What activity level am I?

You're sedentary. Log your walks as exercise. Log your exercise as exercise, or let your FitBit do so. But the simple fact that your job is to sit for bouts of 1 hour or more uninterrupted for more than 5 minutes is the definition of sedentary.

I have myself set as Lightly Active for pretty much the same workday (8hr desk job, 30 min walk to/from work each day, average step count of 13500 week days), if you have your Fitbit synced it will adjust your calorie goal accordingly to take into account your activity level and will only give you additional calories in MFP when you exceed it (if you were less active on a weekend it will also deduct calories if you fail to reach your normal activity level).

briohne128 wrote: »

tinkerbellang83 wrote: »

I have myself set as Lightly Active for pretty much the same workday (8hr desk job, 30 min walk to/from work each day, average step count of 13500 week days), if you have your Fitbit synced it will adjust your calorie goal accordingly to take into account your activity level and will only give you additional calories in MFP when you exceed it (if you were less active on a weekend it will also deduct calories if you fail to reach your normal activity level).

Thanks for this! I no longer sync my fitbit to myfitnesspal as it confused my treadmill exercise as just walking steps so the calories were completely wrong.

Then stick with Sedentary and log your exercise on it

If you stick to sedentary, be sure to eat a good percentage of your exercise calories back.

I sit at a desk about 70% of the day. I take two 20-30 brisk walks during the day. I workout for 50min/day x 6 days per week. My steps now average about 13K a day. When I was set at sedentary, the MFP adjustments were huge....but they were pretty close to accurate when connected with Fitbit with the Fitbit adjustments added. When I reset my activity to "Active", the adjustments were smaller and the MFP suggestions were closer.

So what that meant for me is that on the "Active" setting, the deficit created by MFP was closer to accurate. I can't tell what it would be for you, but based on what I've observed, if you have 13K steps and the amount of exercise you mention, sedentary would leave you potentially not eating enough...i.e. larger deficits than you want.

Bottom line: I eat what MFP suggests initially, plus about 40-70% of exercise calories it adds. It's been right at the 2 pounds per week that my current target is.

I read an article awhile ago because I had the same question. I was told to either say I was sedentary and log exercise or to say I was lightly active and not log my time at the gym.

briohne128 wrote: »

Thanks for this! I no longer sync my fitbit to myfitnesspal as it confused my treadmill exercise as just walking steps so the calories were completely wrong.

Not sure what your treadmill exercise is supposed to be, as opposed to steps. If it was jogging or running instead of walking you can change the terminology by editing the recorded exercise on FITBIT's web site. However Fitbit is quite good at estimating calories based on the degree and frequency of the jolting of the accelerometer, and also combines the info with heart rate. So any manual editing you're doing is more likely to introduce an error when it comes to evaluating step based activities.

briohne128 wrote: »

I am confused about what activity level I am.
My step average according to my FitBit is approx 13,000 steps.
Do I put myself as low, medium or high activity level?

If you use your tools as intended, it doesn't matter. Because your MFP initial guess will be "corrected" according to what Fitbit detects.

In your position I would log myself as ACTIVE, as that is the closest approximation to the level of activity represented by 13K steps. I would NOT log any exercise on MFP. I would log all exercise as per Fitbit's detection. This would ensure the SMALLEST "adjustment" at the end of the day, allowing me to more easily plan my meals.

An alternative would be to set yourself as sedentary. With your true level of activity rising to the equivalent of active, you would have a hefty "exercise" adjustment at the end of the day.

Note that "exercise adjustment" is an accounting construct representing the difference between what you told MFP you would spend and what your device decided you actually spent. The number does not represent any one particular exercise or group of exercises.

At the end of the day all these approaches are valid.

Things to avoid unless you understand what you're doing and how to fix the errors your actions can generate:
--logging step based activities on MFP when Fitbit integration is enabled and active (it over-writes what Fitbit detected during the time frame)
--Double logging step activity: I am active because I step 13000 steps a day; but I also log the treadmill exercise that is part of the 13K steps.

MFP's sedentary setting includes approximately 3500 steps. If I were logging on MFP as sedentary when I was not, I would only log 13000 - 3500 steps as my activities on top of sedentary.

SusanMFindlay wrote: »

PAV8888 wrote: »

In your position I would log myself as ACTIVE, as that is the closest approximation to the level of activity represented by 13K steps. I would NOT log any exercise on MFP. I would log all exercise as per Fitbit's detection. This would ensure the SMALLEST "adjustment" at the end of the day, allowing me to more easily plan my meals.

I agree with PAV.

I do this. I start to get positive adjustments *over and above* active at 8,000-10,000 steps. At 13,000 steps/day you are at least "active". (I should probably actually set myself to "very active" but I have a mental block about doing that, and the results are the same either way.)

The other approach of "call yourself sedentary and log 60 minutes of walking as exercise" will be less accurate than simply syncing your FitBit.

And I should amend my previous to indicate that in fact 13K is at the bottom of "very active". However with 13K and very active there is a substantial risk of negative adjustments. With 13K and active there will almost always be positive adjustments, which I thought might be easier on the OP.

I don't have a Fitbit BUT I didn't start seeing results until I calculated my tdee at sedentary and I don't log exercise calories. I don't sit on my butt all day but apparently I am sedentary!

MFP on my iPad does not have a sedentary level. It has not very active, Lightly active, active... where are you all seeing sedentary and would I use not very or lightly. My normal day is normal daily stuff and 8-10000 plus on my Fitbit. Thanks so much

I sit on a fork truck at night and do little at home but go to the gym 4-5 times a week for about 90 minutes so I put myself as lightly active

I have nothing set to log automatically as it started adding calories so I log what I do myself that way I know it's correct, lost 12lb in 41 days on mfp so it's working perfectly