sedentary or lightly active?

kermax39 · August 2016

I cant decide which one of these I am......the difference in amount of calories means if iv got it wrong Im either eating too much or not enough....I dont exercize except walking, I work part time at a sit down job but otherwise on the go running around after my 2 yr old. Im definitely not a couch potato except after my sons bedtime. Not even sure if sedentary means immobile/disabled or just not very active? Any advice?

Machka9 · August 2016

From the Goals area here ...

How would you describe your normal daily activities?
Sedentary: Spend most of the day sitting (e.g. bank teller, desk job)
Lightly Active: Spend a good part of the day on your feet (e.g. teacher, salesman)
Active: Spend a good part of the day doing some physical activity (e.g. waitress, mailman)
Very Active: Spend most of the day doing heavy physical activity (e.g. bike messenger, carpenter)

CorneliusPhoton · August 2016

I do my share of running errands and house cleaning and stuff, but I thought sedentary was the safer bet for me. I didn't want to assume that I was burning the "lightly active" calories every day... If there is not something that I *have* to do, I am sitting down at the computer.

So I decided to just log my exercise, and only if I did any actual exercise for fitness (not my typical daily lifestyle movement). I lost exactly one pound per week, so I think it worked out. But everybody is different, I would say to try it at lightly active for a few weeks and see how much weight you lose. If it's 1/2 pound per week, it's working! You can always adjust it down by ~100 calories if you want it to go a little faster.

rennickm1986 · August 2016

Those are very rough estimates they use to factor into the calorie formula and can't be fine tuned unfortunately. The answer is not figuring out your exact steps or minutes of Zumba, it's the scale. If you are calculating food correctly then after a week or two if you're losing half a pound and your goal is a pound, your activity level setting may be too high. 3500 calories ia a pound or 500 calories a day. With simple math you can figure out if you're on the right setting by using through scale. Personally, Id start with sedentary then adjust if you're losing weight too fast

cee134 · August 2016

sedentary

Konigboy · August 2016

This is where a fitbit really opened my eyes. I always thought I was sedentary. Had a office job prior, now take care of my parents and have a side business. Once I got my fitbit, it showed that I rarely drop below 10,000 steps a day and many days between 15,000 - 20,000. I still use sedentary for my activity level and don't eat my exercise calories back. I learned quick that the burns MFP are way off, so it could have explained my slow weight loss for a long time, as I was eating more, even if it was just 25% of what MFP gave me.

ogtmama · August 2016

I am similar to you and I chose sedentary because my activity is not regular...I prefer to log when I do move and at least if I'm wrong it leads to a tiny bit of a buffer for any other mistakes I make.

kermax39 · August 2016

Thankyou for the replies, its not something I even thought about until I recently checked my goals and seen I was at 'lightly active'. I think im probably sedentary, maybe changing it will speed things up a little, thankyou.

PennySwimmer · August 2016

I installed the Pacer app and it told me. I set my MFP at Sedentary; if I'm not, the Pacer app automatically adjusts the calories on MFP for me. So some days I'm pretty sedentary, some days I'm 'highly active' (disbelief)

LivingtheLeanDream · August 2016

Konigboy wrote: »

This is where a fitbit really opened my eyes. I always thought I was sedentary. Had a office job prior, now take care of my parents and have a side business. Once I got my fitbit, it showed that I rarely drop below 10,000 steps a day and many days between 15,000 - 20,000. I still use sedentary for my activity level and don't eat my exercise calories back. I learned quick that the burns MFP are way off, so it could have explained my slow weight loss for a long time, as I was eating more, even if it was just 25% of what MFP gave me.

^^ this was the case for me too.

kermax39 · August 2016

Wow.....just changed it and its took 200 calories from me. Im losing on average 6 lbs a month, on second thoughts I think id rather eat those 200 cals than see a faster weight loss. Im already starving lol, really need those 200 cals.

Ricksh1000 · August 2016

I chose sedentary initially, but it was so few calories I often failed through hunger and dizzy spells.
You can juggle between which to choose (sedentary / lightly active etc) and the exercise bit to get your desired calories. I think my maintain calories are something like 2200, my calorie deficit is set to 1630 (after juggling). I often go under it which I count as a bonus / save for a treat day.

mabearof6 · August 2016

If you are currently losing at a good pace where you have your settings I see no reason to change them. If you hit a plateau then I would re-evaluate.

maidengirl_ · August 2016

I don't think you are sedentary. I sit down at work all the time as there is no way around this. I have mine set to "active" and my goal to 1.5 loss a week @ 1,560 cals per day. I have loss 37 pounds. 1200 cals is the bare minimum and I feel this route should only be followed if no exercise is planned as you lose weight. But if you plan on being active, I would reevaluate that calorie goal.

cnbbnc · August 2016

I only have a minute, but I struggled with this too. What I found was whether I set to lightly active and ate no exercise calories back, or set to sedentary and ate about half back....it equaled about the same. I had to play with it a bit to find my sweet spot, but playing it both ways helped me narrow it down.

srecupid · August 2016

I work at a grocery store on my feet for a good chunk of the day. I had 8000 steps before even going in for my 6 to midnight shift last night. I still had it at sedentary and just ate extra if i felt the need. I have a mi band 2 tied to google fit and i'll check my calories burnt to compare if i feel i need more at end of day

eleanorridley1 · August 2016

If you get a steps app, you can sync it up to My fitness pal. Then how many calories you burn is already on here for you, and the step app tells you what your activity level is. 10000 steps a day on Pacer is highly active. I am finding this really helpful as I struggled to judge as well!

savithny · August 2016

Studies that use those definitions tend to use 5,000 or 6,000 steps a day as the line between "sedentary" and "Lightly active." My job keeps me at a desk and limits how often I get up and move around, so without consciously going out of my way to take more steps I might only get 3,500 or 4,000 steps on a long workday.

Machka9 · August 2016

kermax39 wrote: »

Wow.....just changed it and its took 200 calories from me. Im losing on average 6 lbs a month, on second thoughts I think id rather eat those 200 cals than see a faster weight loss. Im already starving lol, really need those 200 cals.

And that is exactly the decision you need to make. Choose the option you like the best ... or manually adjust the calorie limit (like I did) to be somewhere in between.

frankiesgirlie · August 2016

kermax39 wrote: »

Wow.....just changed it and its took 200 calories from me. Im losing on average 6 lbs a month, on second thoughts I think id rather eat those 200 cals than see a faster weight loss. Im already starving lol, really need those 200 cals.

Smart of you to realize that. If you're walking around ravenous, you're not going to stick to it.
A 200 calorie snack can make a world of difference.

PAV8888 · August 2016

The "activity levels" are used to multiply your BMR (estimated using the Mifflin StJeor equation) by an activity factor.

MFP slightly varies the common activity factors and uses 1.25, 1.4. 1.6, and 1.8 as the multipliers depending on whether you're defined as sedentary, lightly active, active, or very active.

It expects you to add in your deliberate exercise. This should be taken to mean "exercise in excess of what you're expected to have burned based on your activity level".

Common step based "conversions" for activity factors are:

<5000 steps/day may be used as a 'sedentary lifestyle index'; (MFP Sedentary)
5000-7499 steps/day is typical of daily activity excluding sports/exercise and might be considered 'low active'; (MFP lightly active)
7500-9999 likely includes some volitional activities (and/or elevated occupational activity demands) and might be considered 'somewhat active'; (MFP lightly active to active)
>or=10000 steps/day indicates the point that should be used to classify individuals as 'active'. (MFP active)
Individuals who take >12500 steps/day are likely to be classified as 'highly active'. (MFP highly active)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14715035

@About 15-16000 steps you are usually above MFP highly active
@Below 3500 steps you are "under-performing" compared to MFP's sedentary

In order to maintain a certain level of deficit, of course you have to eat back extra burns. The occasional larger or smaller deficit is neither the end of the world, nor particularly bad. However, automatically assuming that bigger deficit = better (i.e. faster weight loss = better) is simply incorrect thinking.

sedentary or lightly active?

Replies

Categories