Activity Level for a city girl

seleck05

Hi-

So I haven't been losing much, I put in light activity as my level and it gave me 1400 per day to eat. I am 151 lbs currently, 5'2, female. I put light activity even though I am a student because I live in NYC. I live on the top floor of a 5 floor walkup so everytime I go back and forth to my apartment I am walking up those stairs--on average I do them twice a day-four times a day. I also walk to the bus stop (about 5 city blocks each way) and down and up public transport. stairs every day and then another few blocks to class and up and down some stairs in the building. I have to walk about 10 mins. to the gym, 15 to do grocery shopping and more to go anywhere else. However I do sit during my classes. I thought I was surely not sedentary living in NYC. But now I am wondering if I should have put sedentary and be knocked down to 1260 per day? Thoughts?

seleck05

Oh I also forgot to add that I carry a heavy packpack on the way to school back and forth (I am a law student).

scrappy11

Yeah, I would change your activity level to the next level..it seems like you do a lot of walking and stair climbing. Good luck!

drvvork

So what are you entering into your exercise? Are you staying within your nutritional goals? (Going over on any of them?).

Channing

I would say definitely don't go down to sedentary. I live downtown Nashville (nothing compared to NYC) but I walk 5 blocks to work and back every day and I have mine set to light activity.
I think sedentary is if you seriously wake up, get in your car, sit at a desk all day and then drive back home, which a lot of people have to do.

Hope that helps!:flowerforyou:

Channing

meokk

Hi,
I'm a city girl too. I would bet that you should fall into "light activity" especially given the walk up and the backpack.
What might help for motivation is a jump start. I started my diet in January with a 4 day mild detox that I found on the Martha Stewart website. It was low calories but no so low that I couldn't do my day to day activities and extremely healthy. Lots of blended and juiced fruits & veggies but also a regular meal each day too. I lost 5 pounds in those 4 days and went straight into a 1200 per day diet.
Those first 5 pounds have not come back and the weight is dropping steadily. The 4 days really helped me to focus on healthy foods and as a result I'm making much better choices for my 1200 cals per day than I would have.
Here is the link.
http://www.wholeliving.com/action-plan-index

Best of luck!

TnTHawkins

I believe that you spend enough time walking and moving around through out the day that you set it at "Lightly Active". I set at a desk for about 8 hours day and don't do much walking around through the day.

Try tracking how many minutes a day that you walk or climb stairs and submit it as your exercise.

seleck05

I only enter exercise that I do at the gym. I figure the "light activity" category encompasses my walking. So I enter when I do the bike or swim or do the elliptical machine. I go over normally on protein from my categories. Meokk, if you don't mind me asking if you are a city person as well why are your calories set at 1200? I may try the detox

meokk

Hi Seleck05,
Sorry for the delay. I think that I'm set at 1200 for three reasons. I have 88 lbs to lose, I want to lose 2lbs per week and I set my activity level at sedentary even though I'm probably not.
I too go over on protein every single day but I doesn't seem to have hindered my weight loss at all and it makes me feel more full.

I'll be happy to give you more details about the detox if you like. Some recipes were definitely better than others.
Add me as a friend if you like so we can keep in touch.

Meokk