Newbie with questions-Sedentary vs Lightly Active

slfrye03
slfrye03 Posts: 9 Member
in Getting Started
I am trying to get started, again. (For the millionth time.) I have 3 small kids but I am not active in the sense that I workout, even occasionally. I am trying to change this as I am working on getting to the gym 3 days per week. I am up and down changing diapers all day, getting my demanding humans water and snacks, and up and down the stairs a few times a day.

I am trying to figure out if I am truly sedentary or lightly active. I feel like I am sedentary which gives me 1200 calories with a 2lb loss per week. Lightly active gives me 1300 calories. Thoughts?

Also, my Fitbit is linked so I do "earn" more calories the more I walk. Do I eat those? What about if I manually add exercises I do at the gym? Do I use these additional calories as a buffer, or am I supposed to eat them. I know from what I remember in biology or some class I took that your body needs 1200 calories period just to maintain essential functions.

Need some guidance.

Replies

  • BarbaraHelen2013
    BarbaraHelen2013 Posts: 1,940 Member
    edited July 2019
    If you’re at home with 3 small children then go ahead and set yourself as lightly active at the very least! You’re definitely not sedentary, also I imagine you do the shopping, light housework etc even if you don’t take ‘purposeful exercise’ - who has time with 3 small children, let’s be realistic here!

    Personally I don’t eat the Fitbit steps calories because I’m satisfied with the calories I eat without it, but some people do eat all or a proportion of their calories back. The same goes for anything you do at the gym etc. The best way to figure out whether to eat any of them back is to log a few weeks using one methodology (try eating half of them back if you’re finding yourself hungry) and be consistent with the method you choose. That way you can assess whether your rate of loss is as you expected and set into MFP at the start.

    I’d add that, depending on your stats (height, weight etc) 2lbs a week might be a bit too aggressive. General advice is that unless you’re really pretty big 2lbs is too much to expect to lose in a week. If you’re finding the calories given by MFP a struggle try changing your goal to maybe 1lb a week. It’s all a bit of a balancing act in the early weeks to see how it’s working for you and adjusting until you’re happy with your calorie levels and can realistically go forward with that.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
    If you are going by your Fitbit calorie goal it doesn't really matter what activity setting you select on MFP, it just changes the size of the calorie adjustments. Very doubtful you are sedentary though with three small children.

    As you say you are trying to start yet again have a really serious think about what lessons you can learn from previous attempts. One crucial aspect to think about was going for a rapid rate of weight loss (the maximum 2lbs/week) a good long term strategy or a common feature of repeated failures to lose or maintain?

    Why did you fail?
    What actions will you implement this time when you hit the same issues that derailed you before?

    Is picking the fastest rate of loss, under-estimating your activity level, thinking about ignoring the calorie expenditure of steps or gym really wise? Seems like you are trying to fix a long term issue within a very short timescale and making the process as hard and unpleasant as possible. Personally I think that's a mistake.

  • slfrye03
    slfrye03 Posts: 9 Member
    BarbaraHelen2013 wrote: »
    If you’re at home with 3 small children then go ahead and set yourself as lightly active at the very least! You’re definitely not sedentary, also I imagine you do the shopping, light housework etc even if you don’t take ‘purposeful exercise’ - who has time with 3 small children, let’s be realistic here!

    Personally I don’t eat the Fitbit steps calories because I’m satisfied with the calories I eat without it, but some people do eat all or a proportion of their calories back. The same goes for anything you do at the gym etc. The best way to figure out whether to eat any of them back is to log a few weeks using one methodology (try eating half of them back if you’re finding yourself hungry) and be consistent with the method you choose. That way you can assess whether your rate of loss is as you expected and set into MFP at the start.

    I’d add that, depending on your stats (height, weight etc) 2lbs a week might be a bit too aggressive. General advice is that unless you’re really pretty big 2lbs is too much to expect to lose in a week. If you’re finding the calories given by MFP a struggle try changing your goal to maybe 1lb a week. It’s all a bit of a balancing act in the early weeks to see how it’s working for you and adjusting until you’re happy with your calorie levels and can realistically go forward with that.

    I am 5'4" and 215lbs. I always thought 2lbs per week was ok. Yes. It is aggressive, but not undoable. I think I am going to adjust it to lose 1lb per week and do lightly active as my activity level. This is probably a good place to start while I see how I do calorie wise and getting my behind into the gym regularly.
  • slfrye03
    slfrye03 Posts: 9 Member
    sijomial wrote: »
    If you are going by your Fitbit calorie goal it doesn't really matter what activity setting you select on MFP, it just changes the size of the calorie adjustments. Very doubtful you are sedentary though with three small children.

    As you say you are trying to start yet again have a really serious think about what lessons you can learn from previous attempts. One crucial aspect to think about was going for a rapid rate of weight loss (the maximum 2lbs/week) a good long term strategy or a common feature of repeated failures to lose or maintain?

    Why did you fail?
    What actions will you implement this time when you hit the same issues that derailed you before?

    Is picking the fastest rate of loss, under-estimating your activity level, thinking about ignoring the calorie expenditure of steps or gym really wise? Seems like you are trying to fix a long term issue within a very short timescale and making the process as hard and unpleasant as possible. Personally I think that's a mistake.

    Thanks for your feedback! I am using MFP for my calories. I use my Fitbit for my HR, Steps, Sleep. I think I am going to change my setting to not be so aggressive while I get started and learn what is going to work for me. The last time I was serious was before I started having babies. Back then I didn't have the motivation to stick with it. I had no one to really encourage me. So it was a lot of start and stop. Then enter babies. Everything went into them (premature twins and a toddler). Now I am starting to get back to focusing on me. I am doing this for my babies, for my husband, FOR ME! I have my husband who encourages me to go to the gym. And I in turn encourage him (he needs to lose weight also). I am also finding the gym to be a great stress relief an even better, ME time. So I actually look forward to the gym.

    I have always had a go big or go home attitude, which I do realize almost always bites me in the behind. I have been playing with some of the setting and feel like to do need to start smaller. I still have so much going on with the kids still that I need to take this in smaller steps. BABY steps. LOL :smile:

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