MyFitnessPal - How active am I?

talkto

I'm trying to calculate my daily calorie requirement using a calculator that's asking me how active I am. The options are

Not very active
Lightly active
Active
Very active

I don't know which one to select.

I work out for 45 mins 3 days per week. (Fierce 5.)

I swim about 250m five days per week.

I am following a couch to 10k training plan two days per week.

The rest of my time I'm not active besides general walking around.

Excuse my ignorance but which activity level should I be choosing? The descriptions offered by the app are supremely unhelpful.

_Tombstone_

Not very active so...you can change it to lightly active later in settings if you want, it doesn't alter the allowed calories that much either way.

talkto

_Tombstone_ wrote: »

Not very active so...you can change it to lightly active later in settings if you want, it doesn't alter the allowed calories that much either way.

I'd be in the same category as someone who sits doing nothing all day every day?

Blacktie.

talkto wrote:

I'd be in the same category as someone who sits doing nothing all day every day?

No I'd out this down as somewhere between lightly active and active. Honestly though it doesn't really matter. It's only for the calculation of your tdee which will not be entirely accurate anyway. Get the value they give you. Use it for a few weeks and adjust it based on weight lost/gained. Doing this you should have a fairly decent idea of your actual tdee in about a month.

talkto

Okay. Thanks! Will do.

As it happens, the calorie amount it's giving me is the same for both Not Very Active and Lightly Active anyway!

Macy0161

Id actually try and find the calorie calculator on here. In android anyway, you can overwrite the figure my fitness pal gives you.

My experience of it was giving a ridiculously low target calories that I just couldn't stick to (like a thousand less than the 500 calorie deficit I worked out from the sticky).

It's great for tracking food, and gives comparable calorie burnt figures compared to my Garmin with heart rate monitor in my experience, but I think it gives unrealistic targets.

I get widely varying burn figures for swimming though. My Garmin swim gives a lot less than anywhere else. Just for information/ reference.

talkto

Macy0161 wrote: »

Id actually try and find the calorie calculator on here. In android anyway, you can overwrite the figure my fitness pal gives you.

My experience of it was giving a ridiculously low target calories that I just couldn't stick to (like a thousand less than the 500 calorie deficit I worked out from the sticky).

It's great for tracking food, and gives comparable calorie burnt figures compared to my Garmin with heart rate monitor in my experience, but I think it gives unrealistic targets.

I get widely varying burn figures for swimming though. My Garmin swim gives a lot less than anywhere else. Just for information/ reference.

Yeah, calorie calculators do seem to vary a lot. I just take them as a general guideline because, well, there's not much else you can do.

Thanks for the tips!

Mellor

Macy0161 wrote: »

Id actually try and find the calorie calculator on here. In android anyway, you can overwrite the figure my fitness pal gives you.

My experience of it was giving a ridiculously low target calories that I just couldn't stick to (like a thousand less than the 500 calorie deficit I worked out from the sticky).

The stick on here is wrong has an error in it, a pretty big one too. It double counts exercise. It's actually the same formula that MFP uses, harris benedict equation.

The reason MFP gives low values is because it's a target not a TDEE. If you choose a loss of 2lbs a week, you'll get a very low value because it equals a 1000cals deficit. If you select maintenance it gives you your TDEE.

Macy0161

Mellor wrote:

The stick on here is wrong has an error in it, a pretty big one too. It double counts exercise. It's actually the same formula that MFP uses, harris benedict equation.

The reason MFP gives low values is because it's a target not a TDEE. If you choose a loss of 2lbs a week, you'll get a very low value because it equals a 1000cals deficit. If you select maintenance it gives you your TDEE.

It could've improved since, as I'm going back a few years. I didn't put exercise in either - preferred to try and earn at least 500. So 500 from diet, 500 from exercise, rather than include it in the upfront calculation.

Mellor

Macy0161 wrote: »

It could've improved since, as I'm going back a few years. I didn't put exercise in either - preferred to try and earn at least 500. So 500 from diet, 500 from exercise, rather than include it in the upfront calculation.

It hasn't changed afaik. I didn't mention exercise in relation to MFP. That's the error in the stick, separate issue.

I'm talking about the goals in your MFP profile.
When filling out the profile, if you write goal weightloss 2lbs per week, a huge deficit is built in the the MFP target. a lot of people don't realise that and complain calories are too low. They are only as low as the deficit you ask for,

BrokenArrows

talkto wrote: »

I'm trying to calculate my daily calorie requirement using a calculator that's asking me how active I am. The options are

Not very active
Lightly active
Active
Very active

I don't know which one to select.

I work out for 45 mins 3 days per week. (Fierce 5.)

I swim about 250m five days per week.

I am following a couch to 10k training plan two days per week.

The rest of my time I'm not active besides general walking around.

Excuse my ignorance but which activity level should I be choosing? The descriptions offered by the app are supremely unhelpful.

Not sure what people are saying "not active" or "light active" for. You're working out a lot every week. Definately "Active" or higher.

_Tombstone_

BrokenArrows wrote: »

Not sure what people are saying "not active" or "light active" for. You're working out a lot every week. Definately "Active" or higher.

Bit of exercise doesn't mean you're active. Something like farming all day, kids all evening is active.

Half an hour in a pool after a few weights, before 6 hours in front of TV is the norm. Not active to me but it changes little in the app so....flipit.

talkto

Would it be accurate to say that, while calorie calculators can give you a general ballpark figure of what your specific calorie requirements are, no single calorie calculator can really be trusted, because it's not taking into account how much muscle you have, how much body fat you have, and your own individual dna? i.e. everyone is different, so no single calorie calculator can possibly fit all, or even most.

Or... is there any specific calorie calculator that is widely considered to be particularly accurate no matter who you are?

Alf Veedersane

talkto wrote: »

Would it be accurate to say that, while calorie calculators can give you a general ballpark figure of what your specific calorie requirements are, no single calorie calculator can really be trusted, because it's not taking into account how much muscle you have, how much body fat you have, and your own individual dna? i.e. everyone is different, so no single calorie calculator can possibly fit all, or even most.

Or... is there any specific calorie calculator that is widely considered to be particularly accurate no matter who you are?

There are several different calculators based on different formula and they're usually based on the BMR but that can vary.

They're basically a tool to get you in the ball park of your TDEE and you base what your calorie target is off that but you need to tweak as per observation.

If you've gone three weeks at a deficit of 500 kcal per day and you're only a pound down (assuming your tracking is accurate) then your TDEE was lower than the calculator said so you need to eat less to get that deficit.

Tl;dr it's a tool to give you a starting point but after that you tweak based on results.

Blacktie.

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

There are several different calculators based on different formula and they're usually based on the BMR but that can vary.

They're basically a tool to get you in the ball park of your TDEE and you base what your calorie target is off that but you need to tweak as per observation.

If you've gone three weeks at a deficit of 500 kcal per day and you're only a pound down (assuming your tracking is accurate) then your TDEE was lower than the calculator said so you need to eat less to get that deficit.

Tl;dr it's a tool to give you a starting point but after that you tweak based on results.

Especially considering the fact that you're not going to be accurate tracking your calories. There'll be discrepancies between what you eat and what you count but once you're consistently wrong your adjustments on your TDEE will take this into consideration.

Carlos Orange

talkto wrote: »

I'd be in the same category as someone who sits doing nothing all day every day?

Based on skimming 2 answers from MyFitnessPal agents I think it depends mostly on your job and what you do day to day. Exercise on top should be logged separately.


https://myfitnesspal.desk.com/customer/portal/questions/16237647-how-do-i-know-if-i-m-active-sedentary-etc-

https://myfitnesspal.desk.com/customer/portal/questions/14403693-how-does-mfp-define-the-activity-levels-

talkto

psinno wrote: »

Based on skimming 2 answers from MyFitnessPal agents I think it depends mostly on your job and what you do day to day. Exercise on top should be logged separately.


https://myfitnesspal.desk.com/customer/portal/questions/16237647-how-do-i-know-if-i-m-active-sedentary-etc-

https://myfitnesspal.desk.com/customer/portal/questions/14403693-how-does-mfp-define-the-activity-levels-

Thanks!

I found this interesting:

Question

OK, here's the thing. I have an office job and sit at a desk all day, but I work out every single day and am way more active than most people based on that. I would consider myself active because of my consistent work outs, but am I supposed to choose "sedentary" on this website? I just feel like that's wrong. It says I would eat far too little calories and I know I would starve to death if I could only eat 1200 calories since I have a good amount of muscle. Help! I don't know what to choose.

Response

Hello,

When you join the program, we ask you for some basic information, such as your age, height, weight, gender and how much weight you’d like to lose/gain per week. There we also ask you for your activity level, such as sedentary, lightly active, active and very active. When you elect your activity level, we will then provide you with the typical calories you would have burned through the course of the day and compare that with the rest of your profile information to set your daily goals.

Your choice of activity level should include the average calories you would burn for normal daily activities, such as standing, breathing, sleeping, eating, etc. along with calories you would burn for your normal daily routines, such as general house work and your typical work routine.

If you do activity outside of your normal work routine, such as, go for a jog or to the gym a couple times during the week, this should not be considered as part of your activity level, but should then be recorded separately. If you don’t mow the lawn every day or do extensive house work, like deep cleaning, when you do perform those activities, you can also record those in your diary under the cardiovascular section for additional calories.

When you create your profile, we also ask you for how much exercise you think you will perform during the week, as well as your goal weight. Both of these are just for an incentive and are not part of your initial goals. However, once you do actually perform that exercise, we then ask you to record it in the cardiovascular section, and you will then receive additional credit for those extra exercise. Please note anything recorded in the Strength training category does not provide additional calories, please reference: https://myfitnesspal.desk.com/customer/portal/articles/11170-why-don-t-you-calculate-calories-burned-for-strength-training-

If you would like a precise account for your daily activity level, you may want to consider integrating with one of our partner apps. For further details please see: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/apps

If you would like to change your activity level or any of your profile information, you can do so online at www.MyFitnessPal.com, and then go to the main “Settings” tab and then “Update Diet Fitness Profile” (http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/change_goals_guided). Please make sure to save the changes at the bottom, and note that your daily goals may change after the update.

We hope this helps, but if you have any additional problems or questions, please let us know. In the meantime, thank you so much for using the program. We wish you all the success in reaching and maintaining all of your health and fitness goals.

Regards,
Maximiliano
MyFitnessPal Staff