Have I set the right activity level?

emmy15rocks
emmy15rocks Posts: 73 Member
edited November 18 in Health and Weight Loss
So I originally selected sedentary, but someone said I should have selected lightly active?
Mostly I don't do much activity outside of my exercise (which I log so I don't think I need to include this in my activity level???)
I mean, sometimes I walk/cycle to university which takes around 25 mins to walk but now that the term is nearing it's end and exams are coming up, I don't really walk to campus that often.

Replies

  • bclarke1990
    bclarke1990 Posts: 287 Member
    It's what I do. My tdee is around 1900~ with zero activity selected, and then I burn around 350-400 calories a day walking, so I just eat 1800 for a 500~ deficit.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    The way MFP is designed is for you activity level to be set to whatever your day to day stuff is without exercise. That's why MFP never mentions anything about exercise in the activity. This is also why you log it after the fact and get extra calories to eat.

    Personally, I have a hard time believing most people are truly sedentary...I have a desk job and I'm still light active without exercise. I get home and there are dishes to clean, things to be fixed, lawns to be mowed, food to be cooked, etc. Remember that all of those kinds of things are activities that will increase your overall activity level, not just walking to school and the like.

    Really, it's up to you...these calculators are reasonably good starting points, but they aren't "set it and forget it"...you have to be consistent and monitor your progress and make adjustments as per your real world results.
  • emmy15rocks
    emmy15rocks Posts: 73 Member
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    The way MFP is designed is for you activity level to be set to whatever your day to day stuff is without exercise. That's why MFP never mentions anything about exercise in the activity. This is also why you log it after the fact and get extra calories to eat.

    Personally, I have a hard time believing most people are truly sedentary...I have a desk job and I'm still light active without exercise. I get home and there are dishes to clean, things to be fixed, lawns to be mowed, food to be cooked, etc. Remember that all of those kinds of things are activities that will increase your overall activity level, not just walking to school and the like.

    Really, it's up to you...these calculators are reasonably good starting points, but they aren't "set it and forget it"...you have to be consistent and monitor your progress and make adjustments as per your real world results.

    Ohh okay I see, so even just moving about the house counts like cooking, cleaning etc? :) Awesome, I guess I fall under lightly active then seeing as we have a 3 floor house and I do actually go up and down the stairs a lot :')
  • ruggedshutter
    ruggedshutter Posts: 389 Member
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    The way MFP is designed is for you activity level to be set to whatever your day to day stuff is without exercise. That's why MFP never mentions anything about exercise in the activity. This is also why you log it after the fact and get extra calories to eat.

    Personally, I have a hard time believing most people are truly sedentary...I have a desk job and I'm still light active without exercise. I get home and there are dishes to clean, things to be fixed, lawns to be mowed, food to be cooked, etc. Remember that all of those kinds of things are activities that will increase your overall activity level, not just walking to school and the like.

    Really, it's up to you...these calculators are reasonably good starting points, but they aren't "set it and forget it"...you have to be consistent and monitor your progress and make adjustments as per your real world results.

    True but a lot of people that are lightly active use sedentary because it's easier and it gives them more room for error (or more chance for a loss). Especially at the beginning when you have no idea what your TDEE actually is.
  • ncboiler89
    ncboiler89 Posts: 2,408 Member
    emmy15rocks wrote: »
    So I originally selected sedentary, but someone said I should have selected lightly active?
    Mostly I don't do much activity outside of my exercise (which I log so I don't think I need to include this in my activity level???)
    I mean, sometimes I walk/cycle to university which takes around 25 mins to walk but now that the term is nearing it's end and exams are coming up, I don't really walk to campus that often.

    If you don't know go with the lower setting. If you lose faster than you planned raise it. Don't get too hung up on thinking about it. I started with sedentary and then was "wtf?" and raised it to lightly active after about a month.
  • emmy15rocks
    emmy15rocks Posts: 73 Member
    ncboiler89 wrote: »
    emmy15rocks wrote: »
    So I originally selected sedentary, but someone said I should have selected lightly active?
    Mostly I don't do much activity outside of my exercise (which I log so I don't think I need to include this in my activity level???)
    I mean, sometimes I walk/cycle to university which takes around 25 mins to walk but now that the term is nearing it's end and exams are coming up, I don't really walk to campus that often.

    If you don't know go with the lower setting. If you lose faster than you planned raise it. Don't get too hung up on thinking about it. I started with sedentary and then was "wtf?" and raised it to lightly active after about a month.

    Thanks! :)
  • meghanduprey
    meghanduprey Posts: 158 Member
    ruggedshutter wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    The way MFP is designed is for you activity level to be set to whatever your day to day stuff is without exercise. That's why MFP never mentions anything about exercise in the activity. This is also why you log it after the fact and get extra calories to eat.

    Personally, I have a hard time believing most people are truly sedentary...I have a desk job and I'm still light active without exercise. I get home and there are dishes to clean, things to be fixed, lawns to be mowed, food to be cooked, etc. Remember that all of those kinds of things are activities that will increase your overall activity level, not just walking to school and the like.

    Really, it's up to you...these calculators are reasonably good starting points, but they aren't "set it and forget it"...you have to be consistent and monitor your progress and make adjustments as per your real world results.

    True but a lot of people that are lightly active use sedentary because it's easier and it gives them more room for error (or more chance for a loss). Especially at the beginning when you have no idea what your TDEE actually is.

    I agree with this, it's easy to underestimate calories/be off with measurements/forget condiment and it can add up quickly. I personally set it to sedentary to make up for human error, if you lose too quickly you can always bump it up. that's just my 2 cents though...
  • meghanduprey
    meghanduprey Posts: 158 Member
    emmy15rocks wrote: »
    So I originally selected sedentary, but someone said I should have selected lightly active?
    Mostly I don't do much activity outside of my exercise (which I log so I don't think I need to include this in my activity level???)
    I mean, sometimes I walk/cycle to university which takes around 25 mins to walk but now that the term is nearing it's end and exams are coming up, I don't really walk to campus that often.

    oh! and just log the walking/cycling to school in your workouts for the calories burned :)
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,267 Member
    This might help.

    1) <5000 steps.d (sedentary);
    2) 5000-7499 steps.d (low active);
    3) 7500-9999 steps.d (somewhat active);
    4) > or =10,000-12,499 steps.d (active); and
    5) > or =12,500 steps.d (highly active)

    I had mine set to sedentary until I got my activity tracker...now I purposefully get in on average 8k steps pre exercise a day....I have it set to lightly active.
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