Sedentary - but logging all exercise?

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lemonsurprise
lemonsurprise Posts: 255 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Apart from specific, logged exercise - I do nothing. It was easy to start off by saying I was sedentary, trying to loose a lot of weight, at 2lb (to start off) so I was eating 1,200 a day.
Then I was introduced to exercise. So now I go to the gym about 4/5 days a week, swim a few days a week, do home exercises, follow videos on YouTube, 30 day challenges, cycling, strength training. But I log every single one of these things. My job is a dog walker, so even them steps get accounted for.
So am I right keeping it set at sedentary, logging all my exercise and eating half back? Because I imagine the calories that I don't log (just by getting around, and living) are actually very, very low.

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  • Lyadeia
    Lyadeia Posts: 4,603 Member
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    Are you counting the dog walking as exercise? If you are, then I would stay with the sedentary adding all exercise and eating AT LEAST half of them back. If you are only logging other exercise as exercise (not the dog walking) then you might want to bump up to "lightly active" and then just log the other workouts and eat those calories back.

    Or you could just follow the TDEE method and set the calorie goal to a constant everyday. You can read more about that at

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants
  • terbusha
    terbusha Posts: 1,483 Member
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    What I do and what I recommend to people is to eat at a calorie level that allows you to make good progress towards your goal. If you are trying to lose weight, eat so you drop 1-2 lbs/week. This assumes an average calorie burn from you getting in all of your workouts. This will be different for everyone, so you'll have to do some trial and error to figure it out. I'd start ~1600 cal/day. Hit this goal, along with your macros and getting in your workouts, for a week. If you lose 1-2 lbs, you're good to go. If you lose too much, increase your intake and repeat. If you don't lose enough, reduce your intake a bit and repeat. After a few weeks, you'll figure out what works for you in your situation.

    Allan
  • 5stringjeff
    5stringjeff Posts: 790 Member
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    Apart from specific, logged exercise - I do nothing. It was easy to start off by saying I was sedentary, trying to loose a lot of weight, at 2lb (to start off) so I was eating 1,200 a day.
    Then I was introduced to exercise. So now I go to the gym about 4/5 days a week, swim a few days a week, do home exercises, follow videos on YouTube, 30 day challenges, cycling, strength training. But I log every single one of these things. My job is a dog walker, so even them steps get accounted for.
    So am I right keeping it set at sedentary, logging all my exercise and eating half back? Because I imagine the calories that I don't log (just by getting around, and living) are actually very, very low.

    I don't exercise nearly as much as you do, but I use the same method: set my activity level to sedentary (desk job), log all my exercise, and eat my exercise calories back. It worked for me to drop 30 pounds.

    Given your job as a dog walker, you might consider bumping your activity level up to lightly active (or moderately active) and not logging the exercise calories you get on the job. Like Allan said, find what works for you.

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