Not sure where your activity level should be set at???

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BeautifulScarsWECHANGED
BeautifulScarsWECHANGED Posts: 749 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
http://fitbie.msn.com/lose-weight/tips/best-weight-calculator-you/tip/4

According to this article I found on MSN today:

Sedentary: You do little or no exercise.

Lightly Active: You participate in sports or light exercise 1-3 days per week.

Moderately Active: You do moderate exercise or play sports 3-5 days per week.

Very Active: You exercise hard or play sports 6-7 days per week.

Overly Active: You exercise very hard daily and have a physical job, or do two workouts per day.


Perhaps this will help all the MFP's who have plateaued....you may not be eating enough calories. :bigsmile:

Replies

  • maidentl
    maidentl Posts: 3,203 Member
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    But mfp isn't set up that way. It wants to know your activity level WITHOUT exercise. Then it creates a deficit based on NO exercise and that's why you are strongly encouraged to eat your exercise calories back.
  • BeautifulScarsWECHANGED
    BeautifulScarsWECHANGED Posts: 749 Member
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    I don't eat mine back, so I have mine set up according to this.
  • 123456654321
    123456654321 Posts: 1,311 Member
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    But mfp isn't set up that way. It wants to know your activity level WITHOUT exercise. Then it creates a deficit based on NO exercise and that's why you are strongly encouraged to eat your exercise calories back.

    I think it's set up so you can do it either way.
  • Frannswaz
    Frannswaz Posts: 172 Member
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    I've tried both methods.

    Only drawback is that you absolutely have to measure the number of calories you plan to get from exercise and plug that into the goals and stick to it.

    If you exercise more than what works out as 'active' accoridng to your calorie burn you could eat those extra exercise calories and the MFP plan works the same.

    If you dont get the exercise in that you plan to and you eat the same then it gets a bit dicey I think.

    Just my experience because I don't have a physically demanding job and the only exercise I get is what I do because I want to.

    Decided to change my settings to sedentary (which is accurate) and do as much or as little exercise as I want and eat the extra calories burned.

    Just my experience so far
    one of hundreds ....err......thousands no doubt.

    Thanks for sharing:smile:
  • Chainsaw_Flowerchild
    Chainsaw_Flowerchild Posts: 65
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    MFP doesn't look at exercise at all. The settings screen shows job types not exercise.
    How would you describe your normal daily activities?

    Sedentary: Spend most of the day sitting (e.g. bank teller, desk job)
    Lightly Active: Spend a good part of the day on your feet (e.g. nurse, salesman)
    Active: Spend a good part of the day doing some physical activity (e.g. waitress, mailman)
    Very Active: Spend most of the day doing heavy physical activity (e.g. bike messenger)

    For this reason I need to choose Sedentary even though I go to the gym 4-5 days a week. I then need to eat most of my exercise calories back.
  • maidentl
    maidentl Posts: 3,203 Member
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    For this reason I need to choose Sedentary even though I go to the gym 4-5 days a week. I then need to eat most of my exercise calories back.

    Yep, and then if you don't get to work out for some reason, your calories aren't set at a higher level due to expecting you to exercise. And you're adjusting your eating according to how hard you work out, it's a good system.
  • 123456654321
    123456654321 Posts: 1,311 Member
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    MFP doesn't look at exercise at all. The settings screen shows job types not exercise.


    If this is 100% the case, then why is it that MFP's calculator calculates the same amount of calories at their sedentary level that all the other calculators (including the calculator linked above) give? Actually, it gives slightly more. Not that I care so much, I set at sedentary and log my exercise...but I'm just curious.
  • maidentl
    maidentl Posts: 3,203 Member
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    Because if you tell another calculator that you are sedentary, they are assuming you will not be exercising, just like MFP assumes. The difference comes in the other activity levels.

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