Logging exercises when activity level is set on very active.

ABatesMD
ABatesMD Posts: 8 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
My Lifestyle fits in the very active level of activity level. I do home improvement about 8 to 10 hours a day lifting very heavy items around 100lbs or more and working very vigorously. I'm also a single dad riding bicycles and chasing my six-year-old jumping in trampolines on a daily basis. Plus I have my own Hobbies ranging from riding dirt bikes, hiking, mountain biking or just working in the garage. So I guess I fit in the very active lifestyle but should I still log some of those activities as exercise I do work out lifting weights but many of those other activities are in the exercises. If I logged those while on very active then I'm supposed to be eating like 4000 calories a day or something. How do I accurately figure out what my calorie intake should be. Without adding exercises I should be 2400 calories a day to maintain according to the apps calculation.

Replies

  • usmcmp
    usmcmp Posts: 21,219 Member
    The app gave you 2400 calories to maintain with a very active activity level? Are you really short or at the low end of the BMI scale? 2400 seems low.
  • ABatesMD
    ABatesMD Posts: 8 Member
    Your right. It says I should be eating 3100 a day but if you select very active does that already included all my activities for the day and I shouldn't log exercises or do I still log exercises/activities. If I log other activities it almost doubled the calories I'm supposed to eat.
  • estherdragonbat
    estherdragonbat Posts: 5,283 Member
    You should log 'purposeful' exercise, above and beyond your normal activities. I'm a self-employed freelance editor (usually unemployed) and have my activity set to sedentary because every time I move, it's basically purposeful. The fact that a normal day for me involves taking a 2-hour walk and three times a week an hour of strength-training on top of that doesn't (for MFP purposes) make me active, because if I didn't 'make' myself get up from the computer and work out, I wouldn't get much exercise at all.

    In your case, I would say to try logging the stuff you don't do most days. The heavy lifting, chasing your child, etc., would fall under daily activities. But if you're going to add on more exercise than normal, that should get logged.

    In my opinion as an active sedentary person, anyway.
  • solovino1
    solovino1 Posts: 29 Member
    onhealth.com/content/1/calories_burned_during_fitness

    calorielab.com/burned/
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    Activity and purposeful exercise are separate items.

    My son and I probably end up on roughly the same calorie count overall but his activity setting would be highly active (builder) and mine would be sedentary (desk job). But I cycle a lot and his exercise has a lower calorie count.

    If he took up cycling he would still be highly active setting and would need to log his extra cycling exercise - his overall calorie needs would obviously then be higher than mine

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 33,784 Member
    Keep in mind that once you have a month's worth of your own weight loss experience (calories eaten, weight loss, possibly intentional exercise logged), you can and should adjust your settings or eating to achieve a sensible, sustainable ongoing loss rate.

    Just be consistent for that month with the strategy you choose - unless something negative like fatigue or weakness happens sooner, of course - and it will be fairly obvious what adjustments are needed.

    Calculators and settings are just a starting point; no need to agonize over them. Personally, in your scenario, I'd log the intentional exercise in order to have the data to use in assessing at the end of the month, and just arbitrarily pick a strategy (like eat 25-50%), and see what happens.

    (P.S. to others reading: I'd recommend maybe 6 weeks rather than a month for a premenopausal female, to get one full monthly cycle plus a bit in there before adjusting . . . our results can be less consistent because of cycles).
  • ABatesMD
    ABatesMD Posts: 8 Member
    I have track calories for years and I have played with many different levels of calorie intake but none of them ever makes sense. I used to race dirt bikes professionally along with my 50 hours a week worth of construction I also cycled about 20 miles a week and lift weights about 4 hours a week plus racing every weekend. Throughout the years of that I tried eating above 4000 calories a day and I tried eating as low as 1700 calories a day in an attempt to get a six pack abs. I have always eaten healthy. I ate got 6 months only eating 1700 calories a day the six packs were hardly visible and I ate nothing but vegetables and meat. I try that because I hit a plateau and within the six months I never lost a pound more. Right now I'm just trying to maybe drop a few pounds and I put my calorie intake a 2200 plus upping my protein and kicked all grains just for health purposes, I've put on 5 lb over the last two weeks doing that. My general activity is 8 to 10 hours a day of construction Plus entertaining my child. The extra activities may involve mountain biking for an hour or riding dirt bikes for a few hours. I also do an excessive amount of yard work but the most excessive is some evenings I split about 500 lb worth of firewood maybe 2-3 times a week. Some by hand some with the log splitter. I've always been challenged with no matter what I do with my diet and exercise my body physique Remains the Same. My current workout due to injuries is just 15 minutes a day of basic warm ups. I got water on the knee from a dirt bike rack and a broken hand from a ladder but still do all of the above.

    I'm confused why I am still putting on weight.
  • yulukinatme
    yulukinatme Posts: 1 Member
    Hello, I've been wanting to know the answer to this as well. I use my fitbit to track my steps and it's linked to MFP App. I do Burn Boot Camp everyday for 45 min. Should I be logging this exercise into MFP or just let the Fitbit App sync because it is counting my steps.....well sometimes, depending on what we're doing? Thanks in advance.
  • GaryRuns
    GaryRuns Posts: 508 Member
    Keep in mind that ALL of this is just an estimate. You should consider it a starting point. If you set your activity level to high, log exercise that's beyond your base activity level, keep close count of the calories you consume and you're still gaining weight, then you need to adjust your activity level down some. And remember, unless you're weighing your food most of us tend to underestimate our portion sizes so you can easily be consuming more calories than you think you are.
  • ABatesMD
    ABatesMD Posts: 8 Member
    I'm that meticulous l do have a food scale but originally that was because I was staying in shape to compete on a professional level of dirt bike racing. Five years in a row on the podium. I know my proportions and prepare/cook all of my meals. When I dropped my calories intake to 1700 that was well below the recommended amount of the app. According to my fitness app I generally walk 5-10 miles a day at work constantly carrying tool belts 20lbs and up while moving 80-100lb ladders for 8-10 hours. Then when I'm home other then the typical household and parenting duties I'm riding bicycles, jumping in trampolines and playing tennis with my child for about 2 hours. That's not even everything. I even heat my house solely with firewood that I gather and split my self most the year and burn about 50lbs of wood a day for 5 months out of the year.

    Would you consider that active? I'm wondering if I should be eating more and that's why no matter how low my calories are I'm not losing weight. Like I said I've dropped my calories to the extreme of 1700 calories for six months in a row and didn't lose a pound doing all of the above.

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