"Active" level goals question
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stv1520
Posts: 199 Member
Good morning all, I weighed in this morning and had a good weight loss week! Down 25 officially. My question is this: When I read the "getting started" posts, the OP stated that unless we are in a job where you're constantly moving (waitress, mail carrier etc.) you should mark yourself "lightly active" or "sedentary". Well, I did, and my calories were at 2,070 per day. As for my job, I'm on my feet quite a bit all day including stairs. I work out after work 5 days a week. I play hockey 2-3 times a week. That doesn't seem "lightly active" to me. Furthermore, even though I was still eating good, I was going over my calories but still feeling a bit lethargic at times. As though I wasn't eating enough calories. So I'm wondering if I should switch back to "active" for a higher daily calorie count. BTW- I'm 47, 6'1 and 269.8 . Thanks!
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Replies
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The activity setting is just for general daily activity, not workouts. Workouts are added separately so that you consume more calories when you expend more calories.7
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When you add your workouts, it should be adding calories to your daily totals. Are you eating all or part of those back as well?0
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ElizabethKalmbach wrote: »When you add your workouts, it should be adding calories to your daily totals. Are you eating all or part of those back as well?
I did, and still going over my calories because I changed my activity level to "lightly active". I think I should change it to "active".1 -
If your steps are automatically added it should be upping your calorie intake based on exercise and step/general activity. If you are getting a sizable bump daily in calories based on steps alone it might be worth upping your activity level to give you a better baseline.5
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If your steps are automatically added it should be upping your calorie intake based on exercise and step/general activity. If you are getting a sizable bump daily in calories based on steps alone it might be worth upping your activity level to give you a better baseline.
If you choose to go this route - you should allow your step tracker to make negative calorie adjustments for less active days, which will make planning your food potentially a bit easier.3 -
You're active and personally I would change the settings to reflect that.3
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I'd suggest monitoring your rate of weight loss for a few weeks. If the rate is too high or too low over a reasonable sample, then making and adjustment is sensible. Water weight can cause big fluctuations early on in cutting calories, so I'd suggest 3 or 4 weeks before adjusting.
On a related note, how many steps do you do a day? I don't log walking unless I've gone above and beyond; and I average 15,000 per day. This means "active" gives me a sensible baseline, despite having a sedentary job.3 -
I'd suggest monitoring your rate of weight loss for a few weeks. If the rate is too high or too low over a reasonable sample, then making and adjustment is sensible. Water weight can cause big fluctuations early on in cutting calories, so I'd suggest 3 or 4 weeks before adjusting.
On a related note, how many steps do you do a day? I don't log walking unless I've gone above and beyond; and I average 15,000 per day. This means "active" gives me a sensible baseline, despite having a sedentary job.
I've had days of 18,000 and as low as 3,500 if I'm on a day off of everything and relaxing. It varies but I average 10,000 a day usually.0 -
That is correct. Unless you are a mail carrier, work in construction, etc, you should be lightly active to sedentary. However, this is one calculator that is meant for all people. Not everyone is going to be the same. That's why its up to you to adjust your calorie intake as you see fit.
It's not that the calculator is wrong, its that we're not one-size-fits-all.
Adjust your calories until you're losing at a rate that is comfortable for you.7 -
Calorie calculators don't calculate, they estimate. True for MFP, true for non-MFP TDEE calculators, true for fitness trackers. They're close for most people, off for a few, and way off for very, very few . . . because that's the nature of statistical estimates
After a month or two of careful logging, your experience provides better estimates than any calculator. Two kinds of results can be relevant to your OP: Weight loss rate (for sure), and maybe energy level.
If you're losing faster than sensible, eat more. You can do that by adjusting your activity level (even to a technically untrue setting if necessary), or setting calorie goal manually.
Reduced energy - which you mention - can be from too aggressive a calorie deficit (for one's own body, potentially, even if not objectively losing weight aggressively fast), too intense an exercise schedule for current fitness level, inappropriate nutrition (in an absolute sense or relative to personal circumstances), poor/inadequate sleep, or even a medical issue.
As others have said, technically your intentional exercise doesn't count toward your MFP activity level setting, because it expects you to add exercise calories separately, either manually or by syncing a tracker (including negative adjustments).
FWIW, I'm truly sedentary to low end of lightly active (6K steps is a highish day), but I set MFP to active in order for it to give me a calorie goal anywhere near reality. (My Garmin tracker similarly underestimates, so syncing it is not workable, for me). This is rare, but it happens.
My advice: If you can lose weight at a sensible rate while set on active, while syncing your tracker, and adding/eating exercise, go ahead and do it. Why not?
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I would go to active and see what happens. If weight loss stalls go back to light. Either way great job so far2
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Looks like your earliest food logging date is August 26th which is 63 days ago.
If none of the initial loss was water weight that puts your rate of loss at 2.78 pounds per week. Assuming this is true that would put you eating an average of about 390 calories too little per day.
If you would like more exact numbers I would need how much weight you have lost since September 9th which should be past most initial water weight loss.4 -
Good morning all, I weighed in this morning and had a good weight loss week! Down 25 officially. My question is this: When I read the "getting started" posts, the OP stated that unless we are in a job where you're constantly moving (waitress, mail carrier etc.) you should mark yourself "lightly active" or "sedentary". Well, I did, and my calories were at 2,070 per day. As for my job, I'm on my feet quite a bit all day including stairs. I work out after work 5 days a week. I play hockey 2-3 times a week. That doesn't seem "lightly active" to me. Furthermore, even though I was still eating good, I was going over my calories but still feeling a bit lethargic at times. As though I wasn't eating enough calories. So I'm wondering if I should switch back to "active" for a higher daily calorie count. BTW- I'm 47, 6'1 and 269.8 . Thanks!
I had to set my activity to active. My TDEE is 2800 calories. I don’t have a very active job. I’m a normal student. Losing 2 pounds a week on 1800 calories.
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Looks like your earliest food logging date is August 26th which is 63 days ago.
If none of the initial loss was water weight that puts your rate of loss at 2.78 pounds per week. Assuming this is true that would put you eating an average of about 390 calories too little per day.
If you would like more exact numbers I would need how much weight you have lost since September 9th which should be past most initial water weight loss.
Approximately 13 lbs0 -
Definitely Active. I work a desk job but workout 6-7 days a week and I chose active and lose weight eating that calorie amount. You sound like you are more active than me so it shouldn't hurt you to change activity level.0
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Definitely Active. I work a desk job but workout 6-7 days a week and I chose active and lose weight eating that calorie amount. You sound like you are more active than me so it shouldn't hurt you to change activity level.
but remember that MFP calorie goals DO NOT include purposeful workout4 -
I agree with what @AnnPT77 says completely, but then I suspect we are actually the same person in different locations.
I really and truly AM Sedentary. Retired, tiny condo, single. I eat at two full levels Above the Sedentary setting on MFP. 500 calories per day more than the Sedentary setting. I also add in purposeful exercise calories above that (the way this site is supposed to be used.)
The bottom line is, you have to run your own Experiment. Calculators are statistical guesses, nothing more. Your own numbers are your only reliable data. Track diligently for two months and adjust at the end of that time. Don't jump around calorie-wise. You need good data over time to get a trending line.
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Sedentary or lightly active unless you are not adding/tracking extra exercise calories. That is just your baseline. For folks that are truly active AND don't add that activity separately they can boost their baseline by choosing the higher activity setting. FWIW I've always thought those extra exercise calories are overestimated and only eat back half at most.0
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Looks like your earliest food logging date is August 26th which is 63 days ago.
If none of the initial loss was water weight that puts your rate of loss at 2.78 pounds per week. Assuming this is true that would put you eating an average of about 390 calories too little per day.
If you would like more exact numbers I would need how much weight you have lost since September 9th which should be past most initial water weight loss.
Approximately 13 lbs
If you have lost 13 pounds in the last 49 days your rate of loss is 1.86 pounds per week making your average daily deficit about 930 calories. If you selected to lose 2 pounds a week your activity level is close to correct as is your exercise calories.
Based on the above what you may want to do is select to lose 1.5 pounds per week for now and if you have not been to the doctor recently go and tell him/her about your lethargy and get some standard tests run. You could have a deficiency that is causing your lower calories to have a bigger impact on your energy.5
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