Lightly Active vs Sedentary help

I think you could either do sedentary and add your exercise calories each day or lightly active and not add exercise calories. JMO, I'm not positive.

You sound like me! I'm a work at home grad student so other than my workouts (lifting 4days/week) I barely ever move - ok, I go to campus 1 day/week and an internship 1 day per week.

I'd still consider you lightly active. All that working out has an effect! Sedentary is only for people who don't exercise and sit all day and do nothing, period. As a comparison point, I have a bodymedia fit that calculates my calories burned for the day and I'm a bit above lightly active.

it does sound like the activity level of someone with a desk job. getting up once every couple hours to go to the printer/bathroom. i have a desk job so i consider myself to be sedentary, even though i walk 3.5 miles every evening with my dog and try to swim a couple miles a week. i'd rather have lower activity levels and work to increase them than set my calories too high and fail when i get lazy.

Are we talking MFP settings? If so I would say sedentary. MFP does not account for exercise.
Outside calculators - at least lightly active as they account for your exercise.

Even though my activity level includes leaving the house and doing things... I stand for a good portion of the day but I often sit for a good portion of the day as well. For that reason, I count my activity level as sedentary. I do go to the gym and lift most days (I do tricep/chest/shoulder one day, bicep/back/core one day and lower body/core another day (usually have a rest day or two per week. Each day I go to the gym, I also do 30-45 minutes of cardio. I count my activity level as sedentary BUT add my exercise calories in. It seems to work out approximately at a level consistent with what it should as far as net calories to results. ALSO, if I have a day where I have an unusual amount of activity such as building something, yard work, moving boxes, etc, I will add that in as exercise... Again, it seems pretty accurate for the most part.

I use TDEE (in place of a roadmap), and am a bit more active than you OP, but I calculated for both and split the difference. Most days I'm below the sedentary setting, but I'm sure that will change as I lose more. If you aren't sure try one and if it doesn't work for you try the other. Although, my guess is that you should calculate for sedentary though.

Hi I found this description of activity levels which is useful and easy for people to compare their daily activity against:-

A paper on metabolism used a definition of "vigorous exercise" as expenditure of 14.1 to 16.3 kcal/kg of ideal body weight per day.[1] Using the rounded figure of 15 Calories per kilogram of body weight, then "vigorous exercise" for a person weighing 150 pounds (68 kilograms) corresponds to 1020 Calories per day. If walking at 4 miles per hour burns about 300 Calories per hour, then you would need to walk 3 hours and 24 minutes to burn off 1020 Calories.

The activity factors for the Calorie Restriction Calculator are:
1.200 = sedentary (little or no exercise)
1.375 = lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week, approx. 590 Cal/day)
1.550 = moderately active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week, approx. 870 Cal/day)
1.725 = very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week, approx. 1150 Cal/day)
1.900 = extra active (very hard exercise/sports and physical job, approx. 1580 Cal/day)

The activity factor lightly active corresponds to walking 2 hours per day, moderately active corresponds to walking 3 hours per day, very active corresponds to walking 4 hours per day, and extra active corresponds to walking 5 hours per day (20 miles). More strenuous exercises, such as climbing stairs or running, burn more calories per hour. Most people who exercise from 30 minutes to 45 minutes per day are in the "lightly active" category. You can use the CR calculator to determine the number of calories for each level of exercise for your particular weight by subtracting the calories for a specific activity level from the calories for the sedentary option.

I need advice too...

4 times a week PUMP training in my gym (60min) => sth like this http://www.beachbody.com/product/fitness_programs/les-mills-pump-workout.do

1x after PUMP - HITT (2min walking + 1min running) = 21min

1x cardio 60min
___________________________

5x times a week exercising...170cm / 72kg / 24years / 1800kcal...carb cycling ( 110/60/60/60/0/0/90g Carbs)

What should I choose? Is this good way to loose weight?

Thank you so much!

Hi I found this description of activity levels which is useful and easy for people to compare their daily activity against:-

A paper on metabolism used a definition of "vigorous exercise" as expenditure of 14.1 to 16.3 kcal/kg of ideal body weight per day.[1] Using the rounded figure of 15 Calories per kilogram of body weight, then "vigorous exercise" for a person weighing 150 pounds (68 kilograms) corresponds to 1020 Calories per day. If walking at 4 miles per hour burns about 300 Calories per hour, then you would need to walk 3 hours and 24 minutes to burn off 1020 Calories.

The activity factors for the Calorie Restriction Calculator are:
1.200 = sedentary (little or no exercise)
1.375 = lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week, approx. 590 Cal/day)
1.550 = moderately active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week, approx. 870 Cal/day)
1.725 = very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week, approx. 1150 Cal/day)
1.900 = extra active (very hard exercise/sports and physical job, approx. 1580 Cal/day)

The activity factor lightly active corresponds to walking 2 hours per day, moderately active corresponds to walking 3 hours per day, very active corresponds to walking 4 hours per day, and extra active corresponds to walking 5 hours per day (20 miles). More strenuous exercises, such as climbing stairs or running, burn more calories per hour. Most people who exercise from 30 minutes to 45 minutes per day are in the "lightly active" category. You can use the CR calculator to determine the number of calories for each level of exercise for your particular weight by subtracting the calories for a specific activity level from the calories for the sedentary option.

This is something I was always confused about. When it says
1.375 = lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week, approx. 590 Cal/day) does that mean you need to burn an extra 590 per EVERY day, even though you only exercise 1-3 days? Or does it mean you burn an extra 590 on the days where you do light sports/exercise?? Because you'll burn more then 590 on some days when you exercise and less on days you don't. Or does it mean over all, you burn an average of 590 through standing a lot, walking around at work and light activity 1-3 days a week?

I'm pretty sure I'm considered sedentary as the OP but that gave me a calorie consumption suggestion of 1270 which is as many would consider way too low as it's the lowest you can even go for a female. I set it at light activity and it was a much more reasonable 1420 which sounded just about right to me.

I will be starting up on working out 5 days a week for about 20-40 minutes doing either interval training, cardio or strength training. Probably straight cardio (walking at 3mph on the trail we have for about an hour or doing the elliptical for half an hour) on Monday's - Strength train Thrusday and Sunday (either with light weights or using own weight with things like push-ups and squats. - Cardio/interval training (3 min cardio 3 min move with weights, such as bicep curls or tricep for the total of an hour) Tuesday and Friday and take Saturday and Wednesday off because I do better having break days in-between the week rather then two days straight.