Which Activity Level is Correct?
raegan724
Posts: 14 Member
Hi all,
I'm trying to maintain my current weight and body composition. I'm an 18 year old female who is 105 lbs and 5'2. I want to know how many calories I need to eat to maintain my weight, but I'm unsure which activity level I should choose for the TDEE calculator. Here is my current workout schedule:
Monday:
- Zumba Class: 45 mins
- Weights: 20 mins
- Walking: 30 mins
Tuesday:
- Treadmill HIIT Intervals: 30 mins
- Body Pump Class: 45 mins
Wednesday:
- Youtube Body Weight HIIT: 30 mins
- Weights: 20 mins
- Walking: 30 mins
Thursday:
- Treadmill HIIT Intervals: 30 mins
- Weights: 30 mins
Friday:
- YouTube Body Weight HIIT: 30 mins
- Weights: 20 Mins
- Walking: 30 mins
Saturday:
- Treadmill HIIT Intervals: 30 mins
- Weights: 30 mins
I workout every day except Sunday, but I am a college student in the midst of coronavirus. Thus, I am also sitting for a vast majority of my day. That is why I'm confused about which activity level I should use to calculate my appropriate caloric intake. Would I be considered sedentary, lightly active, moderately active, or highly active?
Thanks!
I'm trying to maintain my current weight and body composition. I'm an 18 year old female who is 105 lbs and 5'2. I want to know how many calories I need to eat to maintain my weight, but I'm unsure which activity level I should choose for the TDEE calculator. Here is my current workout schedule:
Monday:
- Zumba Class: 45 mins
- Weights: 20 mins
- Walking: 30 mins
Tuesday:
- Treadmill HIIT Intervals: 30 mins
- Body Pump Class: 45 mins
Wednesday:
- Youtube Body Weight HIIT: 30 mins
- Weights: 20 mins
- Walking: 30 mins
Thursday:
- Treadmill HIIT Intervals: 30 mins
- Weights: 30 mins
Friday:
- YouTube Body Weight HIIT: 30 mins
- Weights: 20 Mins
- Walking: 30 mins
Saturday:
- Treadmill HIIT Intervals: 30 mins
- Weights: 30 mins
I workout every day except Sunday, but I am a college student in the midst of coronavirus. Thus, I am also sitting for a vast majority of my day. That is why I'm confused about which activity level I should use to calculate my appropriate caloric intake. Would I be considered sedentary, lightly active, moderately active, or highly active?
Thanks!
0
Replies
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If you're using MFP's method, you choose based on your regular lifestyle APART from intentional exercise. You then log the exercise and eat back those additional calories.
With that method, you would choose sedentary and log your additional exercise.
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Sedentary. Then log your exercise and eat the calories burned from those. MFP isn't including any 'workouts' in their activity level.3
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What kind of college campus are you on where you're sedentary? Or are you going to class from home?
How many steps a day, approximately, do you take?
If you have no wrist/hand device that you're using, most phones can be configured to give you a (lower than the devices would) initial count.
If you regularly exceed 3.5/3000 steps on the phone you're above MFP sedentary. On a device I would place that at the 3.5k as where most people generally should be considered lightly active.0 -
As others have pointed out, MFP isn't a TDEE calculator and exercise is NOT included in your activity level which is why there is no mention of deliberate exercise in the descriptors. If you want to use the TDEE method (my preference) rather than the MFP (NEAT) method I would suggest using a TDEE calculator and then manually customizing your calorie goal on MFP. TDEE calculators use different multipliers for activity level than MFP...so for example, the multipliers used by MFP for "active" are going to assume being up and on your feet most of the day, but the actual activity engaged in is pretty low level/low intensity, etc. There are pros and cons for both TDEE and NEAT.
As your day to day goes, I would also question whether or not you're actually sedentary. When I was in college I did have to obviously sit in class quite a bit and in the library studying, etc...but I walked campus quite a bit to get to classes...walked to lunch...to and from my residence, etc. I'd say most college students aren't really sedentary from my experience.0 -
What kind of college campus are you on where you're sedentary? Or are you going to class from home?
How many steps a day, approximately, do you take?
If you have no wrist/hand device that you're using, most phones can be configured to give you a (lower than the devices would) initial count.
If you regularly exceed 3.5/3000 steps on the phone you're above MFP sedentary. On a device I would place that at the 3.5k as where most people generally should be considered lightly active.
I typically average around 3.5 thousand to 11 thousand steps, it depends on the day. The days I walk 30 minutes are when I hit the most. I also work a retail job the other two days a week where I am walking, albeit not very fast, for about three hours. I can't have my phone with me though so I'm unsure how many steps it adds. I'm on a college campus but most of my classes are still online. However I do try to do things like take stairs or go to the library to get out of my dorm which adds in some movement.
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cwolfman13 wrote: »As others have pointed out, MFP isn't a TDEE calculator and exercise is NOT included in your activity level which is why there is no mention of deliberate exercise in the descriptors. If you want to use the TDEE method (my preference) rather than the MFP (NEAT) method I would suggest using a TDEE calculator and then manually customizing your calorie goal on MFP. TDEE calculators use different multipliers for activity level than MFP...so for example, the multipliers used by MFP for "active" are going to assume being up and on your feet most of the day, but the actual activity engaged in is pretty low level/low intensity, etc. There are pros and cons for both TDEE and NEAT.
As your day to day goes, I would also question whether or not you're actually sedentary. When I was in college I did have to obviously sit in class quite a bit and in the library studying, etc...but I walked campus quite a bit to get to classes...walked to lunch...to and from my residence, etc. I'd say most college students aren't really sedentary from my experience.
Thank you! Yeah I have been looking at the online TDEE calculators, which I know incorporate exercise into the final estimation. I didn't know MFP used a different method.I wasn't putting sedentary for those because I know the amount of exercise I do would at least put me in the lightly active category, but I wasn't sure if maybe since I'm doing it every day that it would be closer to moderate instead.
Ultimately I'm trying to decide if I should be eating closer to 1500 calories or 1800
Thank you all for your responses!0 -
Easily Lightly-Active then all non-exercise time included.
Likely getting into Active though.
Manually log those workouts.
Walking use correct pace, but then take 1/2 the suggested calorie burn.
Weights take the calorie burn - it's small but that's true.
The other workouts are pretty intense so log whatever option is best and take the calorie burn given at the start.
For low intensity stuff like walking, take 1/2 the suggested calories.
Some are going to say take 1/2 all calorie burns but they usually don't understand why that is even a concept, just parroted commented.
Besides - you are more than lightly-active by a bit.
It's always going to be about adjusting based on results, as a woman - need over 28 days for that to show up as actionable.
ETA:
Someone actually doing HIIT too (treadmill stuff anyway), wow - anyway on that, you have avg overall pace, use that for the correct database entry. Don't use HRM based calorie burn - inflated.2 -
College student.... most of your days above 7K steps would be in the active category, especially when measured on phone, especially when you consider retail shop time in there. days above 3.5 and below 7 would be lightly active. This includes all activities generating steps as a lump sum. not exactly how mfp plans things.
Also remember: these are figures based on statistical estimates. The quality of your food intake logging will influence your apparent results the most. Furthermore, most people will track close to the statistical averages, some people will be either a little bit above or below, and a very few people will be quite far off.
You won't know until you've observed your longer term weight trend over sufficient time.
Some potential serious complications you will have in doing that: you are quite possibly still growing at your current age and so it is quite possible for positive / wanted weight changes that also need to happen.
And for **kittens** sake, at a BMI of 19.2 and 18 years old... over-restricting is probably way more detrimental for your long term health than anything else... differentiating between eating because you're hungry or eating for other reasons? Probably a good thing to be conscious about... Restricting for other reasons... think twice
3 -
Honestly, I worry for people, especially young people, who count calories when they are at a healthy weight. Why not just weigh yourself a few times per week, and start calorie counting if you start gaining weight?2
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cwolfman13 wrote: »As others have pointed out, MFP isn't a TDEE calculator and exercise is NOT included in your activity level which is why there is no mention of deliberate exercise in the descriptors. If you want to use the TDEE method (my preference) rather than the MFP (NEAT) method I would suggest using a TDEE calculator and then manually customizing your calorie goal on MFP. TDEE calculators use different multipliers for activity level than MFP...so for example, the multipliers used by MFP for "active" are going to assume being up and on your feet most of the day, but the actual activity engaged in is pretty low level/low intensity, etc. There are pros and cons for both TDEE and NEAT.
As your day to day goes, I would also question whether or not you're actually sedentary. When I was in college I did have to obviously sit in class quite a bit and in the library studying, etc...but I walked campus quite a bit to get to classes...walked to lunch...to and from my residence, etc. I'd say most college students aren't really sedentary from my experience.
Thank you! Yeah I have been looking at the online TDEE calculators, which I know incorporate exercise into the final estimation. I didn't know MFP used a different method.I wasn't putting sedentary for those because I know the amount of exercise I do would at least put me in the lightly active category, but I wasn't sure if maybe since I'm doing it every day that it would be closer to moderate instead.
Ultimately I'm trying to decide if I should be eating closer to 1500 calories or 1800
Thank you all for your responses!
Based on your description your STARTING POINT TO GO HIGHER FROM would be at around 1877 Cal.
So I have no idea why you would be looking at 1500.
<I note that your 5ft 2", 105lb weight is closer to the female sample composition that went into the original Harris equation than the female sample used in the more recent Mifflin equation. Given your BMI and the balance of risks aiming to start below 1877 would make no sense. People weight themselves from time to time and make adjustments based on their LONGER TERM TRENDS which for women would include AT LEAST one complete hormonal cycle so you can compare like points to like points given changes in monthly water retention. I remind you that at 18, internet strangers cannot opine as to whether you have some normal filling in of muscles and structures that still has to take place as you complete your growth.>2 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »As others have pointed out, MFP isn't a TDEE calculator and exercise is NOT included in your activity level which is why there is no mention of deliberate exercise in the descriptors. If you want to use the TDEE method (my preference) rather than the MFP (NEAT) method I would suggest using a TDEE calculator and then manually customizing your calorie goal on MFP. TDEE calculators use different multipliers for activity level than MFP...so for example, the multipliers used by MFP for "active" are going to assume being up and on your feet most of the day, but the actual activity engaged in is pretty low level/low intensity, etc. There are pros and cons for both TDEE and NEAT.
As your day to day goes, I would also question whether or not you're actually sedentary. When I was in college I did have to obviously sit in class quite a bit and in the library studying, etc...but I walked campus quite a bit to get to classes...walked to lunch...to and from my residence, etc. I'd say most college students aren't really sedentary from my experience.
Thank you! Yeah I have been looking at the online TDEE calculators, which I know incorporate exercise into the final estimation. I didn't know MFP used a different method.I wasn't putting sedentary for those because I know the amount of exercise I do would at least put me in the lightly active category, but I wasn't sure if maybe since I'm doing it every day that it would be closer to moderate instead.
Ultimately I'm trying to decide if I should be eating closer to 1500 calories or 1800
Thank you all for your responses!
Even those tired old 1919 TDEE formula's would have you at more than Lightly-Active - 1-3 hrs of exercise a week.
And that's assuming a sedentary lifestyle which you aren't anyway.
Try this for better first assessment - eat at maintenance obviously.
Just TDEE Please spreadsheet - better than rough 5 level TDEE charts from 1919 study.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1G7FgNzPq3v5WMjDtH0n93LXSMRY_hjmzNTMJb3aZSxM/edit?usp=sharing
ETA:
Ya, off those old charts - try 2200.
I think I added up your times correctly for the week.2 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »As others have pointed out, MFP isn't a TDEE calculator and exercise is NOT included in your activity level which is why there is no mention of deliberate exercise in the descriptors. If you want to use the TDEE method (my preference) rather than the MFP (NEAT) method I would suggest using a TDEE calculator and then manually customizing your calorie goal on MFP. TDEE calculators use different multipliers for activity level than MFP...so for example, the multipliers used by MFP for "active" are going to assume being up and on your feet most of the day, but the actual activity engaged in is pretty low level/low intensity, etc. There are pros and cons for both TDEE and NEAT.
As your day to day goes, I would also question whether or not you're actually sedentary. When I was in college I did have to obviously sit in class quite a bit and in the library studying, etc...but I walked campus quite a bit to get to classes...walked to lunch...to and from my residence, etc. I'd say most college students aren't really sedentary from my experience.
Thank you! Yeah I have been looking at the online TDEE calculators, which I know incorporate exercise into the final estimation. I didn't know MFP used a different method.I wasn't putting sedentary for those because I know the amount of exercise I do would at least put me in the lightly active category, but I wasn't sure if maybe since I'm doing it every day that it would be closer to moderate instead.
Ultimately I'm trying to decide if I should be eating closer to 1500 calories or 1800
Thank you all for your responses!
Even those tired old 1919 TDEE formula's would have you at more than Lightly-Active - 1-3 hrs of exercise a week.
And that's assuming a sedentary lifestyle which you aren't anyway.
Try this for better first assessment - eat at maintenance obviously.
Just TDEE Please spreadsheet - better than rough 5 level TDEE charts from 1919 study.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1G7FgNzPq3v5WMjDtH0n93LXSMRY_hjmzNTMJb3aZSxM/edit?usp=sharing
ETA:
Ya, off those old charts - try 2200.
I think I added up your times correctly for the week.
Wow! Thank you for putting the time in to put that together. For some reason I really can't wrap my head around the fact that I would ever need more than 1800 calories. Maybe I should try getting to 2200 to see what happens. I've never really consistently ate that much, except for maybe when I was younger and didn't track. That was very eye opening0 -
Wow! Thank you for putting the time in to put that together. For some reason I really can't wrap my head around the fact that I would ever need more than 1800 calories. Maybe I should try getting to 2200 to see what happens. I've never really consistently ate that much, except for maybe when I was younger and didn't track. That was very eye opening [/quote]
Think of a car - if a car is going further, faster, is carrying more weight on it it will require more fuel to do that.
No-one ever worries about whether or not that should be the case, they recognise that it is physics. A 500 mile road trip packed up with camping gear will use more fuel than a 10 minute jaunt to the shops.
Your body is the same. Given your age you are probably still developing, walking, working, studying, etc all require fuel. Otherwise how can it work?
I ran 16 miles on Sunday, you bet I ate more. You might find that when you increase the calories you are able to do more in your weight workouts, so performance improves, you feel and look great, everyone's a winner
3
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