MFP activity level

I think you are considered sedentary because of your non exercise daily tasks. But be sure to log your exercise which will give your more calories to eat.

VUA21 wrote: »

If you have a pedometer this is a basic guideline to activity level (before dedicated workouts):

People who take fewer than 5,000 steps are considered to be sedentary or inactive. Those who take 5,000 to 7,499 steps daily have a low active lifestyle. Somewhat active people usually take 7,500 to 9,999 steps per day. People considered to be active take 10,000 or more steps per day.

This made me giggle. THAT ONE STEP THO.

Nikki, I found through logging that Myfitnesspal set my calories too low. Even though I'm retired, tiny apartment (so not a lot of cleaning and no yard work) - and all I do is a bit of walking a few times per week, Sedentary was way too low for me - by about 500 calories.

I figured it out by logging food and exercise for a couple months and then adjusting. I ate the suggested amount, logged exercise and ate all those calories and still was losing when I was trying to Maintain.

Myfitnesspal uses an algorithm that is a general number to get us started, but the real work was mine. Logging food, keeping good records for a couple months helped me dial it in. I would suggest that's what you need to do as well.

I found I'm kind of in between sedentary and lightly active (outside of intentional exercise at the gym). So I took the numbers it gave me for each and did a custom calorie goal about halfway between the two.

I have a desk job as well, but I work from home. I'm up and down a lot to let the dogs out, to go upstairs to get water, etc. I've also started making it a point to require myself to get up and move around a little more overall. (I used to find ways to minimize trips up and down the stairs, but I quit doing that. I even often make myself go to the bathroom upstairs instead of the closer one to my office.)

I would probably put it for sedentary.

I'm a stay at home mom, and I'm on my feet all day, picking up toys, cleaning up messes, scrubbing toilets, cooking, sweeping, mopping etc, so I put mine to lightly active.

If you're following the standard MFP method (eating back exercise calories separately), then base the activity level on your job, and separately log/eat back (some or all) of your exercise calories. If you don't want to do that, use a TDEE calculator (Scooby, Sailrabbit, etc.), include your exercise in the activity estimate, and set your daily calorie goal to a reasonable calorie deficit based on that (and don't log exercise separately).

I'd advocate following the MFP method, as long as you're here and using this tool. Either one can work, and they should end up giving you fairly similar eating levels in practice.

That said, don't bother to agonize over an activity level setting if you're kind of on the border. Pick the one that seems closest, follow the process for 4-6 weeks, then adjust based on actual average results. If you feel weak/fatigued before the time is up, eat a little more; if you don't seem to be losing at first, or lose a little fast for a couple of weeks but feel fine, stick with the process. (Don't try to lose more than about 1% of your body weight weekly, maybe less than that within 25-50 pounds of goal weight, especially after you get enough data to dial things in.)