What activity level should I pick?

ColdDawning
ColdDawning Posts: 36 Member
in Getting Started
I know that I, at some point, found what the different levels meant, but I can't seem to find it again.

I have a job where I'm on my feet (no chairs other than in the lunch room), basically serving customers, I will walk around to pick things from shelves and such. I try to walk a minimum of 10 000 steps per day, sometimes it's only 8 000 and sometimes it's 12 000+, but it's usually 10 000 - 11 000.

What activity level should I pick?

Replies

  • Satiplis
    Satiplis Posts: 8 Member
    do you have a way to walk in a treadmill to match what you feel like you're doing during the day? maybe the readings from that will help.
  • Satiplis
    Satiplis Posts: 8 Member
    I found this on Mayo Clinic website:
    Take the talk test. If you can carry on a conversation in brief sentences, you’re probably in the moderate-intensity range. You’ll be breathing faster, developing a light sweat and feeling some strain in your muscles. If you're working at a vigorous intensity, you won’t be able to say more than a few words without catching your breath. (If you can sing while working out, you’re probably in the low-intensity range…so step it up!)
    Calculate your target heart rate. Use this formula to calculate your target heart-rate range:
    220 minus your age = your maximum heart rate
    Your maximum heart rate multiplied by 0.6 = your lower limit
    Your maximum heart rate multiplied by 0.85 = your upper limit

    During exercise, check your pulse to determine your heart rate. If it’s in the target range, you’re exercising at about the right level. If you find it difficult to find your pulse and count while exercising, it may be a good idea to invest in a heart-rate monitor.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,422 Member
    ColdDawning wrote: »
    I know that I, at some point, found what the different levels meant, but I can't seem to find it again.

    I have a job where I'm on my feet (no chairs other than in the lunch room), basically serving customers, I will walk around to pick things from shelves and such. I try to walk a minimum of 10 000 steps per day, sometimes it's only 8 000 and sometimes it's 12 000+, but it's usually 10 000 - 11 000.

    What activity level should I pick?

    From Help at the top of every page: How does MyFitnessPal calculate my initial goals?

  • ColdDawning
    ColdDawning Posts: 36 Member
    edited October 2019
    Satiplis, I'm not sure if I understand what you're talking about, but I think we might be talking about different things.

    cmriverside, that was quite a bit of clicking before I got to the place that actually described activity levels. Haven't they written it down somewhere on the site? I mean, that was somewhat of a challenge to find, but thank you.

    10et1udgddou.png
    Screenshot from "Chronicle of the Institute of Medicine physical activity recommendation: how a physical activity recommendation came to be among dietary recommendations" found on this link.

    I suppose I have to figure out how many miles or km I walk per 1000 steps.
  • ColdDawning
    ColdDawning Posts: 36 Member
    Or who am I kidding, I'm 55 kg, almost in the middle of their two weight groups, so I'd have to walk like...14 km? I don't think I do that, no way. I'll just put myself in the low active category.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,422 Member
    edited October 2019
    Well, ColdDawning, the problem with just giving you those multipliers is that they may or may not be "correct" for you.

    For instance, I'm a 65YO retired woman and I live in a tiny condo so I don't have to do a lot of activity in my daily life other than the basics that every woman does.

    I do take walks, not every day and some of them are more strenuous than others.

    You would think by that explanation that I would be "Sedentary." Not so. I have to use the "Active" activity level in order to get the results I get based on my logging food (using a food scale) and logging "walking" as my exercise on days I do it.

    That's two full levels (400-500 calories per day) ABOVE what I would think I should choose by looking at the qualifiers on "Goals."

    That page with descriptions is in MY HOME > Goals > View Guided Setup
    https://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/change_goals_guided

    THEN after choosing an Activity Level, you are still supposed to log purposeful exercise in Exercise and eat a bit more to fuel that additional activity which is above and beyond your regular Activity Level.

    So no matter what you choose it's still a big ole Science Experiment. You need good records of your food, exercise, and results for a couple months to really dial it in.


  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,422 Member
    edited October 2019
    I guess my first link in my first post is outdated, too. Sorry 'bout that. I'll need to figure that out myself! They did an update and moved stuff around and I didn't know...

    Here: (from the sticky threads/most helpful posts) https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1

    Also, this thread has a chart with the multipliers for Activity Level:
    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10569458/why-eating-too-little-calories-is-a-bad-idea/p1


    (p.s. I checked those links first!)

  • born_of_fire74
    born_of_fire74 Posts: 776 Member
    I have found that the exercise database is pretty close for calories burned by walking. I routinely walk 6kmh (3.75mph) with my dog and MFP assigns me 244 calories/hr. In practice, I find that I can add about 225 calories/hr so not too far out. It might be worthwhile to set your activity level to sedentary and add your calories earned from walking back as exercise calories. Once you’ve got a good idea of how many calories you walk off each day, you can do a negative adjustment to your allowance, keep adding it in manually or adjust your activity level to match your data instead of just guessing.
  • corinasue1143
    corinasue1143 Posts: 7,464 Member
    I couldn’t find it on MFP, so I googled and found

    2rg7q3zpd42m.png


    I don’t know how close that is to MFP, but as someone above said, mfp does its best to give a good estimate. It isn’t always perfect.

    Set up your account the best you can, log everything, including weight and exercise the best you can. After 6 weeks or so, throw away the first 2 weeks info (remember you were just learning and may not have been totally accurate) use the next 4 weeks info to figure out how many calories you need to lose the desired amount at the desired rate.
  • corinasue1143
    corinasue1143 Posts: 7,464 Member
    cmry6xkpq1b3.png
  • ColdDawning
    ColdDawning Posts: 36 Member
    Thank you all for the help and the links.
    I've yet to start logging my food, but I will get around to that eventually. I know that I should log exercises separately, and I suppose I could log the walking separately too. I suppose I won't know what's true for me before I start logging everything and seeing if my weight stays the same or not.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,260 Member
    Start from active.
    On mfp active is set at 1.6x BMR
    You still need to log exercise activities that are not included in that first c10k steps.
    The apparent accuracy of the activity setting no only depends on how close to the middle of the bell curve you are, but also on how accurately u record your food intake

    So after four to six weeks of complete data adjust based on your actual longer term weight trend changes (using a weight trend app to determine)
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,422 Member
    ColdDawning wrote: »
    Thank you all for the help and the links.
    I've yet to start logging my food, but I will get around to that eventually. I know that I should log exercises separately, and I suppose I could log the walking separately too. I suppose I won't know what's true for me before I start logging everything and seeing if my weight stays the same or not.

    For weight loss I would say logging food should be at the very top of the list. :) Until you get a good month to six weeks data, you won't know if you have your Activity Level set correctly. That means food data and purposeful exercise as well as that Activity Level setting.

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