Active vs lightly active ????

sandi794
sandi794 Posts: 2 Member
edited November 2024 in Getting Started
What does active, less active etc mean when you’re setting your calorie goal

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  • CyberTone
    CyberTone Posts: 7,337 Member
    Sedentary - Spend most of the day sitting (e.g. bank teller, desk job); or little or no exercise: BMR x 1.25

    Lightly Active - Spend a good part of the day on your feet (e.g. teacher, salesperson); or light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week: BMR x 1.4

    Active - Spend a good part of the day doing some physical activity (e.g. food server, postal delivery worker); or moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week: BMR x 1.6

    Very Active - Spend most of the day doing heavy physical activity (e.g. bike messenger, carpenter); or hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week: BMR x 1.8

    You can find your MFP BMR (basal metabolic rate) estimate on the web version at APPS > BMR

    Note: MFP does not include exercise Calories in its estimate when it provides your daily goal. When you do purposeful exercise, log it in MFP and eat back at least a portion of those earned Calories (most start with 50-75% eaten back) and adjust the eat back portion after a few weeks based on actual results.

    http://myfitnesspal.desk.com/customer/en/portal/articles/410332-how-does-myfitnesspal-calculate-my-initial-goals-
  • brendanwhite84
    brendanwhite84 Posts: 219 Member
    When I was aggressively losing weight two years ago I set my activity level to Sedentary (since I work a desk job) and tracked all my exercise, eating back most of my exercise calories due to being in training for endurance sports. I used a wearable fitness tracker (a Fitbit Flex, at the time) to have Fitbit's integration with MFP tack on calories for distances I walked, as well.

    If you're looking to lose weight my general recommendation would be to err on the side of caution and underestimate your activity level.
  • dwilliamca
    dwilliamca Posts: 328 Member
    I'm older and retired so set mine to sedentary, then on days I clean house, babysit the toddlers, or work in the yard I add a couple hundred extra calories (most in the database) as exercise but only eat 50-100 of them. My deficit is not very high so I like to add to it with increased activity. In addition when I do a workout or yoga at home I add that and eat some.
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