Activity level ?

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Piper911
Piper911 Posts: 46 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I have a pedometer and walk an average of 7000-10000 steps per day. I work outside and probably 50% of these steps are through thick mud or deep sand if it makes a difference. I also ride 1-3 horses a day for a about 20 min each about 5 times a week. I work out a little also but prefer to add excersise Cals separately and eat like 75% of them otherwise I get lazy quick. Would you say I'm active? This is more for curiosity's sake than anything else. I know no matter what people say on the Internet ultimately only my body will tell me how many calories I need to eat to lose but thought this would be a good starting point now that I am officially back on the calorie counting wagon. Thanks!

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  • Piper911
    Piper911 Posts: 46 Member
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    No opinions? Guess I'll go with lightly active to be conservative and can always add more if I'm starving!
  • esjones12
    esjones12 Posts: 1,363 Member
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    Are you counting the horseback riding as exercise you log, or just part of your every day life? I would say try lightly active and see how that works for you. Everything is always an estimate that requires monitoring and tweaking. If the scale is going down but you are miserable/hungry....try upping your intake a bit and see if the scale keeps going down. It will obviously slow the loss down a bit, but being happy is important too ;)

    Best of luck!
  • Piper911
    Piper911 Posts: 46 Member
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    Counting riding as part of everyday life as its my job! I log excersise when I do boot camp with my personal trainer or do body pump class or elliptical at the y. Everything I else I do I want to incorporate into daily activity. Thanks!
  • esjones12
    esjones12 Posts: 1,363 Member
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    Ah jealous! Some days I would love to get paid to ride horses instead of sitting in an office all day! You aren't too far from me either. Lots of awesome horse country around you :)

    I never log riding either. Figure it's just bonus calories burned!
  • RosaileenB
    RosaileenB Posts: 49 Member
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    I do the same thing - I log my actual workouts separately from my steps. I still watch my calories because I want to LOSE weight. Are you just trying to maintain weight?
  • Piper911
    Piper911 Posts: 46 Member
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    No I would like to lose about 50 lbs but don't really mind if it's slow loss as long as it's a loss! I lost 50 in a year with out even trying and now I can't quite figure out how I did it haha. Sometimes I think I think too much and make it more complicated! And yeah I really like my job! Riding is a big reason I want to lose more weight and get fitter
  • jpaulie
    jpaulie Posts: 917 Member
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    I would call that moderately active especially with that many steps in difficult conditions. I don;t add steps to MFP but work out a lot. Sounds like you burn a lot extra just from normal activity
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,868 Member
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    I would think moderately active without the exercise...but really, just pick one and make adjustments per your real world results. These calculators are great starting points, but that's about it.
  • esjones12
    esjones12 Posts: 1,363 Member
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    Piper911 wrote: »
    No I would like to lose about 50 lbs but don't really mind if it's slow loss as long as it's a loss! I lost 50 in a year with out even trying and now I can't quite figure out how I did it haha. Sometimes I think I think too much and make it more complicated! And yeah I really like my job! Riding is a big reason I want to lose more weight and get fitter

    Riding becomes SO much different as you lose weight and get fitter. Which I'm sure you noticed after the first 50lbs came off! Focus a ton on your core, balance and flexibility. This past spring I was able to jump on my horse after a few months off (no indoor or lights to ride at night) and my seat was SOLID because I had put so much time in at the gym. And I didn't walk funny the next few days like I used to after not riding for awhile. It also has become easier to control my upper body and use stronger subtle cues. I don't think my mare appreciated the stronger part (she is very lazy) but I know she liked that I wasn't bouncing around as much!

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