am i lightly active or active?

JazzyMarie

Basically im new to this site (and i think its blooming amazing!!!)
However i'm abit stuck on my settings
i put myself as lightly active because i dont do sport or go to the gym much so i have to eat 1200 cals
But i then sort of realised that i may be more active because i walk to college almost everday and its 40 mins to get there which basically burns off my breakfast...so the settings said i should eat 1600.
i just cant get my head around choosing this setting and having to eat more because i weighed today and i gained a pound
Also sometimes i get a lift and hardly walk one week or the next week i walk everyday so its not a fixed regime.

help!
lightly active??
or active?

BrenNew

Basically im new to this site (and i think its blooming amazing!!!)
However i'm abit stuck on my settings
i put myself as lightly active because i dont do sport or go to the gym much so i have to eat 1200 cals
But i then sort of realised that i may be more active because i walk to college almost everday and its 40 mins to get there which basically burns off my breakfast...so the settings said i should eat 1600.
i just cant get my head around choosing this setting and having to eat more because i weighed today and i gained a pound
Also sometimes i get a lift and hardly walk one week or the next week i walk everyday so its not a fixed regime.

help!
lightly active??
or active?

I say stick with lightly active, since it's NOT an every day thing. And then when you DO walk, you can put it in as exercise.
I was lightly active too, and learned pretty early on that if I wanted higher numbers (to eat more!), I'd have to GET more active through exercise! So I started dancing to my oldies, jogging with the Wii, and walking when the weather permitted it.

JazzyMarie

Yes i think you're right!
lightly active it is

Weldone on your weight loss!!

BrenNew

Yes i think you're right!
lightly active it is

Weldone on your weight loss!!

Thanks!
With MFP, it REALLY wasn't THAT hard! So stick with it, and You'LL lose all the weight that you want to too!

SHBoss1673

the reality is, you're probably somewhere in between the two. Walking is very efficient for the body, which means the body doesn't really burn a lot of calories doing it (relatively speaking), then again, IMHO if walking 40 minutes burns off all your breakfast calories, you're probably not eating enough at breakfast.

Unfortunately it's hard to tell where our lifestyles fit into, and most of us don't exactly match up to a pre-defined setting in MFP. You say you're in college, first thing I would do is see if your college has a met lab (some do) and if they do, see if you can get a free metabolic screening. That's how you can tell with 99.9% accuracy where your actual TDEE is (Total Daily Energy Expendature). Once you know that, you can actually know what to eat. Having a metabolic test done is a great step. But if you can't afford one (they cost about 60 or 70 bucks) you can use an HRM and wear it for a full day (without exercise that day, but doing all your normal daily activity), that should give you a decent idea of how many calories you burn in a day.

Once you know this stuff you can accurately depict what your deficit calories should be. Remember, don't go too big on the deficit, 2 lbs a week is for people who are in the obese zone, not for people looking to lose 10 or 20 lbs.

kwardklinck

I've struggled with this too. I'm a Special Ed. teacher with orthopedically impaired kids (walkers and wheelchairs) and I must be more than lightly active or I wouldn't come home so tired every day. I set mine on lightly active and just put in the exercise I concentrate on doing 3 times a week. The good thing is I'm losing faster than the pound a week it's set for me to lose. I would rather take in too few than too many calories lol.

erickirb

Keep it as light active and log the walking on the days you walk.