Activity Level Confusion
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morganbreanne2015
Posts: 7 Member
Hi, I am a little confused on the activity level...I workout 6-7 days per week for at least 30 minutes. Usually treadmill, t25, or some other form of cardio with light dumbbell exercises, I do not log my exercises ever because I can never get an accurate burn number but my steps do sync with mfp and therefore give me more calories throughout the day. My activity level right now is set to lightly active. Is this correct? Just a little confused on what the activity level takes into account, thanks in advance!
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Replies
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Your activity level is basically how active you are without exercise. So basically any exercise you do is 'extra'. I have mine set to sedentary and I also have negative adjustments enabled as well because I like to get those extra calories throughout the day if I'm more active than mfp expects I'll be0
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morganbreanne2015 wrote: »Hi, I am a little confused on the activity level...I workout 6-7 days per week for at least 30 minutes. Usually treadmill, t25, or some other form of cardio with light dumbbell exercises, I do not log my exercises ever because I can never get an accurate burn number but my steps do sync with mfp and therefore give me more calories throughout the day. My activity level right now is set to lightly active. Is this correct? Just a little confused on what the activity level takes into account, thanks in advance!
If you are unsure, underestimate your activity level and adjust after a couple of months or so. That being said, activity level does not take into account exercise. You are better off entering your workouts using the estimations of the equipment or those in MFP and then eat back half of them if you want to eat them back.0 -
If you're worrying about this for the sake of how many calories you should be eating, what I do and what I recommend to people is to eat at a calorie level that allows you to make good progress towards your goal. If you are trying to lose weight, eat so you drop 1-2 lbs/week. This assumes an average calorie burn from you getting in all of your workouts. This will be different for everyone, so you'll have to do some trial and error to figure it out. I'd start ~1600 cal/day. Hit this goal, along with your macros and getting in your workouts, for 2 weeks. If you lose 1-2 lbs/week, you're good to go. If you lose too much, increase your intake and repeat. If you don't lose enough, reduce your intake a bit and repeat. After a few cycles, you'll figure out what works for you in your situation.
Does that make sense to you? I have found that adjusting your calories based on the actual metric you're trying to change (weight/body fat) is a better method.0 -
morganbreanne2015 wrote: »I do not log my exercises ever because I can never get an accurate burn number but my steps do sync with mfp and therefore give me more calories throughout the day. My activity level right now is set to lightly active. Is this correct?
Since you're syncing your steps to MFP, it doesn't really matter what you set your activity level to (as long as negative adjustments are allowed). The reported steps will make sure your daily calories end up where they need to be.
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SusanMFindlay wrote: »morganbreanne2015 wrote: »I do not log my exercises ever because I can never get an accurate burn number but my steps do sync with mfp and therefore give me more calories throughout the day. My activity level right now is set to lightly active. Is this correct?
Since you're syncing your steps to MFP, it doesn't really matter what you set your activity level to (as long as negative adjustments are allowed). The reported steps will make sure your daily calories end up where they need to be.
That's... not how MFP works.
The activity level is what you do outside of workouts. So if you have a desk job, it's sedentary. If you work in a hospital as a nurse or what have you where you walk a fair amount, lightly active is closer. Very active is like, working in construction.
This activity level will constitute only a couple hundred calories at most, unless you are a very large person, usually. Me, I'm a very large person, so the difference is pretty significant.
Personally, if I was worried about over blowing my counts, I would just set it as a default to sedentary, and let the steps/activity levels adjust it to earn your "extra" calories, then eat up to that.
However, you might find a TDEE approach better, and just turn off the negative adjustments part. Let the activity minutes sync for tracking purposes, but take the data from the last couple weeks, average out what you seem to burn on a daily basis, and eat that burn amount - the amount that will achieve your goal.
So say, over the last couple weeks, your tracker says you burn an average of 2850 calories a day. You want to burn 2lbs/week. That means you need a 7k deficit per week so, cut 1k per day... Set your eating to 1850 per day and eat that across the board regardless. Recalculate this after every long span of habit change or significant weight change.1 -
SusanMFindlay wrote: »morganbreanne2015 wrote: »I do not log my exercises ever because I can never get an accurate burn number but my steps do sync with mfp and therefore give me more calories throughout the day. My activity level right now is set to lightly active. Is this correct?
Since you're syncing your steps to MFP, it doesn't really matter what you set your activity level to (as long as negative adjustments are allowed). The reported steps will make sure your daily calories end up where they need to be.
That's... not how MFP works.
Yes, it is. If you set yourself as sedentary and aiming to lose 1 pound/week, you'll be allotted a certain number of calories per day. If you use a device such as a FitBit that syncs to MFP and take a lot of steps all day, it'll raise your calorie allotment to compensate for the increased burn. Let's say, for example, that it gives you an extra 500 cals on a particular day because you were walking a lot.
If you choose to set yourself as lightly active instead, you'll be allotted a few hundred more calories per day. In my case, it would be 300 cals/day, so let's use that number. Now, let's say you use the same FitBit and walk the same amount. But MFP will only give you an extra 200 cals this time because it already "gave" you 300 extra from the higher activity level.
Same story if you picked "active" as long as you allowed negative adjustments. Now, you started with 600 extra cals but weren't active enough to warrant that full "bonus" so it takes away 100 cals when you sync your FitBit.
Now, if you're *not* syncing a device such as a FitBit, your chosen activity level matters quite a lot. But if you *are* syncing a FitBit (or similar) with negative adjustments allowed, it only matters psychologically because your post-sync "allowed calories" will be the same regardless of what you initially chose.2 -
SusanMFindlay wrote: »SusanMFindlay wrote: »morganbreanne2015 wrote: »I do not log my exercises ever because I can never get an accurate burn number but my steps do sync with mfp and therefore give me more calories throughout the day. My activity level right now is set to lightly active. Is this correct?
Since you're syncing your steps to MFP, it doesn't really matter what you set your activity level to (as long as negative adjustments are allowed). The reported steps will make sure your daily calories end up where they need to be.
That's... not how MFP works.
Yes, it is. If you set yourself as sedentary and aiming to lose 1 pound/week, you'll be allotted a certain number of calories per day. If you use a device such as a FitBit that syncs to MFP and take a lot of steps all day, it'll raise your calorie allotment to compensate for the increased burn. Let's say, for example, that it gives you an extra 500 cals on a particular day because you were walking a lot.
If you choose to set yourself as lightly active instead, you'll be allotted a few hundred more calories per day. In my case, it would be 300 cals/day, so let's use that number. Now, let's say you use the same FitBit and walk the same amount. But MFP will only give you an extra 200 cals this time because it already "gave" you 300 extra from the higher activity level.
Same story if you picked "active" as long as you allowed negative adjustments. Now, you started with 600 extra cals but weren't active enough to warrant that full "bonus" so it takes away 100 cals when you sync your FitBit.
Now, if you're *not* syncing a device such as a FitBit, your chosen activity level matters quite a lot. But if you *are* syncing a FitBit (or similar) with negative adjustments allowed, it only matters psychologically because your post-sync "allowed calories" will be the same regardless of what you initially chose.
1. Your assumption is that the steps are being synced through a full day tracker and not through a program such as MapMyRun. It certainly does NOT do this kind of over all adjustment if you are only syncing the workouts, rather than the full day.
2. After utilizing a BodyMedia Fit Link for a very long time, I can understand what you're getting at, but I found there to be a fair amount of impact from the tracker sync as opposed to manual logging of the same fitness activities, so I don't just assume all fitness trackers carry over the same.
Steps can be "synced" through a variety ways and apps, ranging from activity trackers to apps on a phone or tablet. Even if someone is using a FitBit, they are not getting the most accurate measurement available most likely, because most FitBits only measure the burn that is occurring during the perceived activity periods... But if you are using monitors that are only syncing and perceiving activity, they are sending over data for actual workouts. Depending on how that data is transmitted, it might be accepted by MFP as an independent workout rather than incorporated in that "light activity" total... Which is my point in saying, I would set any synced activity level to sedentary, because that way, any perceived activity would be acceptable in its addition, instead of potentially added.
Without know what tech and what programs are being used, it's impossible to advise otherwise, imo.
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SusanMFindlay wrote: »morganbreanne2015 wrote: »I do not log my exercises ever because I can never get an accurate burn number but my steps do sync with mfp and therefore give me more calories throughout the day. My activity level right now is set to lightly active. Is this correct?
Since you're syncing your steps to MFP, it doesn't really matter what you set your activity level to (as long as negative adjustments are allowed). The reported steps will make sure your daily calories end up where they need to be.
That's... not how MFP works.
The activity level is what you do outside of workouts. So if you have a desk job, it's sedentary. If you work in a hospital as a nurse or what have you where you walk a fair amount, lightly active is closer. Very active is like, working in construction.
This activity level will constitute only a couple hundred calories at most, unless you are a very large person, usually. Me, I'm a very large person, so the difference is pretty significant.
Personally, if I was worried about over blowing my counts, I would just set it as a default to sedentary, and let the steps/activity levels adjust it to earn your "extra" calories, then eat up to that.
However, you might find a TDEE approach better, and just turn off the negative adjustments part. Let the activity minutes sync for tracking purposes, but take the data from the last couple weeks, average out what you seem to burn on a daily basis, and eat that burn amount - the amount that will achieve your goal.
So say, over the last couple weeks, your tracker says you burn an average of 2850 calories a day. You want to burn 2lbs/week. That means you need a 7k deficit per week so, cut 1k per day... Set your eating to 1850 per day and eat that across the board regardless. Recalculate this after every long span of habit change or significant weight change.
I disagree with you, MFP allows synchronization with activity trackers exactly as this poster described.0 -
If you have an activity tracker synced with mfp and have negative adjustments enabled, then it doesn't matter what activity level you choose. MFP will add calories if you surpass your chosen activity level, and will take them away if you dont reach it.2
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