TDEE Activity Level

velocirobot

How do you actually figure out your level of activity for this thing? The difference between light and moderate activity ends up being a fairly large calorie difference for me, so I was wondering if you guys could help me decide which level is correct.

I work a desk job, which has a fair amount of running around the office during the day, but...honestly...is probably mostly just me, sitting on my booty, at a computer. So, sedentary, probably.

I work out at least five days a week, for 30min to an hour. Generally three days of moderate to high intensity cardio, and two days of (light-ish for now) strength training. According to my recent HRM workouts, I burn anywhere from 275 - 600cals during said workouts, and the totals for the entire time I've had my HRM average out to about 415cals a workout.

I tried the heybales spreadsheet, but I think maybe I got confused, and also may have miscalculated how many minutes of each sort of activity I do.

Help, please?

BarbieAS

You don't have to fit yourself exactly into a bucket. If you have actual data on what you're burning, then that's even better than the estimates.

If I were you, I'd do sedentary plus about 300 calories (415*5 = 2,075, 2,075/7 = 296) per day to spread your average exercise calories out over the whole week. If you significantly change what you're doing for exercise , in terms of quantity, type, etc, then re-evaluate.

aggiejk94

I read on a post on here that even people with office jobs usually aren't really sedentary. If you are exercising that much a week you should at least mark it on the next level. If you look up BMR and how to figure that out, it gives a good base calorie to start with, then add exercise.

heybales

How do you actually figure out your level of activity for this thing? The difference between light and moderate activity ends up being a fairly large calorie difference for me, so I was wondering if you guys could help me decide which level is correct.

I work a desk job, which has a fair amount of running around the office during the day, but...honestly...is probably mostly just me, sitting on my booty, at a computer. So, sedentary, probably.

I work out at least five days a week, for 30min to an hour. Generally three days of moderate to high intensity cardio, and two days of (light-ish for now) strength training. According to my recent HRM workouts, I burn anywhere from 275 - 600cals during said workouts, and the totals for the entire time I've had my HRM average out to about 415cals a workout.

I tried the heybales spreadsheet, but I think maybe I got confused, and also may have miscalculated how many minutes of each sort of activity I do.

Help, please?

So in the spreadsheet, deskjob includes some moving and standing time.

So for 3 x 45 min avg cardio, and 2 x 45 avg lifting, BMR multiplier 1.45, between Lightly Active and Moderate.

So in the spreadsheet, only 2 lines for activity, high cardio and lifting, as long as it's sets, reps, and rests.

HRM used during lifting is totally invalid and inflated calorie burn figure, so not useful.

jaz050465

Get a Bodymedia fit. It will work it out for you and is supposed to be more than 90% accurate.