Confused

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I had been using another site to start my weight loss journey but switched to this site on Wednesday. When I did my profile I picked light activity, MFP gave me 1610 cals. (having been told from previous site only pick sedentary if you confined to bed or wheelchair)

The last week I have been gaining about 300 to 500 grams a day. so should I drop my cals slightly or do my profile again and pick sedentary. I cannot do a lot of exercise (medical probs) and I mostly sit doing bookwork through the day but do normal household chores

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  • ralevin
    ralevin Posts: 131 Member
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    My understanding is that sedentary is not as you've described.
    I chose sedentary. I'm a teacher, so I'm on my feet a good portion of the day, moving around the classroom, travelling throughout the building, etc. I spend a lot of my evenings chasing around a moving baby.
    I would think if I was a gym teacher, maybe I could put lightly active (or more active, who knows how much activity the gym teachers acually do in a given day), but if I'm not doing anything other than walking around (even if it is many thousand steps a day), I can't justify saying I'm anything more than sedentary.

    I think I read somewhere that most office jobs would put you at sedentary. You say you do some household chores. I have also heard (though I haven't seen any evidence) that housecleaning can be a bit of a workout. I guess you have to honestly evaluate whether or not you think you're actually doing enough activity with your household chores to go from sedentary to lightly active.

    Also, keep in mind (and someone please correct me if I'm wrong) I believe that the exercise that you do doesn't impact your activity level. So right now, I'm still "sedentary" but I'm doing 45 minutes of vigorous cardio at least five days a week.

    Hope this helps.
  • Mads1997
    Mads1997 Posts: 1,494 Member
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    Thank you Ralevin, I thought I would be classed as Sedentary. I will go in and change my profile now, That will put me at 1440 cals instead of 1600.
  • CSK1981
    CSK1981 Posts: 16 Member
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    This confuses me to, because they base those things on what you do for work, well, because of my arthritis, i don't work, lol, like i do get out most days to go shopping, run little errands and go to the gym (when weather permits, winter sucks), when i'm not doing that and when i'm not playing the Wii, i'm sitting on my bed watching tv or playing on laptop, so i just chose sedentary, cuz it was the least thing to choose.

    Not everyone can work, they should do something to take those people into consideration!!