Am I sedentary?

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littlemissbgiff
littlemissbgiff Posts: 5,824 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I am a stay at home mom but all of my kids are in school so once I send them off in the morning, my day consists of keeping the house and running errands. I can log anywhere between 1-2 miles just keeping the house but then always finish my evening off with a walk to ensure that I get no less than 10,000 steps per day. Some days I go way over 10k steps but I never go under.I have added a little bit of yoga to some of my days but due to a shoulder injury, I'm still pretty weak and find myself having to heavily modify a lot of the poses so I don't know how effective it really is at this point and do not even log it yet. So I consider my steps as my only activity. Is this considered "not very active" or "lightly active"?

Replies

  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
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    Probably active
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,565 Member
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    What are you using to measure your steps? If an activity tracker or phone app that connects to MFP, it really doesn't matter, as the calories will be pretty equal at each level (provided you have negative adjustments enabled on the off-chance you don't meet your goal).
  • Owlfan88
    Owlfan88 Posts: 187 Member
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    You could count yourself as sedentary only if you then add in your walk as exercise. Otherwise you are at least lightly active, more likely moderately active.
  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,182 Member
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    If you are sitting or laying in bed for 1 hour at a time twice in your day, you're sedentary.
  • courtneyfabulous
    courtneyfabulous Posts: 1,863 Member
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    I'd calculate your calories as "lightly active" but not log exercise.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,982 Member
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    littlemissbgiff wrote: »
    I use the MFP tracker on my phone.

    (Assuming the MFP step tracker is as accurate as my FitBit One), set yourself as Sedentary and eat back 100% of the calories you've earned from your steps.
  • ogtmama
    ogtmama Posts: 1,403 Member
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    Personally I'd guess that 10 000 steps is moderately active...this is why mfp needs to be more specific about their activity levels.
  • inertiastrength
    inertiastrength Posts: 2,343 Member
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    I do an average of 12k steps a day and I consider that active. My estimated TDEE according to my Aria is anywhere between 2200-2350 and that seems accurate when compared against my intake and losses. I eat 1500 cals and lose about 1.5lbs a week with a maintenance "binge" day about once every couple weeks. So go by whatever's counting your steps and then check it against your data
  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
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    For MFP setup.. the activity relates to daily work/routine or professional environment.. Exercise is added on top of this..

    How would you describe your normal daily activities? OP it will be one of these, if you pick higher and your rate of loss is not within the number you setup in MFP, you can lower it.

    Personally for stay at home mom if on your feet for 4 - 6 hours a day, I would pick lightly active..

    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)



  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,780 Member
    edited October 2016
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    TwoNapBarry: no, just no.

    You have several choices:

    1. You can set yourself up as sedentary and then add as a separate exercise the activity you engage in between approximately 5000 steps and your final count. This is because MFP's sedentary level, an physical activity multiplier of 1.25, already includes your first 3500 to 5000 steps.

    2. You can set yourself up as active. In MFP this represents a physical activity multiplier level, or activity factor, of 1.6x BMR.

    This TDEE level (i.e. MFP Active = 1.6x BMR) already includes activity that corresponds to approximately 9000 to 12000 steps a day. As you start exceeding 12500 steps you should start contemplating logging the additional steps as exercise over and above your MFP active level.

    3. You can pick any level of activity to start from and an external TDEE estimating device such as a Fitbit, or similar (you mentioned a phone though I find myself not carrying my phone 100% of the time).

    Enable integration of the device with MFP, enable negative adjustments, and eat to your final adjustment.

    Note: In all cases monitor your rate of loss,or gain, and compare your trending weight results to your estimated caloric deficit or surplus. Review your results every month or two and make adjustments if you need to.

    Especially if at a normal weight try to limit your deficits, or surpluses, to less than 20% of your TDEE. For most people this means that goals should be 0.5lbs or 1lb a week. NOT 1.5lbs or 2lbs.

    Of course small deficits lead to slower results and more confounding because of water weight changes... hence the suggestion of using a trending weight app.
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,575 Member
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    I have a similar step goal and I'm lightly active. I've been on here for 2 years and it's always been pretty accurate.
  • SusanMFindlay
    SusanMFindlay Posts: 1,804 Member
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    Owlfan88 wrote: »
    You could count yourself as sedentary only if you then add in your walk as exercise. Otherwise you are at least lightly active, more likely moderately active.

    You could, but this is a bit of a pain in the butt if you pick up steps here and there throughout the day. (It works nicely if most of your steps are from a few "concentrated" walks.)

    If you're over 10,000 steps every day, you're at least "lightly active". Start with that and see how it goes. If you're losing faster than expected after a few months, you can always go up to "active". That's what I did.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
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    I'd put lightly active.
  • RhapsodyWinters
    RhapsodyWinters Posts: 128 Member
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    I just put sedentary and log exercise and eat a portion of the calories. Some days I just decide not to exercise. The thing about 'lightly active' and higher settings is that you have to consistently be that active. With me putting sedentary, I have the choice to not exercise.
  • MommyMeggo
    MommyMeggo Posts: 1,222 Member
    edited October 2016
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    I think with your days tracking all you do -since its just "activity" vs set exercise- perhaps lightly active would be a decent setting for you. However on days that you arent as busy you'll need to take that into account or add in some walking to reach your normal activity setting.
    Pick a setting- give it 4 weeks and evaluate your progress.
  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
    edited October 2016
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    RhapsodyWinters wrote: »
    I just put sedentary and log exercise and eat a portion of the calories. Some days I just decide not to exercise. The thing about 'lightly active' and higher settings is that you have to consistently be that active. With me putting sedentary, I have the choice to not exercise.

    This is not right.

    If you have daily responsibilities/activities that you do all day every day, and you expend the same amount energy to do those activities you are NOT sitting. Sedentary in MFP means most of the day is sitting.. this called NEAT.. Exercise is added on top of this .. this is called EAT.

    OP is most likely light active.. she can actually go to active (it might be too much) but either way the weight loss trend over a period of time will tell her if her setting is too high or too low.

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