Choosing the correct activity level
Replies
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FlyingMolly wrote: »bruinsgirl3319 wrote: »I am also having trouble figuring out what my activity level is. I have a Fitbit synced with MFP. Right now I have MFP set as lightly active and I do have custom calorie goals. I'm 5'2, female, weighing 152 setting my weight loss goals to lose 2lbs/wk and slim down to 130. I've had a hard time getting into a rhythm in the past several months because of family health problems. I eat when I stress and don't do what I know I need to do to lose weight.
I'm getting back on track this week and want to make sure I have my activity level set correctly. I have a somewhat active job (cashier at a small grocery store) where I stock drinks, change prices, get carriages, etc. I'm on my feet for 38 hours a week here for 5 days (8 hours a day during the typical workweek for 4 days and 6 hours on Sundays), sitting down just for my 20-minute lunch break.
For 5 days a week (usually 4 of my work days and 1 of my days off), I also workout, usually either doing the gym (2 days/week with weights) and walking the other days. Those days I'm getting 45-60 minutes in the gym alone, in addition to any stray minutes I get at work. Most days during the week I get at least 12K steps/day between my job and workouts (sometimes even hitting close to 10K steps before my shift is over, making me get closer to 14-16KK steps post workout) but the rest of the time I'm lazy 😂
So is my estimate of my activity level accurate or am I underestimating myself? Thanks in advance for any responses!
If your Fitbit is synched and you have negative calorie adjustments enabled, it shouldn’t really matter what your activity level is is set to. Your Fitbit will estimate how many calories you’ve burned based on steps and movement throughout the day, compare it to MFP’s goal, and give you an adjustment number that eliminates the discrepancy.
Imagine there’s a 300-calorie difference between lightly active and active. If you burn exactly the “active” number of calories one day but have MFP set to “lightly active,” your Fitbit will add 300 calories to your total. If, on the other hand, you’re set to active and have a lightly active day, your Fitbit will deduct 300 from your goal. Whatever your setting is, your Fitbit will true it up throughout the day (again: IF you have negative adjustments enabled).
If you’re getting consistent adjustments daily you might want to change your activity level just for simplicity’s sake—I did that earlier this year when I was ALWAYS getting at least 250 extra calories. Obviously I was more active than I’d told MFP, so I changed it. Now my adjustments vary between -100 all the way up to +700, which is why I’m glad I have the Fitbit and am not relying solely on my MFP activity level!
Fitbits aren't totally accurate, and depending on what kind of activity you do they can be significantly off. But they will allow you to adjust for varied activity levels day to day without having to worry about whether your MFP level is set properly. You’ll get a calorie goal based on your actual movement, regardless of setting.
Okay. I have negative calories enabled. I'll keep it as lightly active then. Thank you!1 -
SusanMFindlay wrote: »IMO, the easiest way to estimate your activity level is to find a cheap pedometer and wear it for a week or two, recording your total number of steps every day.
"Sedentary" is less than 4,000 steps/day
"Lightly active" is about 4,000-10,000 steps/day
"Active" is about 10,000-16,000 steps/day
"Very active" is more than 16,000 steps/day
If you're right at the bottom of a range, you might want to choose the range below to allow for a few inaccuracies in logging.
MFP defines
sedentary = BMR x 1.25
ligtly active = BMR x 1.4
active = BMR x 1.6
very active = BMR x 1.8
Most people get "positive adjustments" i.e. extra calories, when their activity levels exceed:
sedentary ~ 3500 steps
lightly active ~ 7500 steps
active ~ 12,500 steps
very active ~15500 steps
MFP expects you to log any "exercise" that is not part of your base activity.
While in many respects it makes sense to split things into "base activity of daily living" and "deliberate exercise" there is nothing magical about how the calories got burned.
The only thing that matters is that you don't under or over count.
Note that sedentary means... sedentary. It represents an activity level that involves less than 35 minutes of movement in a day. MOST people on MFP who think of themselves as sedentary... AREN'T. (and, of course, some people who DON'T, ARE. but that's another story).
Oh yeah.... I am totally counting wrong. I need to be set to active. I had always gone down a level to be safe but I average like 18-20K steps a day (which does include some walks and running). Rest days I feel like I am starving if I stay within the count. I think moving to active and monitoring will make me want to count more. lol
Thanks for the info!2 -
Hi,
Thanks for this post. It’s very informative. I correlated your thumb rule of equating walking for 1hr 45min to ‘active’ with ‘active minutes’ on my Fitbit app. By that yardstick, I selected my category as ‘active’. I average 1:55 active time a day.
Cheers!!1 -
if you visit the DESKTOP version of MyFitnessPal (MFP), and navigate to this section (under ‘goals’), MFP provides their definitions for these activity levels
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I never found these descriptions right for me. When I'm at a desk job, I still have to put lightly active. I do not exercise and if I do I add it. I'm at home with the kids till July and MFP still underestimates my maintenance by at least 150 to 200 on lightly active. Again... i don't exercise and all I do in the evening is sit on the couch.0
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I'm a 36 year old female looking to recomp and up my calories from my 1350 calls per day to something that will help me gain muscle and lose fat.
When I do calculations outside of MFP I get calorie maintenance of 1644 calories per day when I put sedentary and 1601 inside MFP.
I work a desk job but I exercise 30 to 60 mins a day and try to get in 10,000 steps a day. I've been eating 1350 calories a day and I was maintaining there. i lost 85 lbs eating like this and now I'm stuck here and cant see any of the muscle I built.
Long story short, I wanted to know how to set this up in MFP. If I include my exercise in calculations outside of MFP which INCLUDES exercise it says I'm light active to active and I should be eating 1884 or 2024 calories respectively, but when I put lightly active or active in MFP its 1793 and 2049 calories which DOESN'T include exercise.
Should I put in the 1884 or the 1793? or the 2024 or the 2049???
If MFP only counts lifestyle how should I track what I'm eating? this is kind of confusing tbh lol
my fit bit adds exercise to MFP and I add my workouts as well but I have it set up so they counter each other so I don't double dip0 -
@LadyDaenerys
Your Fitbit adjustment isn't just exercise - if you are wearing it as an all day tracker it's also estimating your non-exercise activity level on a daily basis whereas MFP gives you an average (and you are definitely not sedentary!) and TDEE gives you an average for both exercise and activity.
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When I do calculations outside of MFP I get calorie maintenance of 1644 calories per day when I put sedentary and 1601 inside MFP.
I'm just curious what site actually gave bigger estimate that MFP?
That is infrequent.0 -
LadyDaenerys wrote: »I'm a 36 year old female looking to recomp and up my calories from my 1350 calls per day to something that will help me gain muscle and lose fat.
When I do calculations outside of MFP I get calorie maintenance of 1644 calories per day when I put sedentary and 1601 inside MFP.
I work a desk job but I exercise 30 to 60 mins a day and try to get in 10,000 steps a day. I've been eating 1350 calories a day and I was maintaining there. i lost 85 lbs eating like this and now I'm stuck here and cant see any of the muscle I built.
Long story short, I wanted to know how to set this up in MFP. If I include my exercise in calculations outside of MFP which INCLUDES exercise it says I'm light active to active and I should be eating 1884 or 2024 calories respectively, but when I put lightly active or active in MFP its 1793 and 2049 calories which DOESN'T include exercise.
Should I put in the 1884 or the 1793? or the 2024 or the 2049???
If MFP only counts lifestyle how should I track what I'm eating? this is kind of confusing tbh lol
my fit bit adds exercise to MFP and I add my workouts as well but I have it set up so they counter each other so I don't double dip
Curious if you are adding workouts to MFP that have the exact same calorie burn?
Sounds like you are confirming the start time/duration at least.
For the syncing issues with Fitbit - I'd suggest you are increasing your potential for issues, because when you log a workout on MFP, it forces a sync and logging on Fitbit (which could be exact same calorie burn), which then causes another sync back to MFP.
Is the MFP Exercise Diary really that nice compared to Fitbit to want to use it here?
Or is this mainly about getting wall posts for friends list?1 -
LadyDaenerys wrote: »I'm a 36 year old female looking to recomp and up my calories from my 1350 calls per day to something that will help me gain muscle and lose fat.
When I do calculations outside of MFP I get calorie maintenance of 1644 calories per day when I put sedentary and 1601 inside MFP.
I work a desk job but I exercise 30 to 60 mins a day and try to get in 10,000 steps a day. I've been eating 1350 calories a day and I was maintaining there. i lost 85 lbs eating like this and now I'm stuck here and cant see any of the muscle I built.
Long story short, I wanted to know how to set this up in MFP. If I include my exercise in calculations outside of MFP which INCLUDES exercise it says I'm light active to active and I should be eating 1884 or 2024 calories respectively, but when I put lightly active or active in MFP its 1793 and 2049 calories which DOESN'T include exercise.
Should I put in the 1884 or the 1793? or the 2024 or the 2049???
If MFP only counts lifestyle how should I track what I'm eating? this is kind of confusing tbh lol
my fit bit adds exercise to MFP and I add my workouts as well but I have it set up so they counter each other so I don't double dip
Curious if you are adding workouts to MFP that have the exact same calorie burn?
Sounds like you are confirming the start time/duration at least.
For the syncing issues with Fitbit - I'd suggest you are increasing your potential for issues, because when you log a workout on MFP, it forces a sync and logging on Fitbit (which could be exact same calorie burn), which then causes another sync back to MFP.
Is the MFP Exercise Diary really that nice compared to Fitbit to want to use it here?
Or is this mainly about getting wall posts for friends list?
I've just been using mfp for over 10 years through my 85 lbs weight loss and I'm used to it. I actually rarely use the social aspect. I use it for my tracking purposes to make sure that I'm staying within my calorie range. I grew up with a career in sales and metrics and knowing numbers and where you're at and goal setting and things like that so seeing the numbers seeing the green and the red and understanding deficits and surpluses seeing it in real time makes it easier for me to attain my goals. I'm hearing some people say I should put the 1600 calories in and try and eat up to 18 and log my workouts I hear other people say just put the 1800 calories and don't log my workouts at all just log my food I just don't know which one is best0 -
Well, if you have Fitbit syncing, it's sending a Total Daily burn over (TDEE) with timestamp.
TDEE of course contains the workout calories too.
So the math MFP does to create the Fitbit adjustment is accounting for the exercise calories, whether you logged a workout in MFP or not.
That adjustment is rarely going to equal the exercise calories as Fitbit says there were, because within that adjustment is also being more or less active than the MFP activity level you selected.
But it's all there.
The fact you should eat more when you do more, and of course eat less when you do less - is taken care of with that adjustment because you sync accounts.
You don't have to add exercise on MFP because it's already in the math, when the Fitbit accounts are synced.
Take a reasonable deficit for the amount to lose. Sounds like at maintenance though - so if Fitbit is doing reasonable calc's on calories burned (depends on steps and exercise done and amount of each) - you could eat the same.
You can also get an average of your daily burn if your exercise is pretty consistent - and just eat that much daily.
Some days will literally be eating more than maintenance, some under.
Called weekly avg TDEE method - you just have to memorize your number and eat to it. Or hard set MFP to it and unsync Fitbit.
Or allow for daily changes as Fitbit reports it.1 -
I just want to say that if someone has a “desk job”, it implies sitting at one’s desk most of the day, not getting 10,000 steps a day at the job. If you’re getting that many steps a day at work, then you’re not really at your desk much.2
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honkytonks85 wrote: »Found this and thought it was actually useful:
When you have to find out how many calories you burn in a day, you put your info in a calculator and it undoubtedly asks for your activity level. So what do you choose? Here are the meaning of the activity levels:
Sedentary
If you’re sedentary, your daily activities include:
Activities of daily living only, such as shopping, cleaning, watering plants, taking out the trash, walking the dog, mowing the lawn and gardening.
No moderate of vigorous activities.
Unless you do at least 30 minutes per day of intentional exercise, you are considered sedentary.
Spending most of the day sitting (e.g. bank teller, desk job)
The majority of people will be considered sedentary.
Lightly Active
If you’re lightly active, your daily activities include:
Activities of daily living only, such as shopping, cleaning, watering plants, taking out the trash, walking the dog, mowing the lawn and gardening.
Daily exercise that is equal to walking for 30 minutes at 4mph. For an adult of average weight, this amount of exercise will burn about 130-160 additional calories.
More intense exercise can be performed for less time to achieve the same goal. For example, 15-20 minutes of vigorous activity, such as aerobics, skiing or jogging on a daily basis would put you in this category.
Spending a good part of the day on your feet (e.g. teacher, salesman)
Active
If you’re active, your daily activities include:
Activities of daily living only, such as shopping, cleaning, watering plants, taking out the trash, walking the dog, mowing the lawn and gardening.
Daily exercise that is equal to walking for 1 hour and 45 minutes at 4mph. For an adult of average weight, this amount of exercise will burn about 470-580 additional calories.
More intense exercise can be performed for less time. For example, jogging for 50 minutes per day.
Spending a good part of the day doing some physical activity (e.g. waitress, mailman)
Very Active
If you’re very active, your daily activities include:
Activities of daily living only, such as shopping, cleaning, watering plants, taking out the trash, walking the dog, mowing the lawn and gardening.
Daily exercise that is equal to walking for 4 hours and 15 minutes at 4mph. For an adult of average weight, this amount of exercise will burn about 1,150-1400 additional calories.
More intense exercise can be performed for less time. For example, jogging for 2 hours minutes per day.
Spending most of the day doing heavy physical activity (e.g. bike messenger, carpenter)
SOURCE: http://antranik.org/proper-activity-level-for-calorie-intake/
Great article!!!0 -
ravi_tiwari_786 wrote: »honkytonks85 wrote: »Found this and thought it was actually useful:
When you have to find out how many calories you burn in a day, you put your info in a calculator and it undoubtedly asks for your activity level. So what do you choose? Here are the meaning of the activity levels:
Sedentary
If you’re sedentary, your daily activities include:
Activities of daily living only, such as shopping, cleaning, watering plants, taking out the trash, walking the dog, mowing the lawn and gardening.
No moderate of vigorous activities.
Unless you do at least 30 minutes per day of intentional exercise, you are considered sedentary.
Spending most of the day sitting (e.g. bank teller, desk job)
The majority of people will be considered sedentary.
Lightly Active
If you’re lightly active, your daily activities include:
Activities of daily living only, such as shopping, cleaning, watering plants, taking out the trash, walking the dog, mowing the lawn and gardening.
Daily exercise that is equal to walking for 30 minutes at 4mph. For an adult of average weight, this amount of exercise will burn about 130-160 additional calories.
More intense exercise can be performed for less time to achieve the same goal. For example, 15-20 minutes of vigorous activity, such as aerobics, skiing or jogging on a daily basis would put you in this category.
Spending a good part of the day on your feet (e.g. teacher, salesman)
Active
If you’re active, your daily activities include:
Activities of daily living only, such as shopping, cleaning, watering plants, taking out the trash, walking the dog, mowing the lawn and gardening.
Daily exercise that is equal to walking for 1 hour and 45 minutes at 4mph. For an adult of average weight, this amount of exercise will burn about 470-580 additional calories.
More intense exercise can be performed for less time. For example, jogging for 50 minutes per day.
Spending a good part of the day doing some physical activity (e.g. waitress, mailman)
Very Active
If you’re very active, your daily activities include:
Activities of daily living only, such as shopping, cleaning, watering plants, taking out the trash, walking the dog, mowing the lawn and gardening.
Daily exercise that is equal to walking for 4 hours and 15 minutes at 4mph. For an adult of average weight, this amount of exercise will burn about 1,150-1400 additional calories.
More intense exercise can be performed for less time. For example, jogging for 2 hours minutes per day.
Spending most of the day doing heavy physical activity (e.g. bike messenger, carpenter)
SOURCE: http://antranik.org/proper-activity-level-for-calorie-intake/
Great article!!!
Nice better descriptions than many sites will use.
Sadly it has no application at all for the activities levels used by MFP. Which have no exercise accounted for in them at all.
And outside of MFP for the sites that still use that 5 level TDEE formula - it's from the Harris study in 1919 that also produced a BMR formula.
Both had been found could be improved and have been multiple times.
For instance, Sedentary on MFP is a BMR multiplier of 1.25, and people with activity trackers usually discover doing about half the things listed in that description start pushing them into Lightly-Active.
The Sedentary in that Harris formula is actually 1.2 x BMR, even lower, and should rightfully exclude a bunch of those daily items.
So if you aren't going to use MFP as designed and some other site those can be some good items to ponder for what level are you.
If using MFP they don't apply.2
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