Little to know exersise or 1-3 hours?

Start taking some running shoes with you to work. Use that walk to the bus and turn it into a run. (or progressively Couch 2 5k or something)

You seem like you want to make excuses to not go to the gym because you are getting a workout at work. Tough ca-ca. It doesn't work that way, this is hard. really, really hard.

I'd love to run after work, but I always so my food shopping before work and bring it home with me on the bus so not practical.

Regarding wanting to turn my work into exercise as an excuse not to go to the gym, I don't know what gave you that impression but its not like that at all! I know I don't do nearly enough moving at work to counter the gym, I was just worried that as MPF and Scooby had me eating below my BMR (not by much) that I would be eating too little. I really want to do more exercise, but find it hard to fit in inbetween working and cleaning my house. I live in a small flat with 2 men who do no house work (it was prearranged that I would do all the cleaning and pay slightly less rent) so cleaning takes up a lot of my time, as does cooking, so evenings are pretty much out. I've been trying to fit it in at weekends, but things keep cropping up, like me having to babysit my nephew last sunday (I managed to get to the gym Saturday) and this Saturday I have to wait in all day for a package, plus I have to go visit my husbands family. I have a few exercise DVDs but I'm far too embarrassed to do them when my flatmate is home, as he will definitely sit and watch me and laugh, and I don't have anywhere other than the living room to do them in as all the other rooms in the house are too small, even if I could transport the TV to them! Anyways, that's not what I was wanting help with, just what people would recommend me setting my goal to based on what I definitely do week to week.

I gather from the responses that sedentary is what people thing I should stick to, so I think thats what I'll do. I was leaning that way but was worried about eating below my BMR. I've been struggling with weekends but I think I'm going to quit drinking for a few weeks as that's what was eating up my weekend calories, plus I have no willpower when hungover!

Thanks for your help guys.

Check out the spreadsheet from the "in place of a roadmap" group. It allows you to put in non exercise activity like what you are talking about. Then it will help you set a calorie goal either using the TDEE deficit method, or the MFP net calories method.

I think you can search for the group, or just go to "groups" and scroll til you find it. It should be pinned in that group's posts.

I will attempt to attach the link. . .

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/717858-spreadsheet-bmr-tdee-and-deficit-calcs-macros-hrm

Wow thanks for the hint, I've just put my info into this spreadsheet and it is suggesting 1903 cals a day. That's a huge difference! It recommends upping it gradually for a few weeks if it is more than 200 cals over my normal goal, so I think I'll up to 1700 for a week, then 1800 the next week and see what happens.

Thank you

Not to be harsh but that essay does really sound like a lot of excuses - excuses can be valid, but only so much as you allow them to be. So your roommate will laugh at you - he's a jerk - so what? Is it more important to get into shape or to let a jerk have control of your life? (Make food he hates until he leaves you alone...) Do you really have to be home at that time? Who says you can't do those chores at a different time of day? Do these things REALLY need to be done daily, or is someone just being OCD?

Bottom line - few jobs give anyone enough exercise to where they could actually claim they wouldn't benefit from additional exercise. Obviously that doesn't mean working in time to go to the gym (or workout at home) will necessarily be easy, but then - nothing worth achieving is ever easy. Sure walking and running around is exercise, but its not exactly GREAT exercise, either, (I haven't spoken to a trainer yet that recommended using a treadmill), and it doesn't really sound like you get THAT much of it anyway. I've had several trainers tell me recently that the recommended amount of daily cardio is a minimum of 30 minutes, and it did seem implied that those 30 minutes were altogether - not spread out at random intervals of 3 minute periods thru-out the day - which probably doesn't really result in much of anything - (just guessing, I'm just a nub myself here).

If you are hungry all the time, then you are either (most likely) not eating properly, or, as you suspect, not eating enough - possibly even both. However, I would think that if your weight level is not changing, or is even increasing, already - that right there should tell you the answer to the question on calorie intake. Look at what you are eating and make sure it has enough of the "stick to your ribs" (but healthy) kinda stuff that will keep you feeling full longer and provide you with the energy you need for the day. Or follow some of the prior suggestions on increasing your calorie intake by a little to see what the results are. Also, you don't have to figure out how to make it to the gym (or workout in your living room) EVERY DAY - even just one day a week is an improvement, fit in what you can, but fit something in.

I never said that I was trying to use my day to day activity as a replacement for actual exercise, I was just concerned that having me placed at sedentary would be too low. My flat mate is not a jerk, he is one of my best friends but his sense of humour is very harsh. I really don't like people watching me exercise (I'm pushing through that and going to the gym anyways, but I can only just about manage that because everyone is there to exercise, and they are all strangers anyway so I don't care if they laugh at me). I'm sure I'll get to the point where I'm comfortable with telling him where to go if he laughs at me, and working out in font of him anyway, but I'm not there yet. One step at a time I did state in my post that I was trying to get to the gym but had only managed once that week. That should have made it obvious that I am working out at least once a week.

And yes, I do have to do the chores daily. As I stated in my post, I have an arrangement where I pay less rent in exchange for basically being the cleaner, so if I slack and the flat is a mess, I am not upholding my end of the bargain and would end up having to pay more rent which I cant afford.

Anyway, my point is, I wasn't looking for any advise on how to get more exercise into my routine, as only I can know when I actually have time, I was just looking for advise on whether or not sedentary was an accurate description of my day to day lifestyle, as these options seem pretty open to interpretation. I was under the impression that the sedentary setting assumes you get up, drive to work, sit in an office all day, drive home and then sit watching TV all evening and nothing else, which is obviously not what I do.
I'm not upset by your comment though, thanks for trying to give advice, but I know its down to me to make sure I get enough exercise, and that no one can really help me fit it in, as only I can know where I can make the time

I have now used the spreadsheet that was suggested (thanks again to tigerblue) and upped my calories to 1700. Lost 1lb this week, and that was after upping my cals for the last 4 days of the week, so that's 4lb lost so far. I'm going to stick to 1700 this week and see how it goes. The spreadsheet actually put me at 1900, so if I lose more than 1lb this week I know I can up my cals a bit more to keep to a 1lb a week loss.

I've managed to fit the gym in twice this week which I'm pretty pleased with, and was going to do a DVD this morning, but I'm aching so badly from yesterdays gym session that I decided to give that a miss.