is my activity level right for calculating my calories?

melissa112

Hi. I'm back again to MFP after putting on near 2 stone in the past year was wondering if anyone could help with my activity level.I'm 5'2, 154lbs and want to get to at least 126 (more eventually). I walk my dog 1.5hrs a day, quite a normal pace as my girl has hip dysplasia and arthritis. However I have a desk job so don't know if I should put sedentary? I am planning to get up an hour early and walk my nans dog for an hour on 4 days a week. Am I lightly active or sedentary with or without the extra hours walk for my nans dog.Ive calculates my TDEE (using lightly active) which was 1750and*0.8 to give 1400 calories a day. My BMR was 1273. If I should actually be sedentary then I'm eating more than I should and don't want to do that incase I don't lose. My body fat is 40% going by the military calculation on fat 2fit. Any help on activity level would be really appreciated!

Just to add: I took my nans dog out this morning for an hour and averaged a 20min mile inc time when the dog was sniffing. So will try and do this 4 times a week. With my own dog I probably walk slower as she is off lead but I will use an app to see how fast/slow I go later tthis morning for our first 45mins.

mazdauk

Hi there! Before I started this journey I was definitely sedentary - desk job and very little other exercsie other than a walk (weather permitting) and an amble to and from work. Now I do loads of exercise -but I've kept my level as sedentary and eat back my exercise calories (or save them for the weekend) as I find that a) keeps me motivated and b) makes sure I don't do too little exercise. Lots of people will say the calories given here for exercise are too generous, but I've been using them and its working for me.

I would say you're probably lightly active, but if in doubt put sedentary and add exercise calories. Its whatever works best for you!

melissa112

Thanks for your reply My sedentary calories are 1222 a day which is less than my BMR of 1273 :-/. I have tracked my 45min with my own dog and this was around 2.2mph (I have to walk slower due to her poorly legs). The runkeeper app said I burned 148 cals in those 45mins. And in the hour I did this morning with my nans dog, it said I burned 168. So a total of 316 cals. If I halve that just to account for the possibility it saying I burned more than I did (since I haven't entered my weight), then that gives 158. Add on another walk this evening which will be similar in calories to the 45 I just did, burning around 140 cals, halving that again and adding to the 158, then I would be eating around 220 of exercise calories which gives me 1222+220=1442 which is similar to my light activity calories.

But that is assuming that runkeeper is doubling the amount of calories I actually burn, it could be quite accurate for all I know which means I should be eating almost 400 over the 1222 for sedentary?

I really want to get this right as I lost a lot of weight in 2011 and have put it all back on as I felt my diet was too restrictive. I also want to add in some other exercise next week such as cardio and weights. Is there any way of accurately measuring my calories burned when walking/exercising? I'm not sure how 1222 can be right for sedentary as it is below my BMR.

I worked it out by

BMR*1.2 for sedentary = 1273*1.2=1528, then *0.8 since I'm 40%body fat = 1222.

Sorry to be so confusing, I just want to get on the right track from the beginning.

Broejen

I'd say you are moderately active since you do at least 3-5 hours of activity a week.

melissa112

I'd say you are moderately active since you do at least 3-5 hours of activity a week.

If I walk my dog around 8 hours a week (rounding down) and my nans 4 hours, does that still mean moderately? I don't want to put too high an activity level incase for instance I can't walk my nans dog at some point. Would a good start to be use my sedentary level at 1222 and just add exercise? I just need to accurately track my calories which is a problem. Any ideas? And do I deduct the calories I would have burned anyway during my walks just by living. Or is that taken into account with sedentary?

Sorry! Maybe last time I didn't stick to it was because I was eating 1400 but walking my dog 2 hours a day (before the leg issues) and doing lots of other exercise and never ate back my exercise cals.

hookilau

I do daily dog walks (local petsitter here). Migration/exercise walks (no sniffing, down the middle of a side streeet) at a moderately quick pace for 30 minutes, yields about 2500-3000 steps (I use a fitbit). Fitbit calls this fairly active. (think of 3 mph on a treadmill)

A regular dog walk, easy pace, sniffing every few trees or so, also for 30 minutes, yields the same amount of steps, however, fitbit calls this lightly active.

3 dog walks (total of 1.5 hrs per day) yields btw 8000 and 10000 steps per day. I also figured out that if I use my weighted hoop, I can get something like 1000 steps per 5-8 minutes or so.

I have my settings on both fitbit & MFP at lightly active, knowing that on days I'm not, fitbit will adjust either up or down for me.

melissa112

Thank you, your day sounds similar to mine, I don't stop when my dog does when she is off lead in the fields, I just let her sniff and then she'll run and catch up with me. Maybe I should stick to lightly active then. I do have a pedometer so I'll see how many steps I'm doing.

Is it worth getting a heart rate monitor to accurately monitor cals? I know someone said MFP overestimates calories, not sure if my runkeeper app does or not, although my assuming it overestimates by twice as many means that even if I halve all the calories it says I burn on my walks, I'm still over my 1400 calories which I get as lightly active but not eating back exercise cals.

Hm, I guess there isn't one size fits all is there. i just wish I could monitor my exercise cals a bit better as then i would just use sedentary and eat the cals back.

Missjulesdid

Sedentary because the bulk of your day is spent working your desk job... then add your walks or any other activity as extra.

If you had a job as say, a retail clerk where you were on your feet all day folding clothes, tidying up, and assisting customers then you'd log as lightly active and you'd STILL log your walks and other activity as extra.

I use a Bodymedia fit. I am a store clerk on my feet all day and I walk daily. My reading on my Body media Fit is within 100 calories a day of what I would get if I selected "lightly active" and logged my walks separately on MFP.

ThriftyChica12

i am having success with my settings at "lightly active" (about 230 more cals a day than sedentary was giving me) and NOT eating back my exercise cals....

i would say start with lightly active (but don't eat exer cals) for a few weeks and see how that goes. to me, having plenty of food, and not feeling deprived, keeps me motivated and prevents my body from thinking that it's starving

sijomial

Think you might be over analysing things a little - in the end everything is an estimate.
Pick a number - stick to that as accurately as possible for 4 weeks and see what results you get.

If your exercise varies a lot I would suggest going with sedentary (your majority of hours in the week is sitting down) and eating back exercise calories.

melissa112

Ok thanks all. Like you say, I'm sat down most of the day bar my 2 daily dog walks, well 3 on some days. On one day I don't walk at all (someone else takes the dog) so if I put my cals at sedentary = 1223 and just add on exercise cals. I've already added on them for today and I'm up to 1450 cals which isn't majorly over the light activity so I'll stick to this. And that was estimating my cals burned at half of what my app told me. So I'm not overestimating any cals burned.

Thank you all for your advice

FattieBabs

Sounds about right.
I list myself as Sedentary but exercise around 3x a week. I log the exercise and eat most of my calories back, unless I know I have a party or Dinner coming on where I may need to save a few thereby averaging out over the week. Good luck!

melissa112

Thank you