Activity level help

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Dance4life2267
Dance4life2267 Posts: 10
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi so I was wondering if you could help me with something. I am always so confused what to put on the calculators for my activity level(sedentary,lightly active, moderately active, very active). Here is what I do for exercize. Mondays ballet 1.5 hours, Wednesdays ballet 1.5 hours, Thursdays ballet 1.5 hours, Saturday ballet 1.5 hours. Plus some other stuff now that I have more time. And during the school year I have to walk up a hill to get from the Parking lot to school. Now that it's summer I'm going to be walking more and running more.

Replies

  • jlvanderstoel
    jlvanderstoel Posts: 24
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    If you're not sure, take 0 as activity level and calculate your extra energy consumption manually.
  • Dance4life2267
    Dance4life2267 Posts: 10
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    That's what I do but I mean for the bmr calculators
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    So NOT MFP's activity levels, you are wanting to do the TDEE deficit method with exercise included.

    Be aware those TDEE tables only talk about hours of exercise a week, built on a base of sedentary desk job.

    And since BMR is sleeping calories, this is not for BMR estimate, but again, TDEE, which of course starts with BMR.

    So if job is NOT sedentary, that bumps you up to Lightly Active already. Perhaps school though only, so safe.

    So you only list the ballet time, what about the time spent walking and this running you will do?

    No one could give you an estimate as you don't provide enough details.

    Just be aware that walking counts half the time as other workouts (2 hrs walking is 1 hr in those charts), then just add up all those hours.

    I'm betting you hit Very Active with ballet already being 6 hrs. Plus walking and running more on top of that.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1018768-better-rough-estimate-of-tdee-than-5-level-chart
  • MinnieInMaine
    MinnieInMaine Posts: 6,400 Member
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    FYI, BMR wouldn't include activity - I think you mean TDEE

    Most of those calculators have some sort of guide - for instance scooby's workshop says something like "lightly active, 3-5 hours per week"

    Your hourly total per week is 6 hours of ballet (1.5*4). I wouldn't count your walks up that hill - it might seem hard but it's not going to burn that many calories

    If you're talking about setting your activity level on MFP, you're supposed to go by normal daily activity, not including exercise. The exercises get logged separately and you earn calories when you do them.
  • mgibbons22
    mgibbons22 Posts: 69 Member
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    If you sit around all day and then exercise for an hour, you have a sedentary life style and log the one hour of exercise. If you walk around all day for your job and don't do any exercise, you are active and don't log any exercise. Third party devices like Fitbit, etc, can get more accurate.

    For example, I have a desk job five days a week. Sedentary. On weekends, I am out and about. To reconcile the difference, I use the MFP iOS tracker. On weekdays the iOS tracker gives me very little or even negative credit. On weekends, it gives me a lot of credit.

    Then I log my two daily walks using MapMyFitness. The iOS tracker is smart enough to not double credit the logged walks.
  • rsoice
    rsoice Posts: 212 Member
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    Underbid and overperform. If answer lightly active, you're going to be in the ball park and once the calories begin to burn the weight is either going to come off or you'll maintain and you can adjust from there.
  • Dance4life2267
    Dance4life2267 Posts: 10
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    So NOT MFP's activity levels, you are wanting to do the TDEE deficit method with exercise included.

    Be aware those TDEE tables only talk about hours of exercise a week, built on a base of sedentary desk job.

    And since BMR is sleeping calories, this is not for BMR estimate, but again, TDEE, which of course starts with BMR.

    So if job is NOT sedentary, that bumps you up to Lightly Active already. Perhaps school though only, so safe.

    So you only list the ballet time, what about the time spent walking and this running you will do?

    No one could give you an estimate as you don't provide enough details.

    Just be aware that walking counts half the time as other workouts (2 hrs walking is 1 hr in those charts), then just add up all those hours.

    I'm betting you hit Very Active with ballet already being 6 hrs. Plus walking and running more on top of that.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1018768-better-rough-estimate-of-tdee-than-5-level-chart
    . I have a part time job as a cashier. Now that it's summer I've been going on daily 1 hour and 5 minute walks and I'm starting to run again soon which will probably be everyday once I do becUsd I'm scared of getting fat.(I know I won't I'm only around 100 lbs but I'm scared anyways) so I exercise in the house like this morning I just kept walking back and forth for a mile in my house
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    I have a part time job as a cashier. Now that it's summer I've been going on daily 1 hour and 5 minute walks and I'm starting to run again soon which will probably be everyday once I do becUsd I'm scared of getting fat.(I know I won't I'm only around 100 lbs but I'm scared anyways) so I exercise in the house like this morning I just kept walking back and forth for a mile in my house

    Hope you are 5 ft or shorter for that to be a healthy weight.

    So you seem to have a body image fear, and may be good to talk to a professional about it.

    Because this desire to want to exercise to that extent to keep from getting fat is an issue. It's still along the lines of an ED, but instead of having issues with and doing something about the eating side of the equation, you are wanting to do it on the burning side.

    Is your goal purely to burn more calories for this fear of getting fat?

    Because eating correctly for ANY level of activity will prevent you from getting fat, even no exercise.
    At the level you are describing then, you'd be Very Active rounded up or Extremely Active rounded down, somewhere between probably, but you still give no indication of time spent in say the running you intend to do.
    I'm beginning to think that is purposeful, because you know it sounds bad.

    Or do you want the exercise to actually be of benefit in some way, to cause some sort of positive change?
    Because running every day with the mantra "can't get fat, can't get fat" isn't going to do that for you. It'll lead to poor exercise routine and very likely over doing it.

    Just a concern over some of your words used.

    If you are really willing to eat to the level your intended exercise would demand, then I'll reverse my comments.
    But I'm betting you aren't, because it's going to be a lot.
  • Dance4life2267
    Dance4life2267 Posts: 10
    Options
    I have a part time job as a cashier. Now that it's summer I've been going on daily 1 hour and 5 minute walks and I'm starting to run again soon which will probably be everyday once I do becUsd I'm scared of getting fat.(I know I won't I'm only around 100 lbs but I'm scared anyways) so I exercise in the house like this morning I just kept walking back and forth for a mile in my house

    Hope you are 5 ft or shorter for that to be a healthy weight.

    So you seem to have a body image fear, and may be good to talk to a professional about it.

    Because this desire to want to exercise to that extent to keep from getting fat is an issue. It's still along the lines of an ED, but instead of having issues with and doing something about the eating side of the equation, you are wanting to do it on the burning side.

    Is your goal purely to burn more calories for this fear of getting fat?

    Because eating correctly for ANY level of activity will prevent you from getting fat, even no exercise.
    At the level you are describing then, you'd be Very Active rounded up or Extremely Active rounded down, somewhere between probably, but you still give no indication of time spent in say the running you intend to do.
    I'm beginning to think that is purposeful, because you know it sounds bad.

    Or do you want the exercise to actually be of benefit in some way, to cause some sort of positive change?
    Because running every day with the mantra "can't get fat, can't get fat" isn't going to do that for you. It'll lead to poor exercise routine and very likely over doing it.

    Just a concern over some of your words used.

    If you are really willing to eat to the level your intended exercise would demand, then I'll reverse my comments.
    But I'm betting you aren't, because it's going to be a lot.
    I'm 5 ft 3 inches. And I don't want to sit around all summer so I want to exercise. Thanks for the activity level . I wasn't sure what it was considered so thank you:) and for time for running and walking it would be a mile for running and an hour for walking
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    Options
    I have a part time job as a cashier. Now that it's summer I've been going on daily 1 hour and 5 minute walks and I'm starting to run again soon which will probably be everyday once I do becUsd I'm scared of getting fat.(I know I won't I'm only around 100 lbs but I'm scared anyways) so I exercise in the house like this morning I just kept walking back and forth for a mile in my house

    Hope you are 5 ft or shorter for that to be a healthy weight.

    So you seem to have a body image fear, and may be good to talk to a professional about it.

    Because this desire to want to exercise to that extent to keep from getting fat is an issue. It's still along the lines of an ED, but instead of having issues with and doing something about the eating side of the equation, you are wanting to do it on the burning side.

    Is your goal purely to burn more calories for this fear of getting fat?

    Because eating correctly for ANY level of activity will prevent you from getting fat, even no exercise.
    At the level you are describing then, you'd be Very Active rounded up or Extremely Active rounded down, somewhere between probably, but you still give no indication of time spent in say the running you intend to do.
    I'm beginning to think that is purposeful, because you know it sounds bad.

    Or do you want the exercise to actually be of benefit in some way, to cause some sort of positive change?
    Because running every day with the mantra "can't get fat, can't get fat" isn't going to do that for you. It'll lead to poor exercise routine and very likely over doing it.

    Just a concern over some of your words used.

    If you are really willing to eat to the level your intended exercise would demand, then I'll reverse my comments.
    But I'm betting you aren't, because it's going to be a lot.
    I'm 5 ft 3 inches. And I don't want to sit around all summer so I want to exercise. Thanks for the activity level . I wasn't sure what it was considered so thank you:) and for time for running and walking it would be a mile for running and an hour for walking

    Ok, 100 rather on light side for small framed, but if in to ballet, likely are.

    That's not the level of walking and running I thought your phrasing was sounding like. The fear component clouded what else you said in my mind, concerning me.

    For walking, count is as half time for those TDEE charts. So 6 hrs of walking a week counts as 3 hrs in the TDEE table.
    1 mile of running 6 days a week is what, 1 hr? So 4 hrs there, 6 hrs ballet. But if large amounts of that time are standing listening and watching rather than doing, notice the difference. Or if stretches before and after take 30 min, that's really only 4 hrs weekly.
    Yes, you can hone in on time better.

    But always keep the math in mind.

    If you ate 250 calories over true maintenance or TDEE daily for 2 whole weeks - you would slowly gain 1 lb. That's all.

    And you'd have to have 2 very valid weigh-in days for normal water weight fluctuations not to hide or cause that anyway.

    So don't be too concerned with weight on the scale, anything fast can't be anything but water weight. Which either the body wants all the time, or it'll pass with the higher sodium meal that caused it.

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