Setting activity level?

Hertford86

I walk 10 minutes each way to work, and don't log it. But once I get there my job is pretty much sedentary. At home, well, I do housework, shopping etc - what we all do. I don't know whether I should log as lightly active or as sedentary - I want to be able to log and eat my exercise calories. I'd like to hear from some of you where you set your level and why. If there is an MFP page that has guidelines, you could send me there - I've looked, but haven't found anything.

Thanks

StarWidget

In the beginning, I put sedentary because I sit down a lot at my job. (I'm a teacher, which involves a lot of paper grading.) Also, it lists nurses as "lightly active," and my mother was a nurse and I knew I wasn't on my feet moving around nearly as much as she was. However, after a few weeks, I was losing more weight than I expected (2.5-3 pounds per week) and I was hungry all the time. I changed it to lightly active and now it seems a little more accurate. I would say that if you sit most of the day, start at sedentary. If, after a few weeks, you feel like you are losing more weight than you should, you can change it to lightly active. As an alternative, you could start at lightly active and if you are not losing as much weight as you'd expect, change it to sedentary.

Good luck!

WendyBlendy

I think you should log as sedentary...if nothing else, you'll be burning extra calories!

diadojikohei

I put myself down as sedentary at first, then bought a pedometer and wore it for a week, from getting up to going to bed, just to see how far I walked. It logged 13,000 steps which times by my step length is about 10k. Obviously it's just a guide, but I was surprised so I changed my setting to lightly active.