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MyFitnessPal Community

A "Sedentary" lifestyle includes?

CA_Underdog

I believed MyFitnessPal's "Sedentary" (1.25 x BMR) multiplier included all the activity you would expect from a desk job, minus exercise. Thus, you would only log exercise or special activities.

However, the WHO estimates a sedentary individual burns (1.53 x BMR)--closer to MyFitnessPal's "Lightly Active" (1.4 x BMR) multplier and they don't actually include any exercise in their figures--just sleep, personal care (dressing, showering), eating, cooking, sitting, household work, walking (to/from and within an office), and lazy leisure (reading, chatting, TV, Internet, video games). That's pretty sedentary!

http://www.fao.org/docrep/007/y5686e/y5686e07.htm

Q1. Why does MyFItnessPal use a smaller multiplier than the WHO?
Q2. This implies we should log ANY walking or cleaning throughout the day--thoughts?

Replies

agrafina

Q1. No clue.
Q2. I'm way too lazy to put that amount of effort into logging. That is taking it to a level of obsessiveness I can't even comprehend. I'll take the extra uncounted calorie burn as a nice little bonus and call it a day.

Railr0aderTony

I think you are way overthinking this.

lizziebeth1028

Q1. No clue.
Q2. I'm way too lazy to put that amount of effort into logging. That is taking it to a level of obsessiveness I can't even comprehend. I'll take the extra uncounted calorie burn as a nice little bonus and call it a day.

^^This!!

SunshineKisses_2012

Q1. No clue.
Q2. I'm way too lazy to put that amount of effort into logging. That is taking it to a level of obsessiveness I can't even comprehend. I'll take the extra uncounted calorie burn as a nice little bonus and call it a day.

This. I use to think that logging calories at all was obsessive. I've come this far. Make it any more work intensive and I'm out.

weird_me2

Q1. Why does MyFItnessPal use a smaller multiplier than the WHO?

No clue on this one - maybe because MFP is "made in America" and the WHO is world wide and people in countries other than the USA are on the whole more active throughout their days?

Q2. This implies we should log ANY walking or cleaning throughout the day--thoughts?

I don't think so. From what I've read from other sources, sedentary people usually get up to 5000 steps per day incidentally and lightly active people get 5000-7500 steps per day. I've let that be my guide in setting my activity level. Even though I work a desk job, I regularly get 7500 + steps per day without intentional exercise, so I upped my activity level to lightly active. If you have a pedometer, track your steps and go from there. If you don't have a pedometer, you can download one for your smartphone. You might be surprised that you are not nearly as active as you think, or you might find that you are more active than you think, but you can use it as your guide to setting up your MFP settings.

CA_Underdog

I think you are way overthinking this.

Hah! Perhaps. I am losing weight so what I am doing is working.

My job allows me some degree of choice in how active I am. I guess I've always wondered if I'm doing right discarding all the active minutes/steps I get on the days I choose to be more active.

Another member's question got me thinking about this.

Ang108

I work for the WHO and since the emphasis in WHO is on the " W " ( meaning " World " as in world wide ) and sedentary in many cultures does not mean the same as it does in the US...and MFP is a US website.....WHO uses a median multiplier and MFP uses a different one.
This happens all the time when we look at international statistics as compared to national ( almost any nationality ) one. If you do the math you will see that the difference is really not very big and therefore nothing to worry about.
There is no reason to make things so complicated.....

CA_Underdog

I work for the WHO

Q2. I'm way too lazy to put that amount of effort into logging.

Thanks guys! I will leave well enough alone.

lemurcat12

Q1. Why does MyFItnessPal use a smaller multiplier than the WHO?
Q2. This implies we should log ANY walking or cleaning throughout the day--thoughts?

Q1. Don't know, but would be curious if MFP has an answer. My guess is that, as others have suggested, living in the US may allow for an even more sedentary lifestyle for some.

Q2. Maybe. Or it suggests that a lot of people who think they are sedentary aren't. My job fits the sedentary description, so I assumed I was, but when I connected my Fitbit it kept adjusting my calories and when I eventually checked based on calories plus weight loss results it seemed the Fitbit was pretty dead on and MFP's estimates for me as a sedentary person were too low. Instead, I came in as at least lightly active just from living in a city and walking a lot to commute and for errands (at minimum 7500 steps and 10,000 more often than not unless I ride my bike to commute). I'm sure it's even more so for people with small kids. Rather than logging all this, I let my Fitbit adjust it for a while and then just decided it was consistent enough that I should switch to lightly active (with negative adjustment enabled on the FB).

CA_Underdog

Thanks! I guess I'm "lightly active", but since I can't set a loss goal of 3lbs/week, I'll keep "sedentary".

This site is primarily for food logging, so I suppose the only exercise that's critical to log are the ones that cause me to eat more to prepare, fuel them, or recover--e.g., endurance events, sports, gym sessions, and lengthy housework. I also see the "check-in" page lets me track steps taken or minutes walked.