Activity Multiplier???

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randombumblings
randombumblings Posts: 6 Member
in Goal: Maintaining Weight
Am I sedentary or lightly active?
So I recently started college and have been walking around everywhere. My phone pedometer says I average about 6,200 steps per day in a week. I don't really exercise or workout as I don't have the time.
I’m trying to find my activity multiplier. I was thinking of multiplying my bmr (which is 1280) to like 1.3. Would this be accurate?
I'm trying to maintain my weight.

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  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    edited October 2017
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    Easily Lightly Active.

    Most find that around 4000 starts moving them out of Sedentary.

    Why find activity multiplier - just use MFP correctly and select Lightly-active - which happens to be 1.4 multiplier.

    Select maintain weight.

    When you do exercise - log it honestly.

    Eat the goal given to you. Same on non-exercise days, higher on exercise days.

    Watch weight range (not single number), and waist measurement, on monthly basis.
    Adjust eating level as needed.

    The multiplier you are talking about is from 1919 study formula, and is been updated, and only talks about exercise as a factor, not daily life.
  • Emmygm
    Emmygm Posts: 80 Member
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    Okay, so first of all - you have time to exercise. I get being busy, but it doesn't take long to fit in some exercise into your day. Very few people don't have the time to fit in at least 30 minutes of exercise somewhere into their routine. College is a great place to explore different types of exercise, so take the opportunity to try them while you can!

    Now that I've finished my mini rant... I'd say that you are likely "lightly active" for the purposes of calculating your TDEE, but that's really just an estimate. Many people on myfitnesspal set their activity level as sedentary and then add in exercise (through connecting a wearable tracker like a fitbit/connecting an app on their phone or by adding in their activity manually). They then eat back a portion of their exercise calories to make sure that they are meeting their fitness goals (maintaining, losing, or gaining muscle mass, etc.).

    The main thing is to try eating at a certain calorie level for a few weeks, see what it is doing to your body (weight, measurements, body composition) and then adjust from there. You likely won't get it right on the first try, but you can always make small adjustments to make sure you are maintaining.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    Emmygm wrote: »
    Many people on myfitnesspal set their activity level as sedentary and then add in exercise (through connecting a wearable tracker like a fitbit/connecting an app on their phone or by adding in their activity manually).

    I'll just comment the selecting of known incorrect activity level to start with ONLY works well when you have that external sync to allow MFP to correct things.
    And when you see that being mentioned as method, I'll bet that is the context.

    If using MFP as is - use the tool correctly until you see that it needs to be improved, don't start out presuming it's broken.
  • ritzvin
    ritzvin Posts: 2,860 Member
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    I've found that the MFP sedentary level corresponds to ~3000 steps..not sure where the other levels lie.
  • Emmygm
    Emmygm Posts: 80 Member
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    heybales wrote: »

    I'll just comment the selecting of known incorrect activity level to start with ONLY works well when you have that external sync to allow MFP to correct things.
    And when you see that being mentioned as method, I'll bet that is the context.

    Totally agree. That is what I meant. Thank you for clarifying it!
  • Lillymoo01
    Lillymoo01 Posts: 2,865 Member
    edited October 2017
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    These are the standard guidelines on steps and activity levels. I assume MFP would be the similar although they only have 4 levels instead of 5.

    Sedentary is less than 5,000 steps per day
    Low active is 5,000 to 7,499 steps per day
    Somewhat active is 7,500 to 9,999 steps per day
    Active is more than 10,000 steps per day
    Highly active is more than 12,500
  • ludds
    ludds Posts: 40 Member
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    I second that you DO have time for exercise lol. It gets my goat when people say they dont when they actually mean they choose not to exercise (which is fine, but don't say you don't have Time!).

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