Lightly active, moderate...or sedentary?

Halziees
Halziees Posts: 42 Member
edited November 2024 in Fitness and Exercise
hi! so here is a quick rundown of my typical week...can anyone tell me if I should be considering myself sedentary, lightly or moderately active? I am 30/female, 5'9", 18% BF.

Sunday: 25 minutes high intensity cardio. I usually hit between 80-90% MHR. I also do abs on Sunday, which is 75 weighted crunches, 40 hanging leg lifts.

Monday: Weight day. I lift heavy for me right now. I spend about a 1.5 hours lifting (that includes 60-90 second rests between sets). I do 3 sets, 8 reps on average. As a weight example, benching about 95 lbs, overhead press 65. Monday is also a school day, so I drive myself to uni and then proceed to sit on my bum for 3 hours.

Tuesday: Cardio and abs again, same as Sunday. Otherwise, sitting around and studying.

Wednesday: exactly like Monday!

Thursday: usually a rest day, except for school. Thursdays are usually lab days for us, so I am up on my feet for 3 hours in class. Nothing strenuous though.

Friday: Weight day again.

Saturday: Cardio and abs.

Usually, somewhere in the week I'll walk to the grocery store a few times, which is about a 2 mile walk in total. So I walk about 2-4 miles a week, too. But the rest of my time is spent on my rear, reading my school books.

I am trying to recomp right now, but mainly build muscle. Thanks for any help!

Replies

  • DeeTee68
    DeeTee68 Posts: 198 Member
    Moderate I would say
  • jms14letgo
    jms14letgo Posts: 138 Member
    edited February 2015
    I believe that when you choose your activity level it is based on your day to day activity level without including exercise. So for you I would choose sedentary since most of your time is spent in class or on commute. Then when you workout log your calories burned separately.

    I usually workout 6 days a week for about an hour each time but otherwise I'm on my butt at a desk job so I chose sedentary.
  • Halziees
    Halziees Posts: 42 Member
    DeeTee68 wrote: »
    Moderate I would say

    thank you for your input! appreciated.
    jms14letgo wrote: »
    I believe that when you choose your activity level it is based on your day to day activity level without including exercise. So for you I would choose sedentary since most of your time is spent in class or on commute. Then when you workout log your calories burned separately.

    I usually workout 6 days a week for about an hour each time but otherwise I'm on my butt at a desk job so I chose sedentary.

    this was my initial thought, too...but I'm not sure how to calculate calorie burn for weight lifting. any recommendations?
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    When you choose your activity level in MFP, do the descriptors say anything about exercise...any mention of exercise at all? No...because the MFP method does not account for exercise your activity level...MFP accounts for your exercise activity after you do it and log it and then you get additional calories.

    If you want to include exercise in your activity level I would strongly suggest using a TDEE calculator to arrive at your target calories and then customize your goals on MFP.

    Regardless, you just need to pick something and stick with it...look at the trends over a period of weeks and if the general trend is outside of your expectations, make adjustments as necessary. These calculators are great starting points, but that's all they are...people get all wrapped up in these numbers and activity levels and whatnot, and they forget to actually make adjustments per their real world results.
  • lexielainex
    lexielainex Posts: 98 Member
    As far as the logging portion I would find a good calculator online to estimate how many calories you burn weight lifting for that day. After that I log my burned calories under cardio then there's like a strength training or weight lifting options. If you don't log it in under cardio then it won't count as calories burned from exercise.
  • blankiefinder
    blankiefinder Posts: 3,599 Member
    You do not include planned exercise in your activity level. I would say you are sedentary.

    I would be careful logging calories for weights, it won't be a high number. You can find it listed in the cardio data base under Strength training (weight lifting, weight training).
  • cw106
    cw106 Posts: 952 Member
    sedentary as default to absolutely no day to day job activity given.
  • SciranBG
    SciranBG Posts: 97 Member
    I would say to pick your activity level based on your actual job, and count workouts separately.
  • Halziees
    Halziees Posts: 42 Member
    thanks everyone! I've decided to just set to sedentary, eat at maintenance, and add only cardio calories.
This discussion has been closed.

Categories