In Place of a Road Map: Short N' Sweet

heybales · May 2013

Another question, but maybe a goofy one: If I sit around all day and walk for 45 minutes daily does that make me 'lightly active'? How much activity does it take to move between the levels, or is it more 'go with your gut?'

I'm about to start doing some lifting (following the NRoLfW) with some light cardio on non-lifting days and I'm not sure what to take my calories up to, or if I should leave them as they are.

Put it this way, the vast majority that start using FitBit and BodyMedia, discover their sedentary non-exercise desk job days are actually at MFP's Lightly Active level, which is 1.35 x BMR.

Use the spreadsheet topic link right above this post.

Because indeed, walking doesn't count as much as lifting, which doesn't count as much as running.

But it does count, and if that was all your activity, it would actually be Lightly Active on TDEE levels at 1.38, as long your day was sedentary desk job type.
Lifting would increase it of course - but just use the spreadsheet linked above.

heybales · May 2013

The number I'm pulling for my husband seems absolutely nuts.

He's currently about 250 lbs, is at 39% BF, and is currently eating about 1600 calories a day and is very lightly active (maybe 2-3 half an hour walks a week, otherwise at a very sedentary 12 hour a day desk job) He's lost 35 lbs in the 100 days we've been doing this, but his weight loss is really slowing down and has had 0.2 - 0.8 lbs each week for the past several weeks, despite sticking to his calories, doing healthy snacks, staying fairly low in sodium, etc.

TDEE minus 20% puts him at 2400 calories. Going up nearly 1000 calories a day seems like there is no way on earth it could be productive to his weight loss. Am I missing something here?!

Seems nuts compared to ..... ?
Do you have any idea how much he used to eat before? Or like vast majority, that 1600 and probably 1200 for women is the only calorie levels you've ever seen and heard of, and that is minimum safe levels merely for getting nutrition in for sedentary.
So you really have nothing objective to compare 2400 calories too for knowing if that sounds high or low.

Yes, you are missing some things though that may help understand better.

First, with BF% there, the BMR you are basing the math on is greatly inflated, so inflated TDEE, likely smaller goal than that if you use better BMR.
Katch BMR is 1864. TDEE around 2400. Eating goal would likely be closer to 2000.

Second, he is probably undereating by too great a deficit and is seeing the effects of suppressed metabolism, meaning the deficit is disappearing as you've seen. Too much stress on body.

Third, recovery takes longer than doing it right in the first place (meaning 6-9 months of plateau makes 35lbs in 100 days not that great of an overall avg, besides frustration level that usually occurs). Because at this rate, how long until no losses? And then eating lower yet, how long until it happens again. You can read the forums for what usually happens.

Fourth, get good figures and get started now right. If metabolism is going down, that usually means muscle mass loss is going on too, part of the reason metabolism goes down.

Use spreadsheet link in couple posts above this one. Get measurements down, get best estimates, track progress, get macros to suggested amount, follow eating recommendation.

Since he is seeing slowdown already, I'd suggest 1 week eating at estimated TDEE. Let body see there is no concern allowing a deficit, get rid of one stress for a week. If work is that long, I'm betting slightly stressful. Stress on body is fight against fat and weight loss. Remove as many as you can.

heybales · May 2013

I drive to work and start at 8:30 am. I sit at my desk pretty much all day, and leave usually around 3:30 pm to drive home.
When I get home, I do some stuff around the house -nothing strenuous, cook dinner, etc. Then I'm usually on the couch from about 7:30 pm until 12 midnight. But that time between like 4pm and 7pm I'm usually doing something moving around a bit.

On the weekends, I'm usually up around 9am and go to bed around midnight. During the day, I typically do whatever around the house, or run errands, grocery shopping, etc. Again, nothing strenuous, but still moving around. Then, probably sitting for at least 4 hrs at night.
At the present time, I am not doing any exercise though.

I'd say your daily routine is already covered by the base level assumed sedentary level of 1.25 x BMR.

This is what the spreadsheet says for sedentary level:
"Sedentary is base activity that is built on, which already includes weekly - 40 hr work sitting, 56 hr sleeping, 65 hr sitting/standing, 7 hr slow walking"

Only thing to add, probably under exercise, is if you mow the lawn, if really doing no other exercise.

michelegreen99 · May 2013

SO glad someone reposted this link today! I read it when I first joined and then forgot to "bump" it.

Thank you for taking the time to share all of the knowledge you have gathered!

justjenny · May 2013

Bump

Evotchka · May 2013

Perfect!! Just what I was looking for! Thanks a million for this post.

One remark about eating back exercise calories. I am following the TDEE -20 method which brings me around 1600 cals per day with a moderately active lifestyle (working out 3-5 times a week). Now I like logging my workouts on here because I can track them and I can feel proud that I did them. I am not eating back my workout calories since they are already in the calculation. But I didn't like how I had to be careful about eating my calories on a day where I worked out because the front page of MFP wouldn't show my actual remaining calories, but my remaining calories plus my burned calories. So now I set my MFP calorie settings to about 1300 calories (approx. 300 cals less than I am "allowed" to eat, which is around what I burn when working out) and I eat my calories back completely on workout days and I don't freak out if I go over on non-workout days. That's just a personal preference but it has worked well for me :drinker:

CM9178 · May 2013

I drive to work and start at 8:30 am. I sit at my desk pretty much all day, and leave usually around 3:30 pm to drive home.
When I get home, I do some stuff around the house -nothing strenuous, cook dinner, etc. Then I'm usually on the couch from about 7:30 pm until 12 midnight. But that time between like 4pm and 7pm I'm usually doing something moving around a bit.

On the weekends, I'm usually up around 9am and go to bed around midnight. During the day, I typically do whatever around the house, or run errands, grocery shopping, etc. Again, nothing strenuous, but still moving around. Then, probably sitting for at least 4 hrs at night.
At the present time, I am not doing any exercise though.

I'd say your daily routine is already covered by the base level assumed sedentary level of 1.25 x BMR.

This is what the spreadsheet says for sedentary level:
"Sedentary is base activity that is built on, which already includes weekly - 40 hr work sitting, 56 hr sleeping, 65 hr sitting/standing, 7 hr slow walking"

Only thing to add, probably under exercise, is if you mow the lawn, if really doing no other exercise.

Thanks, I didn't see that note about sedentary at first.. I was hoping I could bump it up a bit, but I'm happy eating where I'm at now anyway