What’s active

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sp00niewarriorwolf
sp00niewarriorwolf Posts: 1 Member
in Getting Started
I’m really confused. I had mine on active meaning moving around, sitting up, doing stuff around the house, basically a student who works from home. And then I was adding my walks and exercise.

But now I’m wondering if I should put it down as lightly active in order to add my walk this exercise.

Or should I continue to have it is active and not had my walks as exercise.

Not sure if this makes any sense I’m just really confused at the moment about whether I’m likely active for active

Replies

  • hmkiesel
    hmkiesel Posts: 27 Member
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    if you put active then MFP will assume you are doing a certain amount of exercise throughout the day. for example, if you work in a restaurant and spend the majority of the day standing and walking around. I work a desk job and sit for the majority of the day. I get up and move around every 30-60 minutes, but put my activity level as Sedentary on MFP. That way, I know that any walking around I do during the day that does not get logged as exercise will only put me at a slightly larger calorie deficit. As a student who works from home, I suggest you put sedentary and then log any exercises you perform. If you put active or even lightly active, there is the possibility that you are not burning as many calories moving around as MFP assumes a "lightly active" person does.
  • ceiswyn
    ceiswyn Posts: 2,256 Member
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    Sitting up and doimg stuff around the house is sedentary.

    In order to be active, you would need to be on your feet and moving for a substantial portion of the day; ‘active’ is meant for jobs like waitressing where you’re constantly moving.

    So set yourself to sedentary and add your walks and so on as exercise.
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
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    How many steps do you get in a typical day?

    When I think active, I think of the job I had waitressing at a retirement community. I was getting 10k steps in just my 7hr shift. Not including my workouts after work or daily life outside of that job.

    As a stay-at-home mom I am lightly active most days.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    Active would be being on your feet and moving around most of the day. Depending on how much shuffling around the house you're doing, I'd say light active at best.

    I would say that most certainly setting yourself as active and then logging exercise and walks and whatnot would be double dipping. You would only want to add those things if they were activity beyond your activity level...if you're rolling up exercise into your activity level (TDEE), you wouldn't want to add it again.
  • Redordeadhead
    Redordeadhead Posts: 1,188 Member
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    Based on your description I would probably set it as sedentary and log any deliberate exercise separately.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,994 Member
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    So...pick one and stick to it for a couple months and see. It's an experiment we all have to do.

    Intentional exercise is separate from Activity Level. Just be as honest as possible when looking at the Activity Level setting in your GOALS. Add your exercise separately in the Exercise Tab.

    I chose Sedentary because I'm retired and live in a tiny place so not a lot of required daily activity. I add my intentional exercise when I do it and eat those extra calories.

    Turns out after a while of logging my food and exercise, that I don't fit in the Sedentary calorie recommendation. So I raised it to Lightly Active. Even though I'm really not. It comes by doing the daily slog of logging calories. All of the numbers are just guesses until you get good data to use...which takes 4-6 weeks.
  • LisaMoxon155
    LisaMoxon155 Posts: 257 Member
    edited September 2018
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    I work 5 days a week and on the other 2 days i do general housework/shopping/ going into town.

    Im A mangeress of a cafe/bakery .

    My activty level is set to "lightly active".

    Anything over my "normal /basic" week then i will add the extra calories as exercise calories.

    Lost 16lbs in 120days

    So i would either set to lightly active and dont add anything walking you may do

    OR

    As people say put to sedetary and then add exercise on.

    Good luck either way

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