sedentary or lightly active?

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Marcia315
Marcia315 Posts: 460 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I have a desk job (attorney) but according to my fit bit, between walking to courts, closings, to the copier, getting files, etc, and taking care of my kids/doing chores at home, I walk about 2 miles every day. The least active day is still over a mile.

Is that lightly active or sedentary?

Replies

  • BattleTaxi
    BattleTaxi Posts: 752 Member
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    Bumping, I'd like to know also as I have a desk job working at a university with similar fitbit recording.
  • cindyj7
    cindyj7 Posts: 339 Member
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    Ditto - I would like to hear what our MFP experts think of this.
  • jtjunkie
    jtjunkie Posts: 59 Member
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    me too
  • dreawest
    dreawest Posts: 208 Member
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    I am curious about this as well from a different angle. I assumed sedidentary as I am glued in my seat but then I see people record exercise of light cleaning and such. I don't record exercise unless it is actually a physical activity and then I wonder if sedidentary is basically lying in bed eating or if people sometimes count stuff that would be assumed in any lifestyle. And if you spend the weekend spring cleaning, then yay and record but dishes, wiping down the kitchen and picking up after the kids is so normal to me that I would never consider counting it (especially as I know I do spend the majority of time on my a)
  • tazbear1989
    tazbear1989 Posts: 22 Member
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    I have a job where I am on my feet and am constantly moving all day and it was suggested to me to put my activity level at sedentary and eat up to 50% of the calories back that I burned at work. It has worked for me. Hope this helps. I also have a fit bit and I think I have had maybe 1-2 days since March that I didn't make my goal at work.
  • LassoOfTruth
    LassoOfTruth Posts: 735 Member
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    I count sedentary as sitting more than moving. Lightly active to me, is like a teacher or waitress? Could be wrong.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
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    If you have a fitbit you don't have to worry much about it. You can use sedentary and link the fitbit and MFP and you will get extra calories from your daily activity. You just have to get used to the fact that you will have more calories than your initial goal, usually, as at first I was ending up with extra at the end of the day and had not planned how to use it.

    I also have a desk job, but due to lots of walking would be at least lightly active and often a bit more, and my impression is that you are only truly sedentary as used by MFP if you really just sit around all day, almost no walking at all. Anyway, if I didn't have the fitbit I'd change it to lightly active, but letting the fitbit adjust makes it more precise based on the day to day level (sometimes I do nothing but walk to the el and back, which is about a mile total, but sometimes I go way past my 10,000 steps doing nothing out of the ordinary or that I would log), so I like that instead.

    There's also the option of setting it to a higher activity level and letting fitbit make negative adjustments, so you lose calories when you are less active, but a lot of people seem to dislike that--there's a fitbit group with some discussion.

    If you link fitbit and MFP you just have to be careful that when you add activity that fitbit doesn't deal with well (biking) or because you want to keep track of it specifically you should make sure to note the time correctly so that you don't accidently double count it.
  • Jillian130
    Jillian130 Posts: 174 Member
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    Unless you are a couch potato, I don't think anyone is sedentary. I have a 7 hour/day desk job 5 days a week but I have an active lifestyle outside of work as well. I exercise every day, whether its walking, circuit training, strength training, HIIT, pilates, etc.

    If you're moving, getting up to go to bathroom or copier or breakroom or whatever and thats ALL you do, even in evenings than log as lightly active. But heavens no, not sedentary.
  • becs3578
    becs3578 Posts: 836 Member
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    I have a job in retail and I am on my feet a lot. So I put "light active". Eat back 75% of my exercise calories and have lost about 12 lbs in the last 90 days if that helps.
  • asciiqwerty
    asciiqwerty Posts: 565 Member
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    two options:
    - using TDEE pick one for 4-6 weeks and then evaluate average(calories in), average(weightloss), and then re-set to adjust up or down as necessary to get the right deficit
    - use sendentary and NEAT, then log your fitbit activity and eat back the calories (or just a proportion of the calories if you're not confident of how accurte your food loggin is < do you use a digital food scale to weight all your food?)
  • Marcia315
    Marcia315 Posts: 460 Member
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    for clarification, I don't log "light cleaning" or a walk to the court house. I only log real exercise, like the kind where I get my heart rate elevated and I get all sweaty.

    I'm asking because MFP had me at 1200 calories at sedentary and losing 1.5 pounds a week, and I'm HANGRY if I don't earn some extra calories from exercise. Lightly active and 1 pound a week gets me to 1660, which makes me much happier.
  • just4me123456
    just4me123456 Posts: 35 Member
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    Just to share my experience: I had my setting on sedentary, and have my fitbit attached to MFP. Fitbit was adding 200-500 calories per day on the sedentary setting. As others have noted, few of us are as sedentary as that setting defines it.

    I found myself eating a lot of those extra calories--probably psychological, I'm sure, and my weight loss slowed a bit.

    Now, I'm set to lightly active. On an average day, I might get 100 extra calories a day on days I don't work out. I don't seem to eat those back, probably because there isn't such a bounty! When I work out, I do eat those 200-400 calories back (a little extra incentive for slipping on the running shoes). That seems to be working well and my weight loss seems to be picking back up.

    And, like others, I don't count "normal" activity in as exercise (walking the dogs, gardening, etc.). The fitbit automatically will take that into account, which is the magic of it!
  • asciiqwerty
    asciiqwerty Posts: 565 Member
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    And, like others, I don't count "normal" activity in as exercise (walking the dogs, gardening, etc.). The fitbit automatically will take that into account, which is the magic of it!

    if you are allowing fitbit to adjust your calorie goal then those calories are being counted just you aren't doing the data entry yourself, but they are still being counted
  • just4me123456
    just4me123456 Posts: 35 Member
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    Yes, good point, ascliowerty, and I should have been clearer. They are "counting," but before, when I had my setting at sedentary, even a dog walk would show up as additional exercise. On the lightly active, it doesn't. (For example, this morning I went for a 45 minute dog walk, but my fitbit didn't add any extra calories to MFP).

    I'm sure it is just psychological, but for me, having a slightly larger daily caloric target of 1450, vs. 1200 and then 200-500 added, works better.
  • BattleTaxi
    BattleTaxi Posts: 752 Member
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    Thanks everyone who replied with feedback from your experience and interpretations of the settings. You helped immensely!!
  • skittlesnhoney
    skittlesnhoney Posts: 651 Member
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    I have a fitbit as well, and I love to see those positive adjustments every day. I also figured out that MFP had me burning way more than I actually do most days, so I sent MFP to sedentary, but customized my macros using a calculator to figure out my TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) - 20% which is about a 500 calorie deficit a day. I eat the same every day, and on days like the occasional Sunday when I sit around a lot more, I burn the same as what MFP says on sedentary. The rest of the time, I get those positive adjustments to MFP. :)

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