Active or lightly active?

huggit
huggit Posts: 32 Member
in Getting Started
Hi I am sure this questions has been asked lots, but I am teetering between active and lightly active. I am 205 pounds 5 ft 5 and want to lose a pound a week. I feel happier putting active and having 1990 calories a day as my target, and most days I am stopping at 1600 ish calories a day, but because I have the 1990 available, it makes me feel happier. Psychological I think. But the difference in calories is down to putting either active or lightly active. My activities are 6 days a week I do between 2 and 4 miles of walk at home exercise by Leslie Sansome, and then I do average activities in the house, housework etc or play xbox, my work is seated mostly though which I probably do 4 hours a day.
Sooo active or lightly active??
Thank you :)

Replies

  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,107 Member
    edited May 2020
    If you want to use MFP as intended, you shouldn't include your exercise in your activity level. The MFP activity level is only meant to reflect your day-to-day activities (work, housework, taking care of children,...) and then you should log your exercise separately, which means you get extra calories when you exercise.
    I think "average activities in the house, housework" is very open to interpretation, so hard to answer your question...
  • huggit
    huggit Posts: 32 Member
    Lietchi wrote: »
    If you want to use MFP as intended, you shouldn't include your exercise in your activity level. The MFP activity level is only meant to reflect your day-to-day activities (work, housework, taking care of children,...) and then you should log your exercise separately, which means you get extra calories when you exercise.
    I think "average activities in the house, housework" is very open to interpretation, so hard to answer your question...

    So as I am doing about 300 calories of exercise per day, and not eating them I think the 1900 calories and lightly active goals seem about right then.
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,107 Member
    The best way to know, is to monitor your weight loss over 4 to 6 weeks and see if it corresponds with the rate you set :smile: (and take into account how many calories you actually eat, not the theoretic goal)
    I don't know if you weigh daily or weekly, personally I prefer weighing daily since it gives me a clearer view of my weight loss trend so I can filter out water weight fluctuations.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,585 Member
    Based on the stats you give your MFP BMR is around 1620 or so.
    Which means that your active maintenance would be 2590 and your lightly active maintenance around 2270.
    A difference of about 300/320 Cal.
    Which, by the way, indicates that you've created a -600 deficit target instead of the -500 target one would expect for a one lb a week loss!

    Beyond that the question becomes: how well do your weight level changes over 4-6 weeks correspond with your recorded deficits? This will tell you whether you're over or under-estimating!

    Brain hamster wrangling is part and parcel of the process. Is this the way MFP was envisioned to be run? Probably not. But if it works for you... 🤷‍♂️

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