A question on activity level in MFP

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RodneyCornelius
RodneyCornelius Posts: 13 Member
edited April 2016 in Health and Weight Loss
Hi MFP Community!

I started using MFP on 01 January of this year. So far I am down 19kg (about 42 lbs). I have another 9,6kg to go by mid-June (a birthday present to myself was to lose 28,6kg before then). I am going to do my very best to make it :smiley:

Anyway, I had a question about activity level. Some background:
In the website/tool I have put that I am sedentary. I work at an office job, and I have consistently been going to the gym or getting exercise 4-6 days a week of exercise since January. Three days a week I work out both in the morning (circuit training) and evening (cardio), and then the other 2 days a week I do cardio in the evenings, and 1 weekend day I do a combination of HIIT/extended cardio (2 hours). I have no plans to slow down.

So my question is...does it makes sense to change my activity level to something higher? Or should I keep it at sedentary? Do any of you ever change the levels for a particular reason, say business travel for example?

I would be interested to get more insight from the community.

I am so close to hitting my initial goal that I don't want to do anything to screw it up. Any insight would be much appreciated :smile:

Replies

  • lemonychild
    lemonychild Posts: 654 Member
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    You can keep sedentary but then log all your excercise and eat about65% of the cals back.
  • RodneyCornelius
    RodneyCornelius Posts: 13 Member
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    lemonychild wrote: »
    You can keep sedentary but then log all your excercise and eat about65% of the cals back.

    Thanks for the reply!

    That is what I am doing today...more or less...

    So I won't mess with what seems to work :smile:
  • trjjoy
    trjjoy Posts: 666 Member
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    I eat back 50% of the exercise calories. 65% may be a bit high. Start off with 50% and see if that works. Up your calories a bit if you're losing weight too fast.
  • RodneyCornelius
    RodneyCornelius Posts: 13 Member
    edited April 2016
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    trjjoy wrote: »
    I eat back 50% of the exercise calories. 65% may be a bit high. Start off with 50% and see if that works. Up your calories a bit if you're losing weight too fast.

    Thanks for your advice. It's a good point you make :smile:

    I have a Fitbit, so it's helpful with tracking exercise and the amount of calories that I should be allowed to eat back. Right now I assume that Fitbit is about 25% off every single time, so I always deduct that automatically from whatever total it gives. And then take another deduction off because I don't want to eat back all of the calories. So I probably at the moment am only really eating back 25-30% of the calories I burn through exercise. But I do make sure it is smart choices (protein-based), and I also always have a snack before exercising, even if it is cardio.

    I'll take another look at the percentages and see if I am being too hard on myself - or not hard enough :wink:
  • veganbaum
    veganbaum Posts: 1,865 Member
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    MFP is designed to account for activity level without exercise, then you add it in and eat those calories back.

    There is no need to only eat 50% or less of your exercise calories. That 50% number has, for some reason, been the number thrown out for the past six months to a year on these boards in such a way that it has kind of become a "rule" (though just as often I've seen people recommend 50-75%, which is what I recommend). The only reason not to eat 100% is because the numbers are often exaggerated. It's a good idea to start with a percentage and do that for 4-6 weeks, then adjust up or down as necessary based on results.

    If you don't want to add your exercise separately and you exercise consistently, you can go with the TDEE method, which a lot of people do. A lot of people recommend scooby: http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/
  • RodneyCornelius
    RodneyCornelius Posts: 13 Member
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    Thanks veganbaum for the link and info. Will check it out :-)
  • Afura
    Afura Posts: 2,054 Member
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    lemonychild wrote: »
    You can keep sedentary but then log all your excercise and eat about65% of the cals back.
    Definitely what they said, as MFP is made to give you the calories to lose weight without exercise. Any exercise would give you 'extra' calories. Most common is eat back 50-75%, it varies depending on how you're calculating your burn (off of a wrist tool or mfp). MFP burn calculation is an generic estimate and can't take several factors into account (such as actual user effort). :smile:

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