Daily Activity Level

JuliaY89
JuliaY89 Posts: 3
edited November 15 in Health and Weight Loss
I'm 220 pounds, 5'6", 25 years old, and I've lost roughly 10 pounds since I started tracking (well, basically 5 since 5 of those came off between my health assessment and went I started tracking on MFP).

I'm not sure what I should set my "Normal Daily Activities" to. I feel like if I set it to "Sedentary: Spend most of the day sitting (e.g. bank teller, desk job)," it's not true because my job mostly has me standing (at the least) and lifting heavy boxes (at the most), but my phone actually additionally tracks my steps, so I don't want to be double dipping on my calories burned. My calories at the gym are not tracked by my phone and I manually enter those.

There are also 'off days' on the weekends that I don't actually do much because I'm exhausted from the work week and I have to catch up on homework, so I tend to just sit around. I'm planning on taking 30 minute walks with my dog on my off-days (my days off will coincide with my rest days from the gym), but again, calories will be tracked from my iPhone. Not to mention, it hardly makes up for the other 7.5 hours of not doing activity because it's a day off from work.

Anyway, should I just leave it as Sedentary or should I change it to Lightly Active? For those who don't know, that's a difference of 250 calories per day (at least for me).

Replies

  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    You sound sedentary to me

    I wouldn't trust your phone to be honest, if you like step tracking get one of the fitbit / garmin style ones that you wear

    Don't trust calories on gym machines or MFP database, eat back 50- 75% only - they overestimate

    judge it by your weight loss over time .. like 6- 8 weeks, if you're losing faster than goal weight loss per week then eat back more

    (also if you've less than 75lbs to lose make sure you're not set to lose 2lbs a week, that's generally too high a goal loss)
  • ruggedshutter
    ruggedshutter Posts: 389 Member
    rabbitjb wrote: »
    You sound sedentary to me

    I wouldn't trust your phone to be honest, if you like step tracking get one of the fitbit / garmin style ones that you wear

    Don't trust calories on gym machines or MFP database, eat back 50- 75% only - they overestimate

    judge it by your weight loss over time .. like 6- 8 weeks, if you're losing faster than goal weight loss per week then eat back more

    (also if you've less than 75lbs to lose make sure you're not set to lose 2lbs a week, that's generally too high a goal loss)

    ^ this...I will say that I use online calculators to determine my burns and check them across several of them to see how close they are. It's the best that I can do without buying a HRM.
  • JuliaY89
    JuliaY89 Posts: 3
    The step tracking is mostly a work thing. When I get on my work's health insurance next month (losing my parents' insurance due to age), they give money for achieving certain goals each quarter, including average steps per day. They provide a pedometer, but I was looking into getting FitBit because it works with the program they use.

    I tend not to eat back everything the machines tell me, which is already less than the database; I just use it as a general guide. My total weight loss goal is at least 80 pounds, so I currently have it at 2 pounds per week, but I know that that should drop in the future.

    Thanks for your responses.
  • DaniCanadian
    DaniCanadian Posts: 261 Member
    I'm a stay at home mom to a toddler and I work 3 nights a week. I set my goal to half a pound per week (I have about 20-25 lbs to lose) and sedentary for my activity level. Then I track my workouts and eat back about half the calories. Then, if I have days I'm less active, I'm not still eating at a higher activity level.
  • LAWoman72
    LAWoman72 Posts: 2,846 Member
    edited March 2015
    I chase about helping my kids with their sports (doing drills with them, etc.), cleaning the house (no help there), doing errands, doing ALL the home heavy lifting and carrying and packing and toting...for my job (I work from home), I'm sitting, but other than that, I'm generally just not sitting still. I am set at Sedentary. If I were set at Lightly Active I know I wouldn't lose.

    If I were you I would start at Sedentary. If you're losing faster than you want to, you can try bumping up to Lightly Active, but only time and your body itself will tell.
This discussion has been closed.

Categories