TDEE Activity Level

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velocirobot
velocirobot Posts: 22
in Fitness and Exercise
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?

Replies

  • BarbieAS
    BarbieAS Posts: 1,414 Member
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    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
    aggiejk94 Posts: 14 Member
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    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
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    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
    jaz050465 Posts: 3,508 Member
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    Get a Bodymedia fit. It will work it out for you and is supposed to be more than 90% accurate.

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