is lifting 4-5 times a week considered moderate exercise?

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bellacelina2
bellacelina2 Posts: 92 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hey there!:)) so I´m lifting weights, spending around 1 hour at the gym like 4-5 times a week. I also go for some walks, but spend most of my time lifting than cardio honestly.

Does this put my daily activity into the moderate exercise or light exercise?
Thank you so much for help!!:)

I hope this isn't a weird question, hahahah, thanksss<3:) have a great great dayyy !

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  • Courtscan2
    Courtscan2 Posts: 498 Member
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    MFP is designed so that your daily activity is set based on what you do daily excluding exercise, then you add the exercise in on top of this. So if you are an office worker or student, for example, you would set it to sedentary, then add the exercise each day, so if you life for 45 minutes you would add a 45 minute "strength Training" entry which would add to you calories. Weight lifting is fabulous for many reasons, but be warned - it doesn't burn as many calories as most people expect.

    Now that said - I personally hate the way it is designed to have you "eat back" your calories, so I have calculated my average TDEE elsewhere and manually entered my goal calories and macronutrients, as eating different, unpredictable amounts each day strikes me as a slightly insane way to live. But to each their own :D
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    bellacelina2 wrote: »
    Does this put my daily activity into the moderate exercise or light exercise?

    You are confusing two separate things and the terminology on MyFitnessPal.

    The Activity setting is absolutely nothing to do with your purposeful exercise - you could exercise no hours a week or 20 hours a week and it wouldn't change your activity setting you should select. Read the descriptions and you will see no mention of exercise.
    If you think about it, you would realise if you set your activity level according to how much you exercise when you then logged that exercise and your calorie allowance increased it would be double counting.

    If you mean light or moderate exercise levels for some other standard definition or calculator you will need to state which one you are referring to.

    Unlike the person above who prefers the TDEE method (a very valid alternative choice) I far prefer the MFP method as my exercise burns vary massivley and I actively dislike a same every day eating goal - that would feel very restrictive to me when my actual needs (and wants) change daily.
  • bellacelina2
    bellacelina2 Posts: 92 Member
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    Thank you guys so much for response :)<3@lemongirlbc @sijomial ! I read through both of your messages, and thank you so much for taking time to explain this to me, that´s very kindhearted!^^ I was trying to figure out my activity level for an online calculator: https://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html
    This one! you have to choose your exercise levels here, so that´s why I was wondering if maybe strength training 4-5 times a week was considered moderate excercise! Thank you sooooo much!! :smiley: Thanks for explaining these things, I was a bit confused about these things, so I'm grateful!
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    That's a very basic calculator with pretty poor and vague descriptions.
    I prefer this one which gives a comparison between different studies or an average. https://www.sailrabbit.com/bmr/

    What they are both doing is estimating your BMR and then applying a combined activity and exercise multiplier (unlike MFP which uses an activity only multiplier and adds exercise after the event)
    And in reality they give you a starting point from which you might have to adjust based on results over an extended period of time.

    Keep in mind your exercise is already accounted for as a daily average so simply eat to the goal you select.
    (BTW - if you do want to use the TDEE method but also have some variability/flexibility in your daily allowance you can work to weekly calorie goal, the app gives you a weekly view.)
  • sgt1372
    sgt1372 Posts: 3,977 Member
    edited April 2021
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    bellacelina2 wrote: »
    Hey there!:)) so I´m lifting weights, spending around 1 hour at the gym like 4-5 times a week. I also go for some walks, but spend most of my time lifting than cardio honestly. Does this put my daily activity into the moderate exercise or light exercise?

    You really don't burn very many cals lifting or walking. So, unless you're lifting very heavy weight and/or doing a high level intensity weight machine circuit w/o little or NO REST, I'd call it "light exercise."

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