Question about Calculating Exercise Calories

sukey

My job makes me fairly active every day. I teach Physical Fitness classes to older adults, including aerobics, chair aerobics, strength training, flexibility and balance activities. Consequently I set myself at a moderate activity level for calculating calories expended.

My question is- should I count what I do for my work in my exercise calories or just leave that as my general level of activity and count only what I do over and beyond that? Also, I saw in the exercise list, activities such as house cleaning and food preparation,etc.- wouldn't that just be considered normal activity?

And I ask because I have no problem eating all my allotted calories - in fact I usually need to find some exercise to compensate for a little overage!

Thanks for the advice!

Sarah219

good point I would be interested to find out what people think about this too ! :huh: xx

cluden

I would reflect your work in your daily activity levels and keep the exercise bit for specific exercise. Up to you but that would be my suggestion - good luck!

Dom_m

Your daily activity should be counted in your lifestyle state, just as you did (ie: what you've done is the right idea). Exercise is for things above and beyond your normal daily activity - deliberate attempts to raise the heart rate for an extended period of time, or build muscle through resistance work.

BUT... you may have chosen too sedentary a description of your daily activity. There should be a description somewhere of what exactly is meant by "moderate activity". I know on Sparkpeople, they describe sedentary as basically minimum activity for independent living (ie: more than lying in a hospital with a catheter feeding you, but less than an office worker sitting at their desk all day). The next step up (somewhat active?) is an office worker type thing. The one after that is for people who actually stand a lot of the day, like a retail clerk or bar staff. Sounds like you'd at least be at that level, maybe the one above that. Trouble is, I don't know exactly what MFP considers in this regard (silly since I use MFP to track my calories and I only use Spark for the articles and workout videos).

jaycee76

What about being a Mum to 2 children - 1 of those a toddler?
I put light active - would this be right?

jaycee76

What about being a Mum to 2 children - 1 of those a toddler?
I put light active - would this be right?

Just out of curiosity I just changed my setting to 'Active' and it made absolutely no difference at all to my goals - so that can't be right surely? The difference between the 2 must be atleast 200 calories over 24 hour no? So does it not actually take this into account afterall?

SHBoss1673

What about being a Mum to 2 children - 1 of those a toddler?
I put light active - would this be right?

Just out of curiosity I just changed my setting to 'Active' and it made absolutely no difference at all to my goals - so that can't be right surely? The difference between the 2 must be atleast 200 calories over 24 hour no? So does it not actually take this into account afterall?

I would say yes, lightly active is probably light.

As to you changing your activity. go back and set your goal to maintenance instead of weight loss, and see what the calories are with both lightly active and active. It should be about 300 to 400 calories difference at least (depending on your size). If the goal calories didn't change after you change your activity level, it means that MFP is cutting your deficit off at 1200, which means a LOT of things, but I'm not going to get into that on here as it's different for everyone and what I tell you, others may misconstrue for themselves which is no good. If you really want some more personalized help, email me, I'd be glad to answer specific questions as best as I can.