Activity Level!?

soo_z

I'm really struggling on trying to figure out my activity level. I have a desk desk that I sit at from 7:30 - 5:00, I lift weights for 45-60 minutes 3 times a week and do 30 minutes of HIIT 3 days a week as well. According to Scooby's site that puts me at Moderate Activity, but I'm having a hard time swallowing the fact (no pun intended) that this puts me at a 2308 TDEE! I keep wanting to put it to Sedentary and add my exercise calories or put light training, but I don't want to cheat myself!

I don't have to do a reset as I have not deprived myself for long at all (I always struggled with low calorie diets and was ALWAYS over) so I think I could just right into cutting.

Thoughts?

heybales

First, you are correct. Not all activity time is equal calorie usage.

Second, before getting into your figures, are you using the same muscles in HIIT at that intense an effort, that were just used lifting the day before?
If you are, then you should rethink that, because you can't get full benefit from either workout then.

HIIT should be considered as strength training, sport specific, in scheduling. Because it is the same hard anaerobic effort that leaves your muscles needing to repair the next day. If you want to actually benefit from the effort anyway, and you are doing it correctly.
But you are lifting the next day. Which means you actually can't lift as hard or heavy as you could with tired muscles needing repair.
And then your HIIT is doubtful to be really HIIT, following a day of lifting, where again, the purpose of the lifting is getting stronger, which only happens by tearing up the muscles and then allowing rest and recovery so they can repair stronger. Otherwise wasted effort.

It will feel like you are doing the best you can do on either thing, but you are not. You just don't know it.
HIIT is a fad, is came about as option to doing straight cardio and is indeed better than total fat-burning zone. If you are already doing lifting, just do the lifting. Do very easy cardio the day after if you just want a run or something. 30 min easy jog will be great for repair, not enough load to kill the repair process which you are doing now, but enough to get blood flow going. That's what the fat-burning zone is great for, repair. That's why it's more accurately called the Active Recovery HR zone.

Now, you could throw the HIIT in after the lifting if just desirous of doing it for the cardio improvement, and really leave the next day as recovery to get something out of it.

So with your time mentioned, 180 min lifting, 90 min heavy cardio - BMR multiplier 1.38, slightly above Lightly Active.
If you turned the HIIT time into easy cardio, same.

Also make sure you are basing the foundation, the BMR, on the Katch BMR based on weight & bodyfat%. May or may not be much difference between Katch and Mifflin BMR. On Scooby's site, you'll need link for Most Accurate TDEE calc to select Katch BMR.

Get decent BF% here.

http://www.gymgoal.com/dtools.html

norcal_yogi

First, you are correct. Not all activity time is equal calorie usage.

Second, before getting into your figures, are you using the same muscles in HIIT at that intense an effort, that were just used lifting the day before?
If you are, then you should rethink that, because you can't get full benefit from either workout then.

HIIT should be considered as strength training, sport specific, in scheduling. Because it is the same hard anaerobic effort that leaves your muscles needing to repair the next day. If you want to actually benefit from the effort anyway, and you are doing it correctly.
But you are lifting the next day. Which means you actually can't lift as hard or heavy as you could with tired muscles needing repair.
And then your HIIT is doubtful to be really HIIT, following a day of lifting, where again, the purpose of the lifting is getting stronger, which only happens by tearing up the muscles and then allowing rest and recovery so they can repair stronger. Otherwise wasted effort.

It will feel like you are doing the best you can do on either thing, but you are not. You just don't know it.
HIIT is a fad, is came about as option to doing straight cardio and is indeed better than total fat-burning zone. If you are already doing lifting, just do the lifting. Do very easy cardio the day after if you just want a run or something. 30 min easy jog will be great for repair, not enough load to kill the repair process which you are doing now, but enough to get blood flow going. That's what the fat-burning zone is great for, repair. That's why it's more accurately called the Active Recovery HR zone.

Now, you could throw the HIIT in after the lifting if just desirous of doing it for the cardio improvement, and really leave the next day as recovery to get something out of it.

So with your time mentioned, 180 min lifting, 90 min heavy cardio - BMR multiplier 1.38, slightly above Lightly Active.
If you turned the HIIT time into easy cardio, same.

Also make sure you are basing the foundation, the BMR, on the Katch BMR based on weight & bodyfat%. May or may not be much difference between Katch and Mifflin BMR. On Scooby's site, you'll need link for Most Accurate TDEE calc to select Katch BMR.

Get decent BF% here.

http://www.gymgoal.com/dtools.html

^^ i must say, i love that calculator! said my average fat% was 11.4%! i doubt it though... the highest was 15.5% which is somewhat conceivable....

for the OP, i would go with lightly active for a few weeks to a month...if that doesn't seems right after that time period, possibly average in between lightly active, to moderate. good luck!