Active or Very Active ?

Active. Very active is construction, carpentry etc.

Cheers, h.

Try starting with Active and if for a few weeks you lose faster than your weekly weight loss goal switch to Very Active. Or do the reverse - start with Very Active and if you lose slower switch to Active. But it really doesn't sound any more vigorous than Active to me.

If you are very hungry with Active calories, look at the satiety of what you are eating.

Understanding satiety: feeling full after a meal

...Tips on how to feel fuller

So how can we best try to enhance these feelings of fullness to help us control how much we eat? Here are some top tips for helping you feel fuller:

1. Foods high in protein seem to make us feel fuller than foods high in fat or carbohydrate, so including some protein at every meal should help keep you satisfied. Foods high in protein include meats such as chicken, ham or beef, fish, eggs, beans and pulses.
2. If you are watching your weight, opt for lower fat versions, using leaner cuts of meat, cutting off visible fat and avoiding the skin on poultry as this will help reduce the energy density of the diet, which can help to enhance satiety (see below).
3. Foods that are high in fibre may also enhance feelings of fullness so try to include plenty of high-fibre foods in the diet such as wholegrain bread and cereals, beans and pulses and fruit and vegetables.
4. Alcohol seems to stimulate appetite in the short-term and therefore drinking alcohol is likely to encourage us to eat more. Alcoholic beverages can make you forget about your intentions to eat healthily by making you lose your inhibitions. Alcoholic drinks are also calorific, so you should cut down on alcohol consumption if you are trying to control your weight.
5. The ‘energy density’ of food has a strong influence on feelings of fullness or satiety. Energy density is the amount of energy (or calories) per gram of food. Lower energy density foods provide less energy per gram of food so you can eat more of them without consuming too many calories. Low energy density foods include fruit and vegetables, foods with lots of water added when cooking such as soups and stews, and lower fat foods. Click here for more information on energy density.

Read more: http://www.nutrition.org.uk/healthyliving/fuller/understanding-satiety-feeling-full-after-a-meal.html

pinkste78 wrote: »

my goal weight for now is 188

It's good to set mini-goals but for the purpose of my next question I need your final goal

When i was working as a waitress doing anywhere from 15000-20000+ steps i was barely breaking even on the active setting. I am however 123.5lb but still. I would say stick with active possible even lightly active. Now im back at uni working on the wards in hospital i am on lightly active and it is basically perfect that includes about 50 mins of walking to/from the bus plus all the time at the hospital.
I use my jawbone up which is very like a fitbit so tracks my calories so I know where i stand. If youre unsure id suggest getting a calorie counter.

pinkste78 wrote: »

I have another question, how many calories fewer should I be eating on my days off work? I have been eating around 300 calories less, because I don't do much on my days off, just sit at my computer on the couch XD.

This is why I like MFP and NEAT rather than TDEE - when I move more, I eat more.

I'm a pharmacy dept mgr for Walmart...so I KNOW your activity day to day lol. I'm up and down topstock carts all day, pulling, pushing, bending, lifting AND being cheerful with customers lol. That last bit *has to burn some calories, right?

At any rate, I log 12-16000 steps a day for work days. I set myself to active and now that my fitbit is working more or less correctly, it gives me about 3-500 extra per day before any exercise. I tend not to dip into those much because, like you, I'm much less active on off days. I figure they are my banked calories for the weekend.

I will say that I spent the first 15 weeks on mfp eating an average of 1600-1700 Those last 3-4 weeks of that were very rough on me. My losses slowed dramatically, I was skipping walks, I was a jerk! I ended up taking a 10 day diet break and am back at it now with a goal of 1.5lbs per week vs 2. That puts me around 1850 for a goal. Hopefully that keeps things trucking along until my next planned break for the week of Thanksgiving.