Adjusting activity level

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wbandel
wbandel Posts: 530 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I just started back up at college. Previously I was easily defined as sedentary, now I'm not sure what to do about my activity level. I've been biking the 1 1/2 miles to school and back and the occasional 2 1/2 miles to the studio and back. My classes are all on the fourth floor and the elevators break frequently so I always go up the stairs. I've also been walking around and standing more to do my school work/make artwork.

I'd rather not log all of these activities as exercise, if I add the biking alone MFP says that's about 400-500 if I bike to my studio and back. If I added everything else on top of that I'm worried I'll end up with a huge number. Does this seem realistic, or since it is part of my daily habits would it just be slightly higher since I'd be burning some of those calories anyways? For now I'm just wanting to log my jogging as an exercise.

I changed my activity level to lightly active, but I found myself not really being hungry enough to eat the extra calories as well as my exercise calories from jogging.

Any advice on the activity levels would be nice. I don't want to plateau since I've been rather steady on my progress so far.

Replies

  • wbandel
    wbandel Posts: 530 Member
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    Bump. If anyone could help I would appreciate it. Even if I could be directed towards a more relevant thread that already discusses this. I tried to do a couple searches, but didn't quite find the info I was looking for.
  • MrDude_1
    MrDude_1 Posts: 2,510 Member
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    my advice differs then the MFP advice.

    I look at what MFP reccomends as a STARTING point. log everything you eat, so you know your calorie intake, and watch your average weight over time.. if its falling too fast, add a little more calories... based on 3500cal =1lb and if its not falling fast enough, subtract some...
    since your activity went up, your calories may go up a bit.


    do this and recalculate as needed... while it isnt as easy as having MFP do it for you based on your current weight, it will work for your real activity level, your personal metabolism, and it semi-corrects any minor accidental calorie logging errors.
  • laurie858
    laurie858 Posts: 91 Member
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    I changed my activity level to lightly active, but I found myself not really being hungry enough to eat the extra calories as well as my exercise calories from jogging.

    I think this is a good idea, to change your activity level to Lightly Active. That honestly sounds like the best bet with all your bike riding, walking, standing, etc. Log the jogging as exercise, but not the regular, day-to-day stuff you now do.

    If you're having trouble eating the extra calories, try to increase higher calorie but still healthy foods. For example, put more chicken on your salad, order the 8oz steak instead of the 6oz, maybe add a protein shake into the mix. Often times they're around 90 calories per scoop. Add that to the milk, yogurt, fruit, etc you put in the shake, and you've got a healthy high-calorie meal/snack.

    Also, to increase your calories but still stay healthy and continue to lose weight, eat early. Eat 2 eggs and some light cottage cheese before 8am (or whatever is a realistic time for your schedule). That's 140 calories for the eggs, and maybe 75 calories (depending on how much) for the cottage cheese. You're already over 200 calories before 8am. Around 10, maybe have some nuts or steel cut oats. My oats this morning were 160 calories. You're almost at 500 calories at 10am. For lunch, have a big, healthy salad: lots of chicken, a sprinkle of cheese, lots of veggies, hard boiled egg, avocado dressing. I go for regular/full-fat dressing. I found that I LOVE Newman's Own Italian and I don't mind the extra calories (140 for 2T) because I love it so much. That salad is going to be SUPER DUPER healthy, high calorie (but they're GOOD calories), and a nice serving of fat from the avocado and dressing. You've gotta be close to 1000 calories for the day by now.

    Have another snack in the afternoon. I like to have smoked salmon from costco, roll it up with some reduced fat cream cheese and capers (bagel with lox minus the bagel). I had that the other day, and it's a couple hundred calories. Maybe another handful of nuts or a string cheese. Dinners I like to have a meat/protein and 2 veggies. Maybe some brown rice or quinoa.

    Hahaha, I always go over my calories when I drink a glass of wine or two at the end of the night. But that's not good calories. :)

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