Advice on Sedentary vs. Lightly Active
alwaysgreen17
Posts: 85 Member
Hey, everyone! I would like you input on what I should set my activity level at.
I have a desk job so I do sit a lot. However, I do walk the dog everyday, my average step count is ~8k. Would you consider that lightly active, then? (The examples for lightly active still seemed like more than what I do--"spends most of the day on their feet like a teacher or salesman".
Thanks so much for your help!
I have a desk job so I do sit a lot. However, I do walk the dog everyday, my average step count is ~8k. Would you consider that lightly active, then? (The examples for lightly active still seemed like more than what I do--"spends most of the day on their feet like a teacher or salesman".
Thanks so much for your help!
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Replies
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Pick one, eat those calories for a month, see what happens. If you lose weight too slowly or quickly bump to the other one. Or just log it as exercise. Really there's no wrong answer and if you guess wrong you can change it.
I work a desk job but own 5 dogs. I hike, walk, and train dog sports somewhere between 4-6 days a week. ...I bumped to lightly active because I was going to starve otherwise (and weight loss was too fast) and there was no way on earth for me to even begin to log that exercise since it's so erratic both in intensity and type. It was also super consistent (ie: not dedicated exercise just life).
That was my answer, but again - you can change your answer if what you do doesn't work.1 -
Different people will treat walking as either part of their activity setting or as purposeful exercise - just don't count it as both or you would be double counting. (i.e. if you elevate your activity setting due to your walking you wouldn't log it as exercise as well.)
As your dog walking is everyday it would be easier to regard it as part of your overall activity setting and 8,000 steps is more like Active than Lightly Active.
See you have been a member here for a long time, is this a start of a new diet or do you have your own recent logging data and weight trend to base your goal on?
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I always logged my walks with the dog as exercise, since it varied a bit every day. Sometimes 2 miles, sometimes 3-4. If you walk the same distance every day, then making it part of your activity level makes sense.2
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wunderkindking wrote: »Pick one, eat those calories for a month, see what happens. If you lose weight too slowly or quickly bump to the other one. Or just log it as exercise. Really there's no wrong answer and if you guess wrong you can change it.
I work a desk job but own 5 dogs. I hike, walk, and train dog sports somewhere between 4-6 days a week. ...I bumped to lightly active because I was going to starve otherwise (and weight loss was too fast) and there was no way on earth for me to even begin to log that exercise since it's so erratic both in intensity and type. It was also super consistent (ie: not dedicated exercise just life).
That was my answer, but again - you can change your answer if what you do doesn't work.
Wow! That's a lot of work! Kudos on taking care of 5 dogs! Anyway, thanks for your advice. Makes total sense!1 -
Different people will treat walking as either part of their activity setting or as purposeful exercise - just don't count it as both or you would be double counting. (i.e. if you elevate your activity setting due to your walking you wouldn't log it as exercise as well.)
As your dog walking is everyday it would be easier to regard it as part of your overall activity setting and 8,000 steps is more like Active than Lightly Active.
See you have been a member here for a long time, is this a start of a new diet or do you have your own recent logging data and weight trend to base your goal on?
Got it! Since my Fitbit is now synced with MFP, I just let it do its thing and will not manually log the calories burned. Thank you for the input that I may be viewed as more of an "active" vs "lightly active" case. This is my third time at it after a long, unintentional break. Time to face the music.
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spiriteagle99 wrote: »I always logged my walks with the dog as exercise, since it varied a bit every day. Sometimes 2 miles, sometimes 3-4. If you walk the same distance every day, then making it part of your activity level makes sense.
Yeah, that definitely makes sense! Thank you! My daily walks do vary from ~7k - ~10k so I might just follow your lead. 0 -
alwaysgreen17 wrote: »Different people will treat walking as either part of their activity setting or as purposeful exercise - just don't count it as both or you would be double counting. (i.e. if you elevate your activity setting due to your walking you wouldn't log it as exercise as well.)
As your dog walking is everyday it would be easier to regard it as part of your overall activity setting and 8,000 steps is more like Active than Lightly Active.
See you have been a member here for a long time, is this a start of a new diet or do you have your own recent logging data and weight trend to base your goal on?
Got it! Since my Fitbit is now synced with MFP, I just let it do its thing and will not manually log the calories burned. Thank you for the input that I may be viewed as more of an "active" vs "lightly active" case. This is my third time at it after a long, unintentional break. Time to face the music.
If you have a device synched, and it seems to be working, the size of your calorie adjustment (at the end of a typical day(s)) ought to give you a hint where you'd like to have your activity level set, after a bit of experience, assuming you have negative adjustments enabled.
If you have your activity level set higher (more active) than the data coming from your device would suggest, you'll get a negative adjustment (you moved less than MFP expected). If you have your activity level set lower than the data from your device would suggest, you'll get calories added. If it's lots of calories added (again, end of 24-hour day, after some typical days), you could increase your activity level to get a smaller adjustment. (Some people prefer to set activity level low, get bigger adjustments: You'd have to ask them why, because I have no clue. 😆)0 -
I'm on team "sedentary" then loggjng activity1
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alwaysgreen17 wrote: »Different people will treat walking as either part of their activity setting or as purposeful exercise - just don't count it as both or you would be double counting. (i.e. if you elevate your activity setting due to your walking you wouldn't log it as exercise as well.)
As your dog walking is everyday it would be easier to regard it as part of your overall activity setting and 8,000 steps is more like Active than Lightly Active.
See you have been a member here for a long time, is this a start of a new diet or do you have your own recent logging data and weight trend to base your goal on?
Got it! Since my Fitbit is now synced with MFP, I just let it do its thing and will not manually log the calories burned. Thank you for the input that I may be viewed as more of an "active" vs "lightly active" case. This is my third time at it after a long, unintentional break. Time to face the music.
If you have a device synched, and it seems to be working, the size of your calorie adjustment (at the end of a typical day(s)) ought to give you a hint where you'd like to have your activity level set, after a bit of experience, assuming you have negative adjustments enabled.
If you have your activity level set higher (more active) than the data coming from your device would suggest, you'll get a negative adjustment (you moved less than MFP expected). If you have your activity level set lower than the data from your device would suggest, you'll get calories added. If it's lots of calories added (again, end of 24-hour day, after some typical days), you could increase your activity level to get a smaller adjustment. (Some people prefer to set activity level low, get bigger adjustments: You'd have to ask them why, because I have no clue. 😆)
Ahhh, I see! Thank you for enlightening me. I will see how the Fitbit does with my calorie adjustment for maybe a typical week and go from there. Appreciate the info!1 -
rosebarnalice wrote: »I'm on team "sedentary" then loggjng activity
Haha, that is what I'm currently trying out and might adjust. This will be a good experiment!1 -
Another one here for Team Sedentary with separate logging of walking. I just find that works out better for me than trying to fidget with adjusting the activity level.1
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alwaysgreen17 wrote: »Different people will treat walking as either part of their activity setting or as purposeful exercise - just don't count it as both or you would be double counting. (i.e. if you elevate your activity setting due to your walking you wouldn't log it as exercise as well.)
As your dog walking is everyday it would be easier to regard it as part of your overall activity setting and 8,000 steps is more like Active than Lightly Active.
See you have been a member here for a long time, is this a start of a new diet or do you have your own recent logging data and weight trend to base your goal on?
Got it! Since my Fitbit is now synced with MFP, I just let it do its thing and will not manually log the calories burned. Thank you for the input that I may be viewed as more of an "active" vs "lightly active" case. This is my third time at it after a long, unintentional break. Time to face the music.
The synched Fitbit changes everything!
Don't log any exercise manually on here.
The relevance of your activity setting changes compared to people who use MFP to set theit calorie allowance.
All it's doing for you is changing the size of the calorie adjustment between what you select on here and what your Fitbit detects each day.
Some people like big adjustments, some like small, some people want to avoid negative adjustments at all costs....0 -
If using a Fitbit, the end result will be the same.
Example: perhaps if you choose sedentary MFP expects you to burn 1800 daily, but 2000 if you choose lightly active. Let's assume you're set to lose 1 pound weekly. And lets assume Fitbit, based on your actual activity, reports that you burned 2150 yesterday.
Sedentary: MFP started with telling you to eat 1800 - 500 = 1300. Fitbit says you actually burned 2150, which is +350 beyond what MFP projected. So you'll have a +350 Fitbit adjustment. 1300 + 350 = 1650.
Lightly Active: MFP started telling you to eat 2000 - 500 = 1500. Fitbit says you actually burned 2150, which is +150 beyond what MFP projected. So you'll have a +150 Fitbit adjustment. 1500 + 150 = 1650
And if you are newish to using Fitbit, meaning you don't have much data to know how accurate it is for you - you may want to assume its 5-10% off. So if it reported 2150 burn, perhaps assume your actual is 100-200 calories per day lower. Until you have enough data: over time if you're losing faster than expected based on this assumption, then you could conclude its not overreporting after all.1 -
Ps-I personally do things my own way. I have MFP and Fitbit each set to maintain. So at the end of the day, the calories that 'remain' are actually my deficit. I'm officially in maintenance but working off a few pounds that came back from carelessness & laziness.
I also have 7+ years of data with Fitbit, which tells me when I'm actively tracking CICO that Fitbit is accurate for me. If anything, my actual burn is a little higher than it shows. I think it depends on the type of activity one does, and how much small movements happen when generally inactive that the Fitbit really can't pick up on. (Fidgeters burn more, in the long run, for example.) My activity is 99% walking/step based which of course is what Fitbit is best for.2 -
alwaysgreen17 wrote: »Different people will treat walking as either part of their activity setting or as purposeful exercise - just don't count it as both or you would be double counting. (i.e. if you elevate your activity setting due to your walking you wouldn't log it as exercise as well.)
As your dog walking is everyday it would be easier to regard it as part of your overall activity setting and 8,000 steps is more like Active than Lightly Active.
See you have been a member here for a long time, is this a start of a new diet or do you have your own recent logging data and weight trend to base your goal on?
Got it! Since my Fitbit is now synced with MFP, I just let it do its thing and will not manually log the calories burned. Thank you for the input that I may be viewed as more of an "active" vs "lightly active" case. This is my third time at it after a long, unintentional break. Time to face the music.
The synched Fitbit changes everything!
Don't log any exercise manually on here.
The relevance of your activity setting changes compared to people who use MFP to set theit calorie allowance.
All it's doing for you is changing the size of the calorie adjustment between what you select on here and what your Fitbit detects each day.
Some people like big adjustments, some like small, some people want to avoid negative adjustments at all costs....
Got it! I will not log exercise manually since it would count double. 2 -
nanastaci2020 wrote: »If using a Fitbit, the end result will be the same.
Example: perhaps if you choose sedentary MFP expects you to burn 1800 daily, but 2000 if you choose lightly active. Let's assume you're set to lose 1 pound weekly. And lets assume Fitbit, based on your actual activity, reports that you burned 2150 yesterday.
Sedentary: MFP started with telling you to eat 1800 - 500 = 1300. Fitbit says you actually burned 2150, which is +350 beyond what MFP projected. So you'll have a +350 Fitbit adjustment. 1300 + 350 = 1650.
Lightly Active: MFP started telling you to eat 2000 - 500 = 1500. Fitbit says you actually burned 2150, which is +150 beyond what MFP projected. So you'll have a +150 Fitbit adjustment. 1500 + 150 = 1650
And if you are newish to using Fitbit, meaning you don't have much data to know how accurate it is for you - you may want to assume its 5-10% off. So if it reported 2150 burn, perhaps assume your actual is 100-200 calories per day lower. Until you have enough data: over time if you're losing faster than expected based on this assumption, then you could conclude its not overreporting after all.
That makes SO MUCH sense. I really appreciate the breakdown. I won't sweat the setting, then since Fitbit will automatically adjust my calorie allotment (at least, more or less accurately).2 -
alwaysgreen17 wrote: »alwaysgreen17 wrote: »Different people will treat walking as either part of their activity setting or as purposeful exercise - just don't count it as both or you would be double counting. (i.e. if you elevate your activity setting due to your walking you wouldn't log it as exercise as well.)
As your dog walking is everyday it would be easier to regard it as part of your overall activity setting and 8,000 steps is more like Active than Lightly Active.
See you have been a member here for a long time, is this a start of a new diet or do you have your own recent logging data and weight trend to base your goal on?
Got it! Since my Fitbit is now synced with MFP, I just let it do its thing and will not manually log the calories burned. Thank you for the input that I may be viewed as more of an "active" vs "lightly active" case. This is my third time at it after a long, unintentional break. Time to face the music.
The synched Fitbit changes everything!
Don't log any exercise manually on here.
The relevance of your activity setting changes compared to people who use MFP to set theit calorie allowance.
All it's doing for you is changing the size of the calorie adjustment between what you select on here and what your Fitbit detects each day.
Some people like big adjustments, some like small, some people want to avoid negative adjustments at all costs....
Got it! I will not log exercise manually since it would count double.
It won't double count - that's not what was said, might want to reread that comment.
It would just make the size of the adjustment go down if manually logged.
MFP makes the adjustment based on 1 figure from Fitbit - total daily burned calories - that's it.
It subtracts everything it knows about that should be - your estimated daily burn, your logged workouts, to prevent double-counting.
What it will cause is a required 2 extra syncs to have to occur - now that is risky with current syncing issues, and not needed.
What it may cause is confusion on the Fitbit side to the viewer, since it will appear to have 2 workouts there - the original Activity Record Fitbit created, and the synced in Workout Record from MFP - but on Fitbit only the latest is used - it's a replace-only system.
Also what was said about observing your adjustments wasn't for you to do any action - merely for you to see where your activity is compared to a guess.
If set to sedentary and you get big adjustments - then you know you are much more active than sedentary.
No need to change anything - but now you know.1 -
Actually your decision on not manually logging exercise given a connected Fitbit is perfect!
But the danger is not that you might double count exercise by manually entering it in MFP.
The issue, if you were to do so, would be that integration would take your manual input and over write what Fitbit detected for that time period either "polluting" or correcting your results depending on your point of view and intentions! 😹0 -
I have a desk job but try to walk on my breaks and have animals so get a lot of steps in the evenings. I'm set to lightly active and let my fitbit activity levels tell mfp to adjust at the end of the day. But for me I like the surprise of how many extra calories I'm going to get each day.1
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alwaysgreen17 wrote: »alwaysgreen17 wrote: »Different people will treat walking as either part of their activity setting or as purposeful exercise - just don't count it as both or you would be double counting. (i.e. if you elevate your activity setting due to your walking you wouldn't log it as exercise as well.)
As your dog walking is everyday it would be easier to regard it as part of your overall activity setting and 8,000 steps is more like Active than Lightly Active.
See you have been a member here for a long time, is this a start of a new diet or do you have your own recent logging data and weight trend to base your goal on?
Got it! Since my Fitbit is now synced with MFP, I just let it do its thing and will not manually log the calories burned. Thank you for the input that I may be viewed as more of an "active" vs "lightly active" case. This is my third time at it after a long, unintentional break. Time to face the music.
The synched Fitbit changes everything!
Don't log any exercise manually on here.
The relevance of your activity setting changes compared to people who use MFP to set theit calorie allowance.
All it's doing for you is changing the size of the calorie adjustment between what you select on here and what your Fitbit detects each day.
Some people like big adjustments, some like small, some people want to avoid negative adjustments at all costs....
Got it! I will not log exercise manually since it would count double.
It won't double count - that's not what was said, might want to reread that comment.
It would just make the size of the adjustment go down if manually logged.
MFP makes the adjustment based on 1 figure from Fitbit - total daily burned calories - that's it.
It subtracts everything it knows about that should be - your estimated daily burn, your logged workouts, to prevent double-counting.
What it will cause is a required 2 extra syncs to have to occur - now that is risky with current syncing issues, and not needed.
What it may cause is confusion on the Fitbit side to the viewer, since it will appear to have 2 workouts there - the original Activity Record Fitbit created, and the synced in Workout Record from MFP - but on Fitbit only the latest is used - it's a replace-only system.
Also what was said about observing your adjustments wasn't for you to do any action - merely for you to see where your activity is compared to a guess.
If set to sedentary and you get big adjustments - then you know you are much more active than sedentary.
No need to change anything - but now you know.
Ok, thanks for explaining.0 -
Actually your decision on not manually logging exercise given a connected Fitbit is perfect!
But the danger is not that you might double count exercise by manually entering it in MFP.
The issue, if you were to do so, would be that integration would take your manual input and over write what Fitbit detected for that time period either "polluting" or correcting your results depending on your point of view and intentions! 😹
Ah, i see! Well, for any given reason that you all have--I just won't log manually and I'll avoid all of that. 0 -
cowgurl160 wrote: »I have a desk job but try to walk on my breaks and have animals so get a lot of steps in the evenings. I'm set to lightly active and let my fitbit activity levels tell mfp to adjust at the end of the day. But for me I like the surprise of how many extra calories I'm going to get each day.
Yes! I am starting to see the fun in that! It motivated me to go on that last walk of the night with the doggo to see what extra steps/calorie burn I could get. 3 -
alwaysgreen17 wrote: »rosebarnalice wrote: »I'm on team "sedentary" then loggjng activity
Haha, that is what I'm currently trying out and might adjust. This will be a good experiment!
Are you connected up with a fitness tracker? If so, which setting gives you a more stable calorie goal for the day, for planning your food. I find it better to spread the calories out through the day than discover I'm way under target at the end of the day, repeatedly.0 -
alwaysgreen17 wrote: »rosebarnalice wrote: »I'm on team "sedentary" then loggjng activity
Haha, that is what I'm currently trying out and might adjust. This will be a good experiment!
Are you connected up with a fitness tracker? If so, which setting gives you a more stable calorie goal for the day, for planning your food. I find it better to spread the calories out through the day than discover I'm way under target at the end of the day, repeatedly.
Hi! I just synced my Fitbit to MFP so I'm learning as I go. Thanks for the tips!0
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