Balancing Activity differences

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kristinarayborn9
kristinarayborn9 Posts: 2
in Getting Started
Ok, figure asking for help here can't hurt. :) Maybe I'll find some info.

I use a fitbit at least on work days to track my activity level, and have been for almost six months. In that six months I've learned that I really do greatly underestimate my calorie need and activity level on work days, and overestimate both on days off. 5 days a week at work I log over 10,000 steps, burning nearly 2800 calories. I've logged food with the fitbit enough to see results on the scale that tell me the fitbit is a very accurate picture of my activity level and calorie burn. On my days off, sometimes we go to a theme park and I'm just as active as a work day, but more often we just have a lazy day at home and I land at about 1700 calories burned.


So I have a very drastic difference in calorie needs on work days and non work days. It seems a hassle to keep changing my goals on MFP from weight loss to maintenance just for days off. I really wish there were settings that let you work on a weekly goal vs. daily.

So basically, anyone else out there also have drastic activity differences between work days and days off? How do you manage it? Do you aim for weight loss calorie intake on work days and maintenance level cals on days off? Any advice or personal stores would be a great help as I figure this out.

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  • Savlona
    Savlona Posts: 84 Member
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    I just aim for everything to average out over the whole week. It seems to work and suits me.
  • PaytraB
    PaytraB Posts: 2,360 Member
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    How are your MFP goals set? Are you "active", "sedentary" or other? Maybe take an average of your daily calories (take your fitbit numbers for maybe 2 weeks and average out the calories burned per day), then set your MFP goal to whatever activity level that works out to be. Add to that the weight loss you'd like to achieve (ie: 1 lb/wk) and MFP should give you a daily calorie allowance that takes into account your active work days and your more inactive weekend days.
  • kristinarayborn9
    kristinarayborn9 Posts: 2
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    I like the idea of averaging over the week, I'm just figuring out how to do that with MFP when MFP works more on a daily basis. I'm fine with the idea of running a calorie deficit on work days and maintenance on days off. I have a hard time letting myself go over goal calories, so to do that I may have to just switch my goals from loss to maintenance on those days off for motivation purposes.

    My MFP activity level is set at sedentary, but is linked to my fitbit, and I have negative adjustments activated so it adjusts based on my actual activity level, adjusting upwards on work days and down on non. Is there a way to set a flat daily calorie goal on MFP? I only know how to set the goal of weight loss/week. I could manipulate the levels like you're saying if I unlinked my fitbit, but I feel like I may lose sight of real calorie burn without that info in the same place as my food logging.
  • icrushit
    icrushit Posts: 773 Member
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    I would say either balance over the week, as opposed to worrying about meeting your calorie target every day. Otherwise what some do who are very active, is calorie cycle, where they eat more on their active days, and less on their rest days. Some take it one step further where they also restrict their carbs a bit on their rest days, which probably helps with adherence.

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