Just How Sedentary is "Sedentary," Anyway?
LAWoman72
Posts: 2,846 Member
So I have my stats set on Sedentary. Or is that Inactive? Can't remember (what a drag it is getting old).
Anyway, I really do feel I'm inactive. I work from home - all sitting, all computer work. Then when my sons get home from school, sure, I'm popping up to help them or get them things, but I mean it's not as if this is heavy duty stuff. I'm not helping them with homework while walking a treadmill with a refrigerator strapped to my back or anything.
Other than that, basic housework. Dishes, laundry, straightening. Not exactly stuff that gets one's heart rate up.
If I do actually move around, I count it. For instance, today I cleaned out two toy closets from top to bottom, lugging giant heavy boxes of books, bags of toys and so on. Now THAT I counted.
Yet, set on Sedentary at an intended loss of one pound per week, when I stick to plan, I lose two pounds per week easily. Sometimes more.
I weigh and measure with a precision that would make a NASA engineer blanch (and probably run the other way). So I know I'm not underestimating my calories.
I'm a gnarled old premenopausal fart with a bad thyroid and an embarrassing lazy streak, so...whassup? Am I mistaking what MFP thinks of as inactive?
And no, I'm not complaining. Just wondering. If you had my lifestyle, would you set at the lowest setting? Or go one up, Lightly Active or whatever...?
Anyway, I really do feel I'm inactive. I work from home - all sitting, all computer work. Then when my sons get home from school, sure, I'm popping up to help them or get them things, but I mean it's not as if this is heavy duty stuff. I'm not helping them with homework while walking a treadmill with a refrigerator strapped to my back or anything.
Other than that, basic housework. Dishes, laundry, straightening. Not exactly stuff that gets one's heart rate up.
If I do actually move around, I count it. For instance, today I cleaned out two toy closets from top to bottom, lugging giant heavy boxes of books, bags of toys and so on. Now THAT I counted.
Yet, set on Sedentary at an intended loss of one pound per week, when I stick to plan, I lose two pounds per week easily. Sometimes more.
I weigh and measure with a precision that would make a NASA engineer blanch (and probably run the other way). So I know I'm not underestimating my calories.
I'm a gnarled old premenopausal fart with a bad thyroid and an embarrassing lazy streak, so...whassup? Am I mistaking what MFP thinks of as inactive?
And no, I'm not complaining. Just wondering. If you had my lifestyle, would you set at the lowest setting? Or go one up, Lightly Active or whatever...?
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I'd do lightly active, because you'd still be losing, and you could eat more food.
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Do you have a pedometer (or you could download a free app to count steps if you have a smart phone)?
I have mine set to sedentary. I had a fitbit (recently switched to VivoFit, but they do about the same thing) which adjusts my calories based on how active I am.
less than 2000 steps : negative adjustment
2000-2500 steps : no adjustment
2500-3500 steps : no adjustment/small adjustment if I worked out (less than 100 calories)
3500 + steps : adjustment of at least 50 calories/up to 800 calories with exercise and a large number of steps
I also have my profile set to 1lb per week loss. I have been losing 1.3-2lbs per week though(over 90 days), but I think that's because I only log up to 80% of the calories from my HRM (until here recently). Recently, I've decided to try logging 100% and see what happens. If I slow down to less than 1lb per week, then I'll try logging up to 90% of the calories and so on.0 -
I don't have a pedometer. Interesting, I may get one just to see what's what here.0
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Calculators aren't really calculators - they are estimators.
Actual results are what matters and if you are losing at 2lbs a week instead of intended 1lb a week your calorie goal is hundreds of calories (maybe 500) less a day than it needs to be.
My initial set up was out by about 300 cals/day - unfortunately in the opposite direction to you!
You really don't need gadgets to count steps or playing with activity settings - just custom set your calorie goal and experiment until you find the right level to achieve the results you want.
I'm a big believer in keeping it simple!0 -
shadow2soul wrote: »Do you have a pedometer (or you could download a free app to count steps if you have a smart phone)?
I have mine set to sedentary. I had a fitbit (recently switched to VivoFit, but they do about the same thing) which adjusts my calories based on how active I am.
less than 2000 steps : negative adjustment
2000-2500 steps : no adjustment
2500-3500 steps : no adjustment/small adjustment if I worked out (less than 100 calories)
3500 + steps : adjustment of at least 50 calories/up to 800 calories with exercise and a large number of steps
I also have my profile set to 1lb per week loss. I have been losing 1.3-2lbs per week though(over 90 days), but I think that's because I only log up to 80% of the calories from my HRM (until here recently). Recently, I've decided to try logging 100% and see what happens. If I slow down to less than 1lb per week, then I'll try logging up to 90% of the calories and so on.
Yes this ...my fitbit adjusts my sedentary setting downwards at anything less than 2000-4000 steps, depending on the intensity ...
It also encourages you to move more and I log workouts with my HRM
I am on a 0.5lb a week last few pounds to go stretch though so it's important to be more accurate with a cut as low as 250 calories ...it still seems to be working and I'm getting a good idea of my average TDEE for maintenance0 -
shadow2soul wrote: »Do you have a pedometer (or you could download a free app to count steps if you have a smart phone)?
I have mine set to sedentary. I had a fitbit (recently switched to VivoFit, but they do about the same thing) which adjusts my calories based on how active I am.
less than 2000 steps : negative adjustment
2000-2500 steps : no adjustment
2500-3500 steps : no adjustment/small adjustment if I worked out (less than 100 calories)
3500 + steps : adjustment of at least 50 calories/up to 800 calories with exercise and a large number of steps
I also have my profile set to 1lb per week loss. I have been losing 1.3-2lbs per week though(over 90 days), but I think that's because I only log up to 80% of the calories from my HRM (until here recently). Recently, I've decided to try logging 100% and see what happens. If I slow down to less than 1lb per week, then I'll try logging up to 90% of the calories and so on.
I have my activity set to very active and maintain quite easily. However, I was wondering how steps were calculated as calories and this is helpful. I use a Jawbone as a rule, but am waiting for a replacement because mine was defective.
In addition to steps, I log my workouts with an HRM because it's more accurate than the trackers or MFP's calculations. I accept 100% of the HRM - it's always over 150 calories less than any database I've seen.0 -
I like having my activity level set to sedimentary because I like to log my exercise so I can go back and look at it later.
It was interesting to see a breakdown of how fitbit calculates activity level, thanks for that.
Fitbits are expensive for what they are, but they really do motivate you to take extra steps during the day. It's convenient when they sync up, now that there are other pedometers that do the same and work with MFP it's worth looking around for the best value one. As one of the posters has said you don't need any gadgets, but I find them motivating and great things to buy yourself as a reward for goals.
I just got myself a new swim watch for christmas, it keeps a weekly distance total below the time. So every time I look at it I can see how much I've swam this week. Did I need it? Not at all! I'll admit it is silly and over the top, but now I can just zone out and enjoy swimming without keeping a lap count. I kept forgetting what lap I was on all summer/autumn.0 -
My day is pretty similar to yours - housework, sitting at a computer, walking the dog and popping to the shops... I easily hit 10 000 steps and thought that this would be a fairly average number for adults. MFP taught me otherwise.0
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What you describe sounds very sedentary, even more sedentary than most, since an office worker will at least walk between the car and the office each day. Where I work, that accounts for about half a mile of walking.0
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How long has this been going on? Anything less than 6 weeks is likely a fluctuation and not worth actually adjusting your goals/intake over. Your ticker says you've lost 0 lbs, so I'm confused. Your profile also says you have a thyroid condition. All of the above advice from other users is based on no extraneous medical conditions. Since your thyroid is not able to function normally, you may not be able to follow the standard advice.
In general, Sedentary/Lightly Active/Active/Whatever the Highest One Is are meant to indicate how you spend your workday because it's a good 1/3 of your day (with 1/3 sleeping and the remaining 1/3 eating dinner, breakfast, driving to work, etc).0 -
You sound sedentary to me. That's pretty cool that you can 'count' all activity and still lose 2 lbs. a week!
I agree that no one 'needs' a pedometer but if you would ever like to become even a little more active (and it's good for you to do so, of course, especially as we age), pedometers can be really motivating, especially for data lovers.0 -
People mistakenly think that "sedentary" means "inert". "Sedentary" includes much of the moving around the average person does in a day. I attended a research presentation years ago in which the researchers developed an activity scale and gave several thousand adults activity diaries to record 24-hour movement. Even though these people had jobs, managed households, etc, the casual activity was so minimal they determined that 70% of the adults they studied were essentially motionless.0
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Sounds sedentary.0
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So I have my stats set on Sedentary. Or is that Inactive? Can't remember (what a drag it is getting old).
Anyway, I really do feel I'm inactive. I work from home - all sitting, all computer work. Then when my sons get home from school, sure, I'm popping up to help them or get them things, but I mean it's not as if this is heavy duty stuff. I'm not helping them with homework while walking a treadmill with a refrigerator strapped to my back or anything.
Other than that, basic housework. Dishes, laundry, straightening. Not exactly stuff that gets one's heart rate up.
If I do actually move around, I count it. For instance, today I cleaned out two toy closets from top to bottom, lugging giant heavy boxes of books, bags of toys and so on. Now THAT I counted.
Yet, set on Sedentary at an intended loss of one pound per week, when I stick to plan, I lose two pounds per week easily. Sometimes more.
I weigh and measure with a precision that would make a NASA engineer blanch (and probably run the other way). So I know I'm not underestimating my calories.
I'm a gnarled old premenopausal fart with a bad thyroid and an embarrassing lazy streak, so...whassup? Am I mistaking what MFP thinks of as inactive?
And no, I'm not complaining. Just wondering. If you had my lifestyle, would you set at the lowest setting? Or go one up, Lightly Active or whatever...?
It sounds like lightly active might work for you, since you're losing too quickly on sedentary. Another thing you might look at is your logging habits. You could be overestimating food and/or underestimating exercise calories (yes, that's possible, just as is underestimating food calories and overestimating exercise burns).
I work a desk job all day, but I work out 5-6 times a week (heavy weight lift M,W,F for 40 minutes, 30-40 cardio afterward, run 40-50 minutes 2-3 days a week, rest on Sunday, sometimes Saturday, and I have my settings on active. I also eat my exercise calories back.
Finding the correct activity setting for me took a lot of trial and error.
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To provide a little contrast to the Fitbit posts, I have my account set to "lightly active," and I typically get a significant negative Fitbit adjustment for anything under about 6,000 steps per day (meaning that Fitbit estimates that I've burned less that day than the MFP estimate for "lightly active"), then from 6,000 to about 8,000it can go either up or down slightly, and I don't start consistently getting positive adjustments until I get over 8,000 steps per day. That's my personal experience, and as previously mentioned a Fitbit is still just an estimate (though a moderately better one than blindly selecting a one-size-fits-all-days activity level), but I hope that helps a little.0
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I'd also be curious to know how long you've been at it. Slightly quicker weight loss than expected could be due to a recent change in diet or exercise (water weight).
Or maybe you're just more active than you give yourself credit for and lightly active would be a better setting. A pedometer would definitely help give you a better idea.0 -
Yeah, if I wear a Fitbit and don't intentionally add activity, I only log maybe 4000 steps a day. I thought it was interesting that I did WW for a while earlier this year and that was around their 'cutoff' for earning Activity Points from adding a step count to the app, too. So 4000ish or under earned zero, then it was what you'd expect from there on up (like 2 points earned per each mile or 2000ish steps, above 4000ish).To provide a little contrast to the Fitbit posts, I have my account set to "lightly active," and I typically get a significant negative Fitbit adjustment for anything under about 6,000 steps per day (meaning that Fitbit estimates that I've burned less that day than the MFP estimate for "lightly active"), then from 6,000 to about 8,000it can go either up or down slightly, and I don't start consistently getting positive adjustments until I get over 8,000 steps per day. That's my personal experience, and as previously mentioned a Fitbit is still just an estimate (though a moderately better one than blindly selecting a one-size-fits-all-days activity level), but I hope that helps a little.
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thank you for posting this. I had a similar experience. I posted before trying to get people's thoughts but there were comments made in this thread I hadn't seen before so it was interesting to me as well.
I don't track so specifically so I was wondering if I was just a chronic underestimater. My day was even more sedentary than yours- very little to no housework, no kids, working from home in PJs(reading/typing while lying down). Set at .5 to 1 per week I too would lose 2 lbs (or more!) if I actually kept to MFP recommendations.
So to answer your question, I too would pick sedentary with your work type but if after experience I found that that estimate was low for me I would either up my activity level or set the custom goal as someone else suggested. I ended up just setting mine up to lightly active because that seemed easiest and I often eat over MFP goal anyway.0 -
sedentary is closer to nothing than something.
do you have a few months behind you where you are already working out hard at least once a week? put lightly active.
Not doing that much yet?
Stick with sedentary til you are.
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I agree that it sounds like a sedentary lifestyle, but your actual results are more reliable than any activity guidelines. Maybe you burn more calories than average. The formulas for calculating basal metabolic rate (Mifflin-St. Jeor and the like) come from fitting a line to data. The actual data, though, would be scattered above and below the line. We usually only hear on MFP from folks who suspect their metabolism is slower than MFP predicts, but there must be people out there who have a faster metabolism, and as you say, they aren't likely to complain.0
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Thanks, everyone! To answer some questions:
1. I have been "dieting" for about nine weeks now and have lost 19 lbs. That is including two very off-plan weeks where I actually gained. Afterward, I lost the gained weight. I haven't even thought of updating (or for that matter, playing around at all with) my ticker; sorry about that.
2. I do have a very significant amount of weight to lose, and am wondering whether that figures in. People who are closer to goal seem to lose more slowly overall. I am 201 pounds currently I started at 220.
3. I do weigh and measure. I am really quite fanatical about that because I'm not sure I trust simply "eyeballing" anything. I do have a food scale. And I have my liquid measurement cups and spoons as well.
4. I may be underestimating activity calories, because I don't fully trust MFP's calculations on that. For example, I hiked for an hour and a half the other day. MFP had that at something like 700 burned calories. Not sure I believe that, so no, I didn't eat all that back. That hike was a very unusual day. If I get "exercise," it's generally Pilates, which I do count and eat back, or a 20- or 30-minute walk; I also count that. And as I said, the other day I did some serious heavy lifting and carrying for a solid hour cleaning out closets. I counted that as Housework, Light to Moderate Effort. Maybe I'm actually under-counting my activity.
5. Yes. I do have a thyroid condition. I have an underactive thyroid; Hashimoto's Thyroiditis, the most common form of hypothyroidism. I have spoken to others on here who have Hashi's.
6. I agree that I feel my day is sedentary. That is why I had my stats set that way.
7. My calories currently (with no added activity) are 1360. This is generally pretty do-able, though I do have my days where I feel very hungry. It all depends.
Thank you, everyone! I may just keep going with this for a while. Christmas was a real bust and I did gain some weight during that time (have lost that gained weight now but the net result is no loss for the past week). Not such a big deal, have gotten right back on that horse and so on. But I can generally stick to this, my loss may slow down at some point...I guess I'll just roll with it.0 -
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sedentary is closer to nothing than something.
do you have a few months behind you where you are already working out hard at least once a week? put lightly active.
Not doing that much yet?
Stick with sedentary til you are.
Okay, see, now, this is what's confusing me. It shouldn't be. I'm a grownup. I really should be able to figure this out.
However, yes, the lightly active and soforth settings include workouts. I figured if I chose one of those, given doing Pilates about every other day (and/or a walk), then I shouldn't also add in exercise when I do it...isn't that correct? Therefore, I opted for sedentary but I add in when I exercise.
Putting in a setting that includes exercise, then also listing the exercise each time I see it seems redundant. It seems as if I'd be counting workouts "twice" on those days, so to speak. That just wouldn't make much sense to me.
If I were to go to Lightly Active, I would then exclude my exercise, and the net result would be (should be) more or less the same.
I really do feel dumb as a stump that that is just not making sense to me.
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I am truly sedentary. I work 12 hrs at a desk with no break on a graveyard shift. I sleep 8 and other 4 I am catching up on life or other times being plain too exhausted to move. I am drained on this schedule.
I need to find time to exercise as my BMR is 1100s and TDEE is 1400s. Long term that sets me up for gain.
Maybe the sedentary setting is for people like me? I find it match my loss plan pretty accurately?0 -
you know what, put sedentary in for a month and then change it to lightly active and you'll ruin nothing.0
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I've changed mine a few times from sedentary to lightly active as I was never sure, then I realised that despite me having a desk job I workout 60 mins a day (Running/strength) and average 17000 steps/8 miles a day...so no, I am not one bit sedentary!
I don't log my exercise as I have a Fitbit and am currently set at lightly active here...
but, that's all by the way as I use the TDEE method. My TDEE is 2100 so I eat anywhere from 1700 to 2000 cals a day and I maintain my weight (gives me margin for error) If I wanted to lose I'd eat 1600.
Its about finding that sweet point you can eat at and still lose ☺0 -
I have also chosen sedentary and count everything that I do as extra. I have a step counter that shows the days I have been lazy and the days I have put in that extra effort.
I do think sites like this are and estimate and each of us is different so for some the numbers may be right on and other need to make adjustments. Then there is the "how well do you measure" issue. It sounds like you are being very accurate. Does MFP also assume that or do they expect that we might fudge a bit?
I know for me if I follow everything and measure well, I can do quite well. Of course that has not been what I have been doing the last few months...
If you do get a step counter, you can join us in our monthly challenge here:
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/100834-monthly-step-challenge0 -
Why not leave it at sedentary just to play it safe?0
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I am really old (63) and I was really sedentary. Until I got my fitbit in Feb 2013.(I love my fitbit, it is the single best motivator that I have). I struggled to get 5000 steps per day at first. My goal for 2014 was to get between 18,000 - 20,000 steps per day, and I have done very well with that goal. Between my fitbit and MFP, I am less than 1/2 the person I was on 3/12/12. I work in an office (very long hours). I get up very early to work out in the gym at work M-F before I begin my day. I go for long walks/hikes on the weekends (I live in Minnesota so I am out walking even in sub zero temperatures). My point is, you CAN teach an old dog new tricks, and you are never too old to get healthier. If I can do this, anyone can.
Best of luck to you!0 -
Try one for 3-4 weeks. If you feel fine but are not losing as quickly as you want/can healthily....lower your calories. If you are losing but are hungry all the time and having a hard time concentrating, etc.....then up your calories.
Everything is all about balance and tweaking as you go.0
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