Activity Level help?

Dogwalker1989
Dogwalker1989 Posts: 15 Member
edited December 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
I work as a dog walker. Monday - Friday on average I walk 5-9 Miles a day. Saturday and Sunday I walk with my dog.

I'm really not sure what activity setting to use.

Lightly Active or Active?

I'm a couple of pounds above a healthy weight, but am quite fit. I've been doing this job for 9 months now and my body is used to walking these distances daily.

On my previous account I set my setting as sedentary and was eating back the calories my pedometer (Omron Walking style 3) said I'd burnt. But nearly 3 months have passed and I'm still the same weight, so it would be easier for me if my activity setting covered it all.

What would other people do in my situation?

Spud

Replies

  • iceqieen
    iceqieen Posts: 862 Member
    its an active job then. is there a big difference between the calories added by selecting that distance and what your pedometer says? and is it possible the pedometer is overestimating calories burned?
  • Sarasari
    Sarasari Posts: 139 Member
    Think about what else you do during the day and how often you are sitting down. When I started I put down lightly active. I figured I work in a kitchen,I am on my feet,but not as busy as a waiter or someone like that. I workout between 45 min- 2 hours a day.Then I got smart and realeased after work,I make my kids a snack,do chores,make our dinner,workout,make lunches for the morning,do chores. Not really sitting down until 9/10 at night. I changed my activity level to active,which meant I was allowed more calories a day,losing an additional 3 # immediently,pretty steady since doing that.

    Hope that helps. Good luck to you!
  • shadowkitty22
    shadowkitty22 Posts: 495 Member
    If I walked that many miles in a day I would proclaim myself as active.
  • Sarasari
    Sarasari Posts: 139 Member
    You got me thinking. I just changed mine to very active. I'll see what happens. If adding calories for activity helps me lose,I will keep it. If I gain I know I don't have the right level. Maybe you could play with your level, as well?
  • Dogwalker1989
    Dogwalker1989 Posts: 15 Member
    Then I'm Active!

    Or maybe very active if when I start going back to the gym I don't log each exercise individually.

    When I had it as sedentary MFP gave me 1200cals to eat and then I'd eat back 300-500cals a day from my pedometer.

    But if I set it as active MFP still says I should eat 1200cals - so I could be eating 300-500 less cals a day - MFP says this way I'll lose 1.5lbs a weeks (where as previously it only said 1 lb)

    If I when I start back at the gym I put very active (and then never log my gym workthouts) it doesn't make that much difference either 1330cals net and I'd never have to log another exercise again.
  • craptor
    craptor Posts: 1 Member
    Personally, I feel MFP sets the calorie goals too low. I've used just about every BMR/caloric needs calculator I could find through googling, and they all give a calorie goal for weightloss that is higher than 1200, and it's common knowledge that 1200 is really the bare minimum that a female should be eating and if you're active, you should definitely be consuming more calories. I tried changing my activity level in MFP to lightly active and active to see what it would give me, and the daily calorie goals were still fairly low so I just put in my own goal of 1350 and will see if that helps any. I'm in the same boat as you. I'm at a healthy weight of 127 right now and at 1200 calories per day, I was not losing anything. I exercise about 3-5 times a week, 30-60 minutes - walk/jog 3 miles per session and a couple p90x workouts. The past few weeks my weight has been bouncing around from 126-128. I'm thinking I'm not eating enough and as I become more active (only just started a regular exercise routing about a month or so ago), it's not enough fuel to keep my metabolism up. Hopefully this boost in calories will do the trick.

    I also have no clue as to what my activity level should be.. outside of my workouts, I'm not very active so I'm not sure!
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