate! Thanks Lucia!... and thanks for all the effort you put into this group. It doesn't go unnoticed!
  • ANewLucia
    ANewLucia Posts: 2,081 Member

    You are moderate too:-)

    I used fitfrog to calc for me. Try that one at mod activity for sure, sub the 15% and net bmr if you have a high burn.

    I was hoping it would be moderate! Thanks Lucia!... and thanks for all the effort you put into this group. It doesn't go unnoticed!

    :-)