Walking daily- how to rate activity levels?

koraat
koraat Posts: 3 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hey, I typically walk up to an hour and thirty minutes every day of the week, besides Saturday (my lazy day...). An hour of that is on a treadmill at a pace of 3 mph and the second walk is around my neighborhood. Google maps gives me an estimation of 1.47 miles, so I typically walk around 4.47 miles a day.

Should I be changing my activity rates? I have it set to sedentary and while in the past I've lost a good bit of weight at 1200 calories a day, I wasn't really measuring my activity levels (my 2ds had me at around 8-11k steps most days of the week). Should I be eating more? Is 1200 alright?

Replies

  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    Do you log your walking separately here? Do you eat your exercise calories back? MFP gives you calories excluding exercise, which means you should input your daily activity level minus any exercise which you add in separately.

    Here's a link that may help:

    http://www.fitnessforweightloss.com/rate-your-activity-level-based-on-steps-per-day/

    I think the easiest way is to sync an activity device, I have a fitbit, with mfp and let it add the calories automatically, and start by eating 50-75% of those back to start.
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,562 Member
    Your activity level doesn't include exercise, so it's based on everything else you do throughout the day. And 1200 may or may not be okay. What are your stats? At the very least, you should eat your exercise calories back.
  • Orphia
    Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
    https://www.verywell.com/how-many-pedometer-steps-per-day-are-enough-3432827

    Activity Classification Based on Pedometer Steps for Healthy Adults
    Tudor Locke's research established these categories:

    1. Sedentary Lifestyle Index: Under 5000 steps per day is an indicator of being inactive and sitting too much, which raises health risks.

    2. Low Active: 5,000-7,499 steps/day is typical of daily activity excluding sports/exercise and might be considered low active. The average American walks 5,900 to 6,900 steps per day, putting the majority in the low active category.

    3. Somewhat Active: 7,500-9,999 steps/day likely includes some exercise or walking (and/or a job that requires more walking) and might be considered somewhat active.

    4. Active: 10,000 steps/day indicates the point that should be used to classify individuals as active. This makes it a good daily goal for healthy people who want a quick indicator they are getting in their daily exercise.

    5. Highly Active: Individuals who take more than 12,500 steps/day are likely to be classified as highly active.
  • SusanMFindlay
    SusanMFindlay Posts: 1,804 Member
    koraat wrote: »
    Hey, I typically walk up to an hour and thirty minutes every day of the week, besides Saturday (my lazy day...). An hour of that is on a treadmill at a pace of 3 mph and the second walk is around my neighborhood. Google maps gives me an estimation of 1.47 miles, so I typically walk around 4.47 miles a day.

    Should I be changing my activity rates? I have it set to sedentary and while in the past I've lost a good bit of weight at 1200 calories a day, I wasn't really measuring my activity levels (my 2ds had me at around 8-11k steps most days of the week). Should I be eating more? Is 1200 alright?

    If you're getting 8-11K steps/day, you're not sedentary. So, you have two choices. Either log the walks and eat back some of the calories you're credited with. (50% of them is often recommended as a starting point. Adjust up or down based on observed weight loss.) Or set yourself to a higher activity level to accommodate the walks. I'd tend to recommend starting with "lightly active" and adjusting up to "active" if you find yourself losing weight faster than expected.

    Unless you're really tiny, 1200 cals/day is probably a bit low given your activity level. What are your height, weight and age? How much weight did you tell MFP you want to lose? You shouldn't choose more than 1 pound/week unless you have at least 40 pounds to lose.
  • koraat
    koraat Posts: 3 Member
    Oh hey, this got a lot of responses quickly! I'll try to go through some of the questions as best that I can.

    I am 24, 5'5, and female. Currently about 145 lbs. I started out at about 200. I am thinking of losing at least 10-20 more. I don't log my walking, and have my MFP set to sedentary and at a rate to lose 2 lbs per week, which gives me the 1200 calories a day.

    All of the links and information given have been really awesome and helpful! I think the suggestions of changing my activity levels is good. Since I don't have too much more to lose, it might be worth it to take it easy and lighten up the loss per week rate, too?
  • SusanMFindlay
    SusanMFindlay Posts: 1,804 Member
    koraat wrote: »
    I am 24, 5'5, and female. Currently about 145 lbs. I started out at about 200. I am thinking of losing at least 10-20 more. I don't log my walking, and have my MFP set to sedentary and at a rate to lose 2 lbs per week, which gives me the 1200 calories a day.

    All of the links and information given have been really awesome and helpful! I think the suggestions of changing my activity levels is good. Since I don't have too much more to lose, it might be worth it to take it easy and lighten up the loss per week rate, too?

    Yes! With only 10-20 pounds left to lose, aim for 1 pound/week at most. (You might also benefit from a "diet break" where you eat maintenance calories for a week or two. Depends on how you feel. Reducing the deficit might be enough of an energy boost.)

    I threw your stats into a good online calculator (scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/). It suggests that if you did light exercise for 1-3 hours per week, you would need to eat just over 2000 cals/day to maintain your current weight. So, you'd want to be eating about 1500 cals/day to lose 1 pound/week. That's probably a slight underestimate of your activity level, but the next option up on that page was 3-5 hours/week of moderate exercise (which would have you maintaining at 2274 cals/day and therefore eating 1774 to lose 1 pound/week). Long story short, yes, 1200 cals/day is too low for you.


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