Daily Activity Setting?

kmorris246 · February 2012

I'm just curious as to how people determine their daily activity setting here on MFP? I've been trying to decide whether to change mine from Lightly Active to Sedentary. I do have a desk job, but I only work 3 days/week. The remaining 4 days/week, I am up and about doing daily household chores- cleaning, laundry, picking up, running after kids, etc.

I reached my goal weight here on MFP, but in the past month or so, I'm up 4 lbs? I also recently purchased a new HRM, which has me reaching a MUCH higher calorie burn than my previous HRM. I'm worried that maybe I'm consuming too many calories? My new HRM is a Polar FT4 with a chest strap- so I'm assuming this has to be reflecting correct burns, right? I have all my info set-up in the HRM correctly.

In the past, I've been a huge believer in eating back my exercise cals. But, I'm soooo confused about this weight gain? I know I shouldn't pay much attention to the scale, BUT I can tell that my mid-section is not quite as slender as it was this time a month ago.

Anyone have any helpful advice?

Thanks so much!

bms34b · February 2012

bump! curious to see answers to this!

Fitness_4_Jess · February 2012

If I were in your situation with the activity level I would leave it at Sedentary. I say that becaue I am assumming the chasing after the kids and cleaning activities are daily things. If they are, they are "every day" things. You were doing these things when you started to set out on your weight loss journey so why change the level? Also, by increasing your activity level you will be increasing your BMR aka more calories a day where as you are aleady worried about eating too many.

As for the weight gain, it could be muscle. I went on a fitness kick last year and got discouraged by weight gain. All I seemed to do was gain. At the time I was weighing and measuring myself. A time after my "kick" died I found a formula for finding body fat % and lean muscle %. Ends up, I was gaining lean muscle mass and losing body fat. I never thought of that! Now I weigh every Monday and measure every last Monday of the month to try to prevent taht from happening again.

I recently purchased a Polar FT7 and understand what you mean by the number of cals burned given by th HRM being MUCH higher than MFP. What I do is eat back about half of my calories. I do this in case the cals burned really is a tad high.

kmorris246 · February 2012

I probably should be measuring myself every once in a while, but I don't usually. I wish I could say this could be from muscle gain, but in all honesty, I don't think it is? I'm hoping this is just water weight, and I keep waiting for it to disappear, but...........

I just went in and changed my settings to "sedentary" just to see what it changed my cal intake to. OMG- 1340 cals without exercise- I don't know if I can survive on that- LOL! Non-exercise days would be torture.

Fitness_4_Jess · February 2012

I know what you mean about the calories intake. My daily limit is 1430, but I find a way. Protein and fiber have become my new best friends though. I also don't eat a lot of bread or pasta. It was a conscious decision I made, it was just how I ended up eating. I find bread and pasta normally aren't that filling. With that said, I will say I do have a loaf of Arnold's Whole Wheat bread and a bag of brown rice in the kitchen. They are nice to have from time to time, but not all the time.

I am sure you can manage it. Keep it up!

kmorris246 · February 2012

Up 2 lbs this morning..... I don't know whats going on???? I am thinking I will change my activity setting to "sedentary" and see what happens. The only problem is that eating too little in the past also caused me to plateau and even gain some weight then as well?

We'll see what happens??

CarolynB38 · February 2012

If I were in your situation with the activity level I would leave it at Sedentary. I say that becaue I am assumming the chasing after the kids and cleaning activities are daily things. If they are, they are "every day" things. You were doing these things when you started to set out on your weight loss journey so why change the level? Also, by increasing your activity level you will be increasing your BMR aka more calories a day where as you are aleady worried about eating too many.

As for the weight gain, it could be muscle. I went on a fitness kick last year and got discouraged by weight gain. All I seemed to do was gain. At the time I was weighing and measuring myself. A time after my "kick" died I found a formula for finding body fat % and lean muscle %. Ends up, I was gaining lean muscle mass and losing body fat. I never thought of that! Now I weigh every Monday and measure every last Monday of the month to try to prevent taht from happening again.

I recently purchased a Polar FT7 and understand what you mean by the number of cals burned given by th HRM being MUCH higher than MFP. What I do is eat back about half of my calories. I do this in case the cals burned really is a tad high.

That is difficult because MFP recommends lightly active for Stay-at-home mums but sedentary for a desk job. Your activity level is supposed to be your everyday stuff that you do, which is why you don't log it as exercise and why SAHMs are lightly active. It may be worth a try reducing it to sedentary to see what happens and perhaps logging any long hard chores as exercise on your days at home (like scrubbing floors, heavy cleaning etc that makes you puff and sweat a little) or any running around playing football or whatever with the kids. Just be careful not to over-count those activities. Only count the ones that feel like you just did a workout. If you keep it as lightly active then definitely DO NOT count your chores/running around because that is counted in your lightly active setting.

That is a really tricky question! I hope you find a solution that works for you.

kmorris246 · February 2012

went ahead and changed my setting to "Sedentary." WAH!!!!!!!!!! I want my calories back :-( Oh well, gonna try this for about a week and see how it goes........... (super sad face)

graysmom2005 · February 2012

First of all, I hear you. I've been putting on mystery weight lately and it's infuriating. From the look of your pictures you look to lean to go that low in your calories. What goal are you set at? It should be no more than .5 a week. You look like a size 4 or 6? At most? I went over to the fattofit radio website and the calorie settings are MUCH different than MFP. 1300 calories would be totally not do-able for me on non-workout days either. I really think that seems too low! Has anything changed? TOM? More carbs than usual?

sarahgilmore · February 2012

Very few people are truly sedentary.

Lightly active at least.

Try this calculator http://www.health-calc.com/diet/energy-expenditure-advanced then subtract your daily deficit off that (500 cal/1lb etc)

kmorris246 · February 2012

thanks for the info ladies! I swear- even with my workout today and some additional exercise cals, I've been starving! But I cannot figure out how this weight is adding on? I haven't noticed any increase in my carbs? The only two differences in the past month have been the purchase of a new HRM, which has been giving me higher calorie burns (which I've been eating ;-) and I've been trying to up my protein. I've been trying to be over on my protein every day.

Its so infuriating to reach my goal, then all of a sudden gain 6 lbs out of nowhere? and the scale is not budging backwards at all....... it just keeps going up?

To answer graysmom- yep, I'm at a 0.5 lb loss/week and I am in 4s and 6s, but I won't be for long if this weight keeps up? Ugghh :-(

kmorris246 · February 2012

Anybody else have any answers, feedback, advice?

thanks :-)

MJ7910 · February 2012

i have the same situation and the same problem. desk job 4 days a week, 3 days at home doing childcare type stuff. i think i'll keep mine at sedentery and then add some of my exercise calories back. i really don't do that much except play with my daughther and i'm sure that' can't burn that much, right?

kmorris246 · February 2012

I just think about the time that I spend at home........... I'm usually non-stop on the go until the kids are in bed. I don't really sit down at all during the day, unless I'm at work? (or here on this site- lol).

I just noticed that my daily calorie intake (with no exercise) is a VERY small amount above my BMR? I'm not sure thats a good thing? I don't know- I'm going to try this for a week and see how it goes.

BUT, I'm going to eat EVERY LAST morsel of my exercise cals- LOL :-) I don't know how people get by with eating just 1200 cals/day??

MJ7910 · February 2012

I just think about the time that I spend at home........... I'm usually non-stop on the go until the kids are in bed. I don't really sit down at all during the day, unless I'm at work? (or here on this site- lol).

I just noticed that my daily calorie intake (with no exercise) is a VERY small amount above my BMR? I'm not sure thats a good thing? I don't know- I'm going to try this for a week and see how it goes.

BUT, I'm going to eat EVERY LAST morsel of my exercise cals- LOL :-) I don't know how people get by with eating just 1200 cals/day??

i could never do 1200... i did 1400 to start out with. a few days a week i'd do 1200... then i realized more calories was better and actually helped me lose faster. with 1200 i was slowing down my metabolism.

psuLemon · February 2012

I can tell you that I work behind a desk 5 days a week and I am still lightly active since I walk a lot. Also, considering you are really at your goal, you need to make sure you are eating enough. My bigger question is, what are you trying to achieve with your body? Lower body fat?? Also the weight gain can be contributed to a few things but it's all water right now. YOu would have to eat 24500 additional calories about what you burn in order to gain 1 lb of fat. It's probably water retention from exercise or changing your calories so much.

kmorris246 · February 2012

thanks for the additional input everyone! I'm really thinking maybe I should change my daily activity setting back after reading some add'l comments. I've eaten back almost all my exercise cals this evening, and I'm ravenous!

@psulemon- here's my goal........ well, I had actually achieved my goal prior to gaining some of this weight back. At this point, I'm just looking to slim my core area down some more and build some muscle.

shaycat · February 2012

You sound like me. Actually I started a post with the same title.
I am a SAHM and just changed mine to lightly active. I am also on maintain mode so I have lots of calories now.
I reached my goal and kept going down. I wasnt looking at net and kept losing weight. So I took a break and ate a bunch of cookies. 10lbs later I wanted my flat tummy back and was mad when the scale kept going up instead of down again.
I am now making sure I eat at least NET 1400- 1600 calories. I am losing weight still so I am going to slowly add 100 calories a week till I find what will keep me in place.

Good luck to you.

kmorris246 · February 2012

thanks for your post shaycat! You look great in your pic! I swear- staying healthy is never-ending battle, isn't it?

I still can't figure out what I'm going to do yet- LOL! I fear this week is going to be a bust anyways :-( Valentines day AND my birthday weekend is coming up in a few days- Oh boy!

psuLemon · February 2012

thanks for the additional input everyone! I'm really thinking maybe I should change my daily activity setting back after reading some add'l comments. I've eaten back almost all my exercise cals this evening, and I'm ravenous!

@psulemon- here's my goal........ well, I had actually achieved my goal prior to gaining some of this weight back. At this point, I'm just looking to slim my core area down some more and build some muscle.

If you want to gain some lean muscle mass and still lose body fat, you should probably be eating at maintenance and concentrating on strength training. The key is to provide your muscles as much nutrition as possible to spark growth. Generally, a good rule of thumb is start with maintain and then add a small surplus. Now the tricky part is actually discovering your maintenance calories based on your lifestyle and workout routine. Now, this will take some trial and error but if you know yoru body fat % we wil have a better starting point. If not, then we can take a few appproaches.

First, you would need to estimate your BMR. I would use the link above and confirm it with the link below and post both results. Once we get that, now you just have to tell me what your workout consist of and/or how many calories you burn during your work out. Once we get that, we can set calories for you to eat and monitor for a month (this will allow adequate time to adjust to the new levels). If during that period if you lose weight, we will increase calories by 200. If you maintain, then we maintain, if you gain (more than a pound or two) then we decrease. Unfortunately, unless you get your BMR professionally tested, there is some estimating and monitoring. So let me know and I will post my estimate so others can see/question.

http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr/

kmorris246 · February 2012

Thanks psulemon! I went out to this other site- Fat 2 Fit- and the information definitely differs. According to MFP, my BMR is 1273. According to Fat 2 Fit, my BMR is 1358. Sedentary on MFP allows for 1340 cals a day, while Fat 2 Fit allows for 1608. Lightly Active on MFP is 1510, while Fat 2 Fit is 1843.

I normally workout about 5x week. Tues, Thurs, and Sat are a mix of cardio and strength training. I usually do about 30 min of kickboxing and an add'l 25 min of strength training/weights. During these combo days, I normally burn between 500-530 cals according to my Polar FT4. On Wed and Sun, I usually do about 20 min of HIIT. On these days, I burn between 200-220 cals. I also mix running and the Insanity program into my workouts as well, depending on the weather and my mood :-)

Thanks again SOOO much for your help!

Daily Activity Setting?

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