Am I Sedentary?

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rankles
rankles Posts: 8
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi guys,

I'm not too sure on which of the activity levels I should have chosen at the beginning of using MFP, and now I'd like to get it right.

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. nurse, 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)

I work what is effectively an office job and whilst we hire out relatively large amounts of equipment I rarely get involved in loading it.

However I do have a fifteen minute bike commute in the morning and evenings during which I use a HRM to keep my heart rate between 70-80% for at least ten minutes each time and I visit the gym at least three times during the week for an hour and once at weekends.

On top of that I probably play about 40 minutes to an hour of table tennis per day during work. I think probably all things considered putting sedentary might mean I end up with too low a calorie goal.

Any ideas?

Replies

  • dls06
    dls06 Posts: 6,774 Member
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    Sedentary and add the exercise or bike ride when you do it. It will add to you calories for the day.
  • Huskeryogi
    Huskeryogi Posts: 578 Member
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    The way MFP works is it sets a calorie goal and then as you add exercise those calories get added to your exercise goal. So if you set yourself higher than sedentary I wouldn't log your bike rides, etc.

    I have mine set to sedentary and then log all of my exercise - even the stuff that gets done 5 days/week. It seems safer that way to me. After about 3 weeks on here I've figured out that my MFP starting daily goal is 1550, but the way my exercise balances out over the course of the week I eat 1700-1800 calories daily.
  • bjclaywell
    bjclaywell Posts: 165 Member
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    Sedentary and add the exercise or bike ride when you do it. It will add to you calories for the day.

    I would do this...
  • jb_2011
    jb_2011 Posts: 1,029 Member
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    Sedentary is probably the best choice, and log in every bit of exercise.
  • rankles
    rankles Posts: 8
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    Thanks guys, I'll do that.

    I thought it'd be interesting to wear my HRM for a week and see what I burn on the average day, but the calorie counter on it is quite different to what MFP states. I'd like to believe the HRM not because of it being slightly higher, but due to the science behind it knowing how hard I was exerting but is it safer to trust MFP?
  • Huskeryogi
    Huskeryogi Posts: 578 Member
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    Thanks guys, I'll do that.

    I thought it'd be interesting to wear my HRM for a week and see what I burn on the average day, but the calorie counter on it is quite different to what MFP states. I'd like to believe the HRM not because of it being slightly higher, but due to the science behind it knowing how hard I was exerting but is it safer to trust MFP?

    I've (never tried it) that HRM isn't very good over very long time periods. One thing to remember when using your HRM is to subtract out the calories you would have burned anyway. For example my body burns about 2000 a day set on sedentary. I divide that by 24 and get 83 calories per hour. So today I walked for 100 min and when I was done my HRM said I burned 1102 so I subtracted 166 calories before I logged it because I would have burned those anyway. Usually for any under any hour when I do this math it comes out close to MFP. Over an hour is when my HRM starts to show a big difference.

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