Sedentary vs Lightly Active etc.

davidmac69

After reading several threads on this MB, including the IPOARM thread it seems to me that there are far too many little "boxes" that we all seem to be trying to place ourselves in to either lose weight or justify why we aren't.

Based on the descriptions of the activity levels I should be in the sedentary group. I have a desk job and pretty much never "work-out" (or I didn't when I started this). But my desk job only accounts for half of my waking hours and even there I don't JUST sit at my desk. There are trips down to the bosses office, trips to the bathroom, trips to a co-workers area, going to the copier, even going to lunch and this doesn't begin to cover what I do after work. Shopping, cooking, cleaning the house, mowing the grass, walking the dog... not all them everyday, but certainly more than zero and many of them are things you'll never find under "excersize" anyplace, but even all this added together doesn't seem like it should add up to how they describe even lightly active (teacher, salesman, nurse?)

I tried the TDEE calculations based on the IPOARM thread and came up with a TDEE of 2350 for sedentary and 2700 for Lightly active, a 250 calorie spread. That is a whole candybar or a small meal of differance, depending on your preferance.

Just out of curiosity I picked up a cheap HRM and wore it all day for a couple of days when I didn't do any workouts or intentional excersize, just my daily routine. The results were in the 2300-2400 range and this only included waking hours. Throw in another 650 overnight (based on different calculators I found I burn 650-700 while sleeping) and I'm looking at a TDEE of 3000 a day without excersizing. (Which it just so happens would fit with what I calculated my diet used to look like for the past 4 years while I've held a stable weight of 210.)

If any of that is at all accurate then I really fall into F2F's "moderate active" (3044 cals) group somehow, despite the deskjob! (waitress, mailman? not hardly.)

The IPOARM thread indicates I should eat TDEE-20% for weightloss (1875 if sedentary, 2160 for LA, 2435 for MA). MFP says 2000 for Lighty active, plus eating back the exersize burn (now that I'm excersizing), yet my BMR is 1925! I need 1925 just to breath and lay on the couch.

Arg! There are so many numbers! What do I eat, who do I belive and is there really a good "box" to be in?

Mokey41

First off a HRM Is not accurate if you wear it all day. You'll get very exaggerated numbers because the algorithms are set for an elevated HR. So throw away that theory.

The sedentary setting just means that you aren't working at an active job like being a carpenter or someone on their feet walking all day such as a nurse. It still allows for the fact that you have to do things. Basically something like:
Sleeping - 8 hours
Personal care (dressing, showering) - 1 hour
Eating - 1 hour
Cooking - 1 hour
Sitting (office work, selling produce, tending shop) - 8 hours
Driving car to/from work - 1 hour
General household work - 1 hour
Light leisure activities (watching TV, chatting) - 3 hours