Activity Level
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merekins
Posts: 228 Member
Lightly active or active? I walk at least 10k a day which includes 3 sessions of 30min of C25K training (on week 5), and 3 strength training sessions. My "run" is extremely slow and my weights are very low. What would you put as your activity level? If feels odd to say that I'm anything but lightly active but maybe that's a mental insecurity. It was hard for me to move past sedentary.
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Replies
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I put my activity level to sedentary and then log all of my exercise as exercise. I work a desk job, but I go dancing or take dance classes 5-6 days a week.1
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>5000 steps is sedentary
5000- 9,999 steps is lightly active
10,000- 11,999 steps is active
12,000 or more steps is very active
75% of the time I'm "very active", 20% of the time I'm "active", 5% of the time I'm lightly active. I have a "desk job" but it requires me to get up and move quite often, I walk to and from work, I take walks at lunch, and I run 3 times a week. Personally, I've had mine set to "lightly active" and let MFP calculate my calories but since I'm averaging out at 12K steps a day I might change it to "active" and see what happens. I know my maintenance calories are 1900-2100 so I'm comfortable playing around with the settings a little to see what works best for me.3 -
I would start out at Sedentary, and try HRM tracking/logging your cardiovascular exercise periods for a month. See how it goes. You can always change it.
I'm currently at lightly active after starting at sedentary. I log additional exercise periods outside of my weekly norm.1 -
Are you using an activity tracker like a fitbit? Then I would set to sedentary and import your activity tracker data.
If you are doing something old school like a pedometer, then, I would go ahead and set it to active and see what happens. Use a site like trendweight and weigh regularly and then you'll see what your actual calories out was and be able to adjust from there.
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What's your job? If your major activity in a day is a job, whether professional or as a student, which requires you to be seated for an hour each day, just one hour, you are sedentary. I stand all day at work, but I sit for an hour to commute to work and back home. I'm still sedentary.0
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JeromeBarry1 wrote: »What's your job? If your major activity in a day is a job, whether professional or as a student, which requires you to be seated for an hour each day, just one hour, you are sedentary. I stand all day at work, but I sit for an hour to commute to work and back home. I'm still sedentary.
You may be "sedentary" in terms of risk of circulatory disease, but your daily calorie burn is not "sedentary" if you move enough to acquire more than 5,000 steps/day. In order to use MFP most effectively, you should choose the activity level that best corresponds to your daily calorie burn (minus exercise if you're going to log that separately) *or* sync an activity tracker and let it do the work for you (in which case, you can pick any activity level as long as negative adjustments are enabled).
Going around telling people that they're sedentary when they're burning far more calories than that is not helpful. You're basically telling them to undereat.
In terms of using MFP, crooked_left_ was correct when they said:
<5000 steps is sedentary
5000- 9,999 steps is lightly active
10,000- 11,999 steps is active
12,000 or more steps is very active
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Do you mind providing a link to the information you're using for this claim? I'm not familiar with it, and it runs counter to other sources of information.JeromeBarry1 wrote: »What's your job? If your major activity in a day is a job, whether professional or as a student, which requires you to be seated for an hour each day, just one hour, you are sedentary. I stand all day at work, but I sit for an hour to commute to work and back home. I'm still sedentary.5 -
JeromeBarry1 wrote: »What's your job? If your major activity in a day is a job, whether professional or as a student, which requires you to be seated for an hour each day, just one hour, you are sedentary. I stand all day at work, but I sit for an hour to commute to work and back home. I'm still sedentary.
Nope. I do not agree with this at all and I would like to know where this data comes from. By this logic anyone who takes more than an hour to eat dinner, or watches a single 1 hour long tv show per day, or reads a book for an hour per day would be considered sedentary even if construction work or physical trainer was their profession. I may sit for several 1 hour stretches at a time but in between those stretches I lift 40lb mannequins, dress them, lift them again, walk to and from meetings, sort and purge samples (basically rigorous laundry), take two 20 min/2000 steps walks during the work day, walk to and from work, and run/lift weights 4-5 days a week. I am definitely not sedentary. If you are moving 10K steps a day or more you do not qualify as sedentary and for most people this many steps takes a deliberate effort. On my truly sedentary days, where my main goal is holding down the couch, I probably average 5-6K. It's cool if you want to say your sedentary, but your just cheating yourself out of the delicious food you could be enjoying.
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JeromeBarry1 wrote: »What's your job? If your major activity in a day is a job, whether professional or as a student, which requires you to be seated for an hour each day, just one hour, you are sedentary. I stand all day at work, but I sit for an hour to commute to work and back home. I'm still sedentary.
So if I'm sitting at the computer at my store for an hour to do work but still get 10,000 steps the other seven hours I'm here that's sedentary? I don't think so.8 -
I use a Fitbit and set my MFP activity level to sedentary. I average around 12000 steps per day, sometimes more sometimes less. My Fitbit self adjusts MFP for me but I end up getting quite a few "extra calories" per day.
Do you use a Fitbit or activity tracker at all?1 -
I do about 13K steps per day and "active" works for me but "very active" is too much. Play with it and monitor your weight over a few weeks-1 monthish.2
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JeromeBarry1 wrote: »What's your job? If your major activity in a day is a job, whether professional or as a student, which requires you to be seated for an hour each day, just one hour, you are sedentary. I stand all day at work, but I sit for an hour to commute to work and back home. I'm still sedentary.
With respect to calorie burn, no. I have a "desk job" and sit for hours at a time (I'm sitting right now!) I also have accumulated 9K steps and it's 3pm with a lot of time to go. I average 13K/day... so no, not sedentary with respect to how much MFP will give you credit for.3 -
If you sit for an hour a day, you're sedentary? I get over 20K steps every day, and end each day with a couple of hours watching old television shows.
I'm hardly sedentary.
To the OP, the guidelines crooked_left_hook cited are indeed correct.
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I have Fitbit charge HR. If I link that, it will adjust accordingly without worrying about the activity level?I use a Fitbit and set my MFP activity level to sedentary. I average around 12000 steps per day, sometimes more sometimes less. My Fitbit self adjusts MFP for me but I end up getting quite a few "extra calories" per day.
Do you use a Fitbit or activity tracker at all?
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I have Fitbit charge HR. If I link that, it will adjust accordingly without worrying about the activity level?I use a Fitbit and set my MFP activity level to sedentary. I average around 12000 steps per day, sometimes more sometimes less. My Fitbit self adjusts MFP for me but I end up getting quite a few "extra calories" per day.
Do you use a Fitbit or activity tracker at all?
Yep, that's right.
It doesn't really matter what activity level you choose if you have a device synced to your account here. As it will auto correct up/down if you go above or below whatever level you've chosen.2 -
Christine_72 wrote: »
I have Fitbit charge HR. If I link that, it will adjust accordingly without worrying about the activity level?I use a Fitbit and set my MFP activity level to sedentary. I average around 12000 steps per day, sometimes more sometimes less. My Fitbit self adjusts MFP for me but I end up getting quite a few "extra calories" per day.
Do you use a Fitbit or activity tracker at all?
Yep, that's right.
It doesn't really matter what activity level you choose if you have a device synced to your account here. As it will auto correct up/down if you go above or below whatever level you've chosen.
Well, that makes it a lot easier!1 -
Christine_72 wrote: »
I have Fitbit charge HR. If I link that, it will adjust accordingly without worrying about the activity level?I use a Fitbit and set my MFP activity level to sedentary. I average around 12000 steps per day, sometimes more sometimes less. My Fitbit self adjusts MFP for me but I end up getting quite a few "extra calories" per day.
Do you use a Fitbit or activity tracker at all?
Yep, that's right.
It doesn't really matter what activity level you choose if you have a device synced to your account here. As it will auto correct up/down if you go above or below whatever level you've chosen.
Well, that makes it a lot easier!
It sure does
I'm set at sedentary and just let my fitbit adjust. I average around 15k steps a day, but my active day ends around 4pm and i'm usually in bed by 7-7;30pm ( i watch tv in bed), so i lose a large swag of calories between then and bed time, because mfp expects you to keep up lightly active/active/very active til midnight. 1 -
I put my activity level to sedentary and then log all of my exercise as exercise. I work a desk job, but I go dancing or take dance classes 5-6 days a week.
Me too. I don't want to deal with activity levels, since mine are so variable from day to day. I'd rather start at the baseline and add any exercise I do back in.2 -
Oh and i have the odd day here and there where i truly am sedentary, and watching my calories dwindle down throughout the day gave me anxiety! At least i know, even on my most most laziest day's i can surpass mfp's sedentary level.2
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JeromeBarry1 wrote: »...If your major activity in a day is a job...which requires you to be seated for an hour each day, just one hour, you are sedentary. I stand all day at work, but I sit for an hour to commute to work and back home. I'm still sedentary.
No, I don't think so. I don't know of anyone who doesn't sit for at least an hour sometime during their day, including people in very physically demanding jobs. We aren't robots. We need to sit down and take a break once in a while. If one hour of sitting makes you sedentary, then everybody is sedentary.6
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