Activity level
hummingbirdhope
Posts: 101 Member
I'm a student. I go to school at night, do one hour of barre class or yoga a day, do daily house work (laundry, dishes) & occasionally walk my dogs. I do take naps... Does this sound lightly active or active? Sitting at a desk for school isn't exactly active...
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If your activities vary over the week - and most students' do - it is probably easier to set yourself at sedentary and then log your exercise classes. Daily housework is just part of sedentary. You can log your dog walk - 3 miles per hour dog walk.
It is not active.0 -
If your activities vary over the week - and most students' do - it is probably easier to set yourself at sedentary and then log your exercise classes. Daily housework is just part of sedentary. You can log your dog walk - 3 miles per hour dog walk.
It is not active.
So even though I do the barre class every day, sedentRy?0 -
Sedentary is probably the best fit for you. You then would log your walks and your barre or yoga class each time.0
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Sedentary is probably the best fit for you. You then would log your walks and your barre or yoga class each time.
It's also a safe way to start out. You can monitor how quickly you're losing weight (after the first 3 weeks to allow for your water weight drops). If you lose more than you have MFP set to on average over several weeks, then increase your exercise to lightly active and stop logging your walks and classes.
If you're still losing too quickly, increase it again to active. I'd give it 3 - 4 weeks between switching the activity level each time. Do that until your weight loss matches the rate you set to MFP.0 -
If your activities vary over the week - and most students' do - it is probably easier to set yourself at sedentary and then log your exercise classes. Daily housework is just part of sedentary. You can log your dog walk - 3 miles per hour dog walk.
It is not active.Sedentary is probably the best fit for you. You then would log your walks and your barre or yoga class each time.
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I do about the same amount of exercise/same amount of sitting/housework as you, and I put it at sedentary then add the exercise when it happens. I then figure that I burned about 50% of the exercise calories that MFP lists and go by the total I get like that. I think it's a matter of being on the safe side with calories more so than feeling like you are a "couch potato" for fitness purposes because obviously you're not that.0
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Please be careful with advice.
OP, please speak with a professional regarding your ED. Your threads have indicated as such.0 -
I would say somewhere between lightly-moderately active. light active is like daily activities (work, school, showering, etc.) + 2 miles walking and moderately active is daily activities + 4 miles walking. also, depends on the yoga! bikram/ashtanga/vinyasa burn a lot while hatha does not.0
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I do about the same amount of exercise/same amount of sitting/housework as you, and I put it at sedentary then add the exercise when it happens. I then figure that I burned about 50% of the exercise calories that MFP lists and go by the total I get like that. I think it's a matter of being on the safe side with calories more so than feeling like you are a "couch potato" for fitness purposes because obviously you're not that.
I second this too0 -
radiatingkayla wrote: »I would say somewhere between lightly-moderately active. light active is like daily activities (work, school, showering, etc.) + 2 miles walking and moderately active is daily activities + 4 miles walking. also, depends on the yoga! bikram/ashtanga/vinyasa burn a lot while hatha does not.
That's what i kinda figured too... I consider when I'm sick in bed "sedentary". When I do yoga I always do th hot yoga classes... And when I bartend on weekends I probably would be considered active so a weekly "lightly active" might average out...that's still maintenance on only 1700 cals
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Showering?
Id go with lightly active myself purely because you walk the dogs. Otherwise Id have said sedentary. I do 2 12hour shifts a week in an emergency department, run around after 2 kids as well as housework and usually fit in 10000 +steps a day but I have mine at lightly active and log my exercise on top.0 -
Sedentary is 3700 steps/day. That's an average person's walking around. It is not lying in bed.0
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Have to say my days I hit 4000 I do feel like I have barely moved all day. Ive had a day where Ive only done school runs, grocery shop and housework today and Im on about 4800 atm and its 1520. Id say 3700 is pretty sedentary0
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The trouble is "sedentary" means different things to different people.
Some people might feel like they "hardly moved at all" if they just go about their normal routine of desk job, errands, running after kids, cooking dinner, commuting, etc. without going to the gym. For them, that's "sedentary".
For others, say, people dealing with illness or injury, "sedentary" might mean virtually bedridden or confined to the sofa, other than trips to the bathroom or whatnot.
Even number of steps per day can mean different things to different people, depending on how quickly they walk, their heart rate while walking, the length of their legs or stride, and a whole host of other variables.
Best thing is just to guess, track and log, and see if you're losing weight at the predicted rate. If so, great. If not, adjust.0 -
hummingbirdhope wrote: »
Excellent question. I got the number because I have my activity level set to sedentary and am hooked into a fitbit. When the steps hit 3700 I start getting calories added in because I am burning more calories than is assumed for a 'sedentary' person by MFP.
I read somewhere in the mass of details on MFP models that they use something around 3500-3700 steps or few as 'sedentary'. That is actually the median number of steps adults in the US use every day according to my doctor.
The sedentary category used by MFP is not the same as basal metabolism or any of the other numbers used to estimate the needed calories to maintain yourself if you are bedridden. It's the calories a deskworker would be expected to use going about their normal business.
The person above who said all this varies by how fast you walk, etc. is absolutely correct. But all these programs make assumptions about how much energy we use. I am pretty positive MFPs assumption is that a sedentary person walks 3500-3700 or fewer steps a day. I know that is how it calculates calories.0 -
I tend to agree with the person above that sedentary means 3500-3700 calories a day. The other day I forgot my fit bit at home for part of the day and my steps for the day were about 3000. I went into myfitnesspal and received a negative adjustment to my calories which I assume is because the fitbit is telling myfitnesspal that im doing less then sedentary level. So sedentary is not just lying around all day or being bedridden.0
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The trouble is "sedentary" means different things to different people.
Some people might feel like they "hardly moved at all" if they just go about their normal routine of desk job, errands, running after kids, cooking dinner, commuting, etc. without going to the gym. For them, that's "sedentary".
For others, say, people dealing with illness or injury, "sedentary" might mean virtually bedridden or confined to the sofa, other than trips to the bathroom or whatnot.
Even number of steps per day can mean different things to different people, depending on how quickly they walk, their heart rate while walking, the length of their legs or stride, and a whole host of other variables.
Best thing is just to guess, track and log, and see if you're losing weight at the predicted rate. If so, great. If not, adjust.
This. I'd start with 'lightly active', because it's less restrictive and it's great if you can lose while eating as much as possible, just because it's easier to stick to.0 -
i think that most people greatly overestimate their activity level. i've found that unless you are a pro-athlete, most people fall between sedentary and lightly active.0
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Not true I was underestimating my activity level had it set as active am in fact very active and no I am not a pro athlete!! I work with horses and ride and go to the gym a fair bit.. I think other people that would fall into the very active catorgry would be anyone that does hard physical manual labour for a job.. builder etc and of course people like me that for part of my job I am poo shoveling!! I actually struggle to keep weight on now because of the amount I do why I changed my activity settings..Capt_Apollo wrote: »i think that most people greatly overestimate their activity level. i've found that unless you are a pro-athlete, most people fall between sedentary and lightly active.
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Not true I was underestimating my activity level had it set as active am in fact very active and no I am not a pro athlete!! I work with horses and ride and go to the gym a fair bit.. I think other people that would fall into the very active catorgry would be anyone that does hard physical manual labour for a job.. builder etc and of course people like me that for part of my job I am poo shoveling!! I actually struggle to keep weight on now because of the amount I do why I changed my activity settings..Capt_Apollo wrote: »i think that most people greatly overestimate their activity level. i've found that unless you are a pro-athlete, most people fall between sedentary and lightly active.
i said "most people."0 -
hummingbirdhope wrote: »radiatingkayla wrote: »I would say somewhere between lightly-moderately active. light active is like daily activities (work, school, showering, etc.) + 2 miles walking and moderately active is daily activities + 4 miles walking. also, depends on the yoga! bikram/ashtanga/vinyasa burn a lot while hatha does not.
That's what i kinda figured too... I consider when I'm sick in bed "sedentary". When I do yoga I always do th hot yoga classes... And when I bartend on weekends I probably would be considered active so a weekly "lightly active" might average out...that's still maintenance on only 1700 cals
You bartend on the weekends?
On your feet the entire shift?
Yes, lightly active outside of exercise.
So that is maintenance of 1700 with NO exercise done, just daily life normal.
You exercise, you obviously burn more, maintenance goes up.
Hence the reason MFP has you log exercise when actually done, to account for that fact.0 -
Not true I was underestimating my activity level had it set as active am in fact very active and no I am not a pro athlete!! I work with horses and ride and go to the gym a fair bit.. I think other people that would fall into the very active catorgry would be anyone that does hard physical manual labour for a job.. builder etc and of course people like me that for part of my job I am poo shoveling!! I actually struggle to keep weight on now because of the amount I do why I changed my activity settings..Capt_Apollo wrote: »i think that most people greatly overestimate their activity level. i've found that unless you are a pro-athlete, most people fall between sedentary and lightly active.
I think you two are speaking of different activity charts.
Several of the comments in this topic indicate the same confusion too.
I assumed, and nothing she's said sounds otherwise - OP is talking about MFP activity levels for normal daily life not including exercise, not the rough 5 level TDEE charts that include only exercise from a 1919 study.
Even a pro-athlete could properly be set to sedentary on MFP. Because outside their massive exercise, they may even sleep and sit around more than the average joe, besides many of their daily activity being taken care of by others while they sit more. And considering their training is not 8-10 hrs daily, they probably have even more time to sit around.
I think a WAHM with 2 or more kids of different ages, is probably lightly active easily, probably never sitting much at all, and not just standing, but moving and carrying a lot.
I think the folks with Fitbit's prove this out very easily. It's interesting how many even with desk jobs but also kids at night end up being lightly active, because of more running around the house for chores and such, even with limited night time hours.0 -
If you do the math for some activities that might be contained in sedentary, based on weight or MET value and BMR, you come up with the following to hit 1.25 x BMR, on a weekly basis. It includes a bit more than sleeping all day, but not as much as running around after kids say.
45 hr work sitting, 56 hr sleeping, 60 hr sitting/standing, 7 hr slow walking
Daily that would be:
9 hr work sitting for 5 days, 8 hrs sleeping, 8.6 hr sitting/standing, 1 hr slow walking.
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If you do the math for some activities that might be contained in sedentary, based on weight or MET value and BMR, you come up with the following to hit 1.25 x BMR, on a weekly basis. It includes a bit more than sleeping all day, but not as much as running around after kids say.
45 hr work sitting, 56 hr sleeping, 60 hr sitting/standing, 7 hr slow walking
Daily that would be:
9 hr work sitting for 5 days, 8 hrs sleeping, 8.6 hr sitting/standing, 1 hr slow walking.
Thanks!:)0 -
I play tennis3-4 times a week-doubles and that is not much exercise and i have a desk job...i have mine as sedentary..i do NOT eat back any exercises calories...i have maintained for 6 plus months...0
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