activity level help

mrsneen

Hi all

i already posted about this briefly in the "upping calories levels" post but i still dont think i have it clear in my head what i should set my activity levels at.

here's my details

Female
Age 28
height 5"4'
weight 201lbs
goal weight 140lbs

heres what i do:

i work a desk job 9-5 mon-fri, sitting predominently at a desk
i have my own cake making business, which involves 2 evenings a week and one half day on a weekend on my feet for approx 4 hours a time
on evenings that i done cake, i get home at 6pm, and am busy around the house, making dinner, lunch for the next day, hoovering, washing, drying, tidying, shower etc, i sit down about 8-9pm
on a weekend when i'm not caking i'm out walking or busy around the house, i usually only sit down on an evening at the weekends after dinner.
for exercise i walk 30-60 minutes 2-3 evenings a week and walk 60 - 180mins both days at the wknd

now i do want to continue to log my walking exercise calories, and then eat them back etc, i dont want to include these in my activity levels.

so my question is going on the rest of my rough breakdown of my week do you think my activity levels should be sedentary or lightly active?

thanks in advance!!

heybales

I vote for Lightly Active.

It's only 163 calories more daily for your BMR of 1627. I'd suggest those extra daily activities (not exercise) added up for the week are going to be more than 1139, so Lightly Active would apply.

Since you are doing a good job eating back exercise, I'd also suggest something about the walking.

Your deficit comes from not feeding your daily activity calories burned. That which draws mainly from fat stores for energy anyway.

So that walking, if it is up to 3mph on flat, and not much effort for you at all, HR below 100, then that is just more daily activity you created, and no need to feed it.

If HR is below 120 on avg for entire walk, then you are still using an easy 50% fat for energy, so only the carbs needs to be made up, so you could easily get by eating half of those back.

If you are doing hills and really pumping it up in speed and effort, need to keep feeding the whole thing.

This recommendation is based on fact you are feeding your BMR actually, so nothing is suppressed already.

mrsneen

Hi

thanks for the comment back.

i had kind of thought my daily activity levels (excluding exercise) would be lightly active, because although i'm sat at a desk 9-5, i am busy most evenings, and alsways complain about not having enough time to relax etc, i'm on my feet for most of the evening after work, whether caking or not and certainly all day at the wknd, whether caking or not, i'm not one for having duvet days etc.

so perhaps i'll opt for lightly active, see how i get on.

and as for walking, my week night walks are around 3mph for 30 - 60 minutes, flat walk around the village, so, no no real wonderful exhertion there. and what your saying about not feeding it back makes perfect sense.

my weekend walks however are up hills and around forrestry tracks, anything from 5miles - 10 miles both days, and do creat exhertion and feels like good exercise, so i should log and feed these walks.

which works out perfectly as wknds is when i want to eat a little more and treat a little more anyway. and week days i'm happy to stick to routine.

only question is regarding your final sentence, what does that mean? hope you dont mind me asking?

thanks once again for your help and advice Heybales.

heybales

only question is regarding your final sentence, what does that mean? hope you dont mind me asking?

Your BMR is 1627, your daily net goal is 1700. Wow, only 1 away today!

If you had been like many others, eating at 1200 and their BMR could be 1500-1600 - I'd suggest eating back all exercise logged, as some small means of trying to keep their metabolism up.

But yours is likely fully burning already, so advice specific to your scenario.

mrsneen

ah ok, i understand now!

yeah i was trying to eat at 1200 before christmas to some success in weight loss, but since christmas i've been yoyoing, falling off the wagon, dragging myself back on, yadayadayada! its been a real struggle to get to 1200 and stay there to be honest.

but after reading the "success on eating upped calories" post last week, and following it since then, i've upped my cals to what i reckoned they should be going on those calculations over there in that post.

so hopefully things will tick along nicely now, and i wont struggle so much to keep on the straight and narrow!!

thanks again!