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Is my job active?

beccawaterworth4
beccawaterworth4 Posts: 7
edited November 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
Hi, I am 5'2 and when I started this about a month ago I weighed 155 (haven't weighed since) and I am trying to lose 2 pounds per week. I am a bookkeeper at a grocery store and I thought that was a lightly active job so I selected that and it set my goal at 990 everyday. But I find that I'm still pretty hungry throughout the day. Maybe I am burning more calories than I think at work. I end up walking quite a bit, (on my feet the whole 8 hours as well) plus we have our breakroom and printers upstairs so I end up walking up the stairs about ten-twenty times a day. I have to do a little lifting, not much, but some, and I have to squat a bit, to open the safe or get things from low places. Do you think this is active or lightly active? If I set it to active it sets my goal at 1270 which seems more reasonable, but I want it to be accurate...

Replies

  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,573 Member
    There was a glitch on MFP. It should not have given you anything under 1200 calories. It sounds like you are lightly active, but also that your 2 pound/week weight loss is too aggressive. If you're hungry, why not set it to 1 pound a week?
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    A bookkeeper is a desk job isn't it? How are you walking / on your feet so much

    I wouldn't go beyond lightly active

    but I would revisit my settings using the web-based interface as the apps are glitching and make sure my goal weight loss per week is appropriate .. 0.5-1lb a week seems appropriate
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,151 Member
    Set it to whatever is going to give you over 1200 calories, because as ardit said, you should never be under that base. Remember MFP is designed to give you additional calories for exercise.
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
    beccawaterworth4 wrote: »
    Hi, I am 5'2 and when I started this about a month ago I weighed 155 (haven't weighed since) and I am trying to lose 2 pounds per week. I am a bookkeeper at a grocery store and I thought that was a lightly active job so I selected that and it set my goal at 990 everyday. But I find that I'm still pretty hungry throughout the day. Maybe I am burning more calories than I think at work. I end up walking quite a bit, (on my feet the whole 8 hours as well) plus we have our breakroom and printers upstairs so I end up walking up the stairs about ten-twenty times a day. I have to do a little lifting, not much, but some, and I have to squat a bit, to open the safe or get things from low places. Do you think this is active or lightly active? If I set it to active it sets my goal at 1270 which seems more reasonable, but I want it to be accurate...

    That's an error. MFP does not set goals that low unless it's a glitch.

    Eat more, please. :)
  • cee134
    cee134 Posts: 33,711 Member
    edited March 2015
    That's too low. The only proven method of keeping weight off after you loose it is to do it slowly. Up your calories above 1200. You won't be hungry and still lose weight. Your diet, how healthy you eat, also effects your hunger and may have to do with you feeling hungry.
  • beccawaterworth4
    beccawaterworth4 Posts: 7
    Thank you! I didn't know about this glitch. I always thought it was weird because my friend has MFP and it always says thing to him like "you need to eat more, everyone should eat at least 1200 a day" and then I was like but my goal is under that!!! Yay, I can eat more. I just set it up under active and it put me at 1270 so I will keep it there. It seems much more reasonable.
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
    Ditto changing the calorie goal. For finding out how active you really are you may want to get yourself something like a FitBit. I have a FitBit zip.
  • beccawaterworth4
    beccawaterworth4 Posts: 7
    Most bookkeeping jobs are desk jobs, but mine is not. We do not have chairs, we stand and walk a lot. The bookkeeping is only four hours and I spend my time in the office counting tills and our safe, etc(while standing, no chair) but then afterwards I run customer service so I end up manning our long counter and helping customers and gathering stuff employees need.
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,573 Member
    beccawaterworth4 wrote: »
    Thank you! I didn't know about this glitch. I always thought it was weird because my friend has MFP and it always says thing to him like "you need to eat more, everyone should eat at least 1200 a day" and then I was like but my goal is under that!!! Yay, I can eat more. I just set it up under active and it put me at 1270 so I will keep it there. It seems much more reasonable.

    You can also pick your calories manually if you want to use the TDEE method. I'm surprised it's still giving you 1270 even at active (which no offense, your activity level is lightly active I believe). Do you still have it at two pounds a week?
  • beccawaterworth4
    beccawaterworth4 Posts: 7
    Yes I still have it set at two pounds per week. When it was set at 990 I would just add in like 2 hours of walking anyway and it would up it to about what I thought was more normal range but it's because I thought it wasn't factoring any of that in.
  • beccawaterworth4
    beccawaterworth4 Posts: 7
    What is the TDEE method?
  • beccawaterworth4
    beccawaterworth4 Posts: 7
    Okay so here is what I am going to do. I set it back to lightly active (which is what I thought to begin with) and moved my weight loss goal down to 1.5 pounds a week. So now I'm at about 1270 calories per day.
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,573 Member
    beccawaterworth4 wrote: »
    What is the TDEE method?

    You find out how many calories you eat to maintain your weight, then subtract 15-20% to get your deficit to lose. You do not eat back your exercise calories as this method already takes exercise into account.

    Two calculators often used are on :iifym.com and scoobysworkshop.com
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