Activity Level Help!

KateeAndersonn

Alright. I'm not sure if I am sedentary, light active, active, or very active. I work between 6-7 hours daily (some weeks). I also workout 60 minutes 7 days a week doing cardio. What would you guys say? Any comments would be extremely helpful.

dvisser1

What do you do for work? If you're working at a desk, that is pretty sedentary. If you're working a retail floor or restaurant, that is between lightly active and active. So it comes down to what do you do outside of work. If you're moving around some, not including the cardio exercise, then I would suggest marking yourself as lightly active.

If you include an hour of vigorous cardio exercise into your activity level, you have to burn that many calories EVERY day doing exercise while using MFP since it is now included directly in your TDEE. You also then can not log calories burned for that exercise in MFP, as that would count them twice. MFP is set up to determine TDEE without specific exercise calories included, so then you log the exercise and it increases your TDEE for that day only by raising your Net Calorie goal.

KateeAndersonn

I work at Subway & am on my feet moving around. I only sit for about 30 minutes. So? I don't need to be logging my exercise?

manda_c_182

Log your exercise separately. I would say you're about lightly active. Then, every time you exercise log that in your exercise diary

_tjejen_

Ive seen a few people set themselves as lightly active/active and then log regular activities as exercise.

I say log everything if you put sedentary down but if you decide you're lightly active/active then you don't get to log "mopping the floor" to your exercise log (just my opinion tho)

I've put lightly active, and then only log the power walk I do, even though I go out to the shops and school etc at other times, and spend half my day running up and down our stairs cleaning up after the kids

restoreleanne

if you wear a pedometer and do what you always do for a week. Average it out to find your average number of steps per day. (I wouldn't include my exercise in this - I would log that separately, but that's just me - if you include your exercise, then you don't get to also add it in manually on the activity log as your higher activity level would already account for your exercise)

sedentary <6000

light activity 6000-9000

moderate activity 9000-12000

very active 12,000+

_tjejen_

if you wear a pedometer and do what you always do for a week. Average it out to find your average number of steps per day. (I wouldn't include my exercise in this - I would log that separately, but that's just me - if you include your exercise, then you don't get to also add it in manually on the activity log as your higher activity level would already account for your exercise)

sedentary <6000

light activity 6000-9000

moderate activity 9000-12000

very active 12,000+

ooh I didn't see that...pays to read the instructions huh :P

hhayes06

Having worked previously in the fast food industry I would put light active to active depending on how busy your store is. If your store is steady busy all day long then I would put active. If your store is only busy at peak times then put light active. Good luck finding the right fit!

dvisser1

I would agree with the lightly active assessment. You're probably closer to active while at work, but that's only part of your day. Don't log what you do scurrying around at work as that is driving your activity level setting. Specific exercise should be logged.

Logging your exercise will raise your net calorie goal. Many people find it good to eat back your exercise burned calories , but you have to experiment with that and figure out what works best for you.