Should I change my activity level?

I didn't get any responses when I posted this under "Calorie Count" so I'm hoping that more people will see it here.  Here's the dilimna.  I'm hoping that someone on this forum can help me.

Since I've been on this journey approximately 11 1/2 months ago, I've kept my activity level at sedentary and logged my exercise.  Now I'm wonder if I should change it.  CC now says that I burn an average of only 1550 calories per day.  Doesn't that seem a little low to anyone?  That means I'd have to limit myself to 1000 calories a day on non-exercise days to stay on track and obviously that's not good.  My problem is that I have a desk job so I'm sedentary at work, but I do pretty vigorous exercise at night.  Three days a week I do circuit training for 1 1/2 hours and three days a week I run somewhere between 30 minutes to 1 hour.  That sounds like at least moderate activity to me, but the problem is that I'm sedentary during the day and there's no choice in the activity levels that will accomodate this.  So my question is, would it be better to stay at sedentary due to my job or change to moderate due to my exercise?  I'm told that regular exercise makes you burn more calories even when not exercising, so 1550/day seems awfully low to me.  Any suggestions?

You'd be classed as at least 'moderate' if not 'very active'.  The fact that you're sedentary during the day is irrelevant.  You're averaging what looks like more than an hour of vigorous exercise and that means you'll burn more energy when you're sat still than someone who does nothing at all.  If you're under 21, add 300 cals to any answer that comes back.

If you want answers to these kinds of questions, try the Weight Loss or Fitness Boards...   there's more traffic than the Calorie Count board which is more for technical problems.

Thanks I'll try that.  I thought that 1550 calories on non-exercise days was awfully low since I do a lot of exercise.  I guess I'll move it to moderate and not log my exercise and see what happens.  If thay results in weight loss, I'll go to very active and see if I'm still losing or just maintaining.  I guess this is the time to experiment now that I'm down to my last 20 pounds.

You didnt add anything about how many pounds you've lost during what your doing now. My suggestion is to take the stairs alot during the day walk during your lunch break and when your at the desk always keep your legs moving or buy a small foot paddle that looks like if your riding a bike. you are def. not sedentary change to active.

If you are working out six days a week for an hour or more, at the least you are "high moderate" or VERY active....

Original Post by mruiznurse21:

You didnt add anything about how many pounds you've lost during what your doing now. My suggestion is to take the stairs alot during the day walk during your lunch break and when your at the desk always keep your legs moving or buy a small foot paddle that looks like if your riding a bike. you are def. not sedentary change to active.

I started out at 200 pounds in June of last year.   I have lost between 46-48 pounds.  Lately I'm fluctuating bewteen 152 and 154 right.  I seem to spend some time fluctuating when I'm close to another 10 pounds.  I did it when I was appoaching 180, 170, and 160 so I think it's part of my pattern.  At some point I expect to drop down to 150 and beyond.  I started out walking and I worked my way up to running by following the Couch to 5K program using the treadmill.  I recently started the program again running outside since I learned that there is a huge difference between running on the treadmill and running on the ground.  Of course that's not straight running yet, so I do at least a half hour on the treadmill later.  This is MOn, Wed, and Fri.  I generally take off on Saturday.  On gym days (Sun, Tues, and Thurs), I do 25 mins on the treadmill, do the weight machines for 40 minutes and finish with 25 mins on the stationary bike.

In my estimation Wes is right - it sounds like your average activity level is high enough that you should be using one of the higher activity levels.

Hmmm, I'm wondering if I can piggyback onto this one...

CC's recent changes have also gottem me flummoxed as well.  I'm currently 148 and trying to get down to 130 (started my journey years ago at 220).

I'm an elementary school music teacher in an overcrowded school...which translates into me being on feet for just about the whole day...every day.

I'm also a competitive tennis player and I'm the middle of our league season.  I mostly play singles, so at night I'm either playing a match (90 minutes of singles), at practice (2 hours at a time), or cross training (60-90 minutes of working out).  I take one rest day a week.

I used to have my activity level at 'light', but then I would log my workouts.  After the changes, my daily calorie allotment dropped to 1850, which made me want to cry and laugh at the same time.  Let me tell you, sometimes, the day after matches, I'm so hungry I eat pretty much every single morsel I pack for myself! 

After reading this, I went in and changed it to moderate, which bumped me up to 2100.  Question is:  do I still log my workouts on top of this?

Previously I was eating about 1700-2000 a day, but I was losing *very* slowly.  Which is fine, really...I'm not gaining and I'm pretty close to my goal.  As long as it is still going in the right direction!  But the hunger, especially since my season has started...is getting to me!  I'm ok if I don't lose weight during my tennis season (probably best not to anyway)...but my goodness...the HUNGER!!!  ;)

Well I'm the one who asked the original question, but if I were you I think I'd set my activity level to very active and leave it alone.  I think that you only log exercise if it's out of the ordinary.  I was logging all exercise while keepin my activity level to sedentary.  I did this because I have a desk job and I'm sitting at a computer all day.  I'm setting mine at very active and leaving it alone for a period of time and see what happens.  I'm going away for the long week-end so I'll probably wait a week or so to really test it, but if I don't lose weight at this level, I'll take it down to the next.  I certainly won't gain, so we'll see.  Good luck to you!

Very active brings me up to 2340, and that is usually where it would be after logging all my 'stuff' (anywhere between 2300 and 2500).  Hmmm, I think I may give this a 'whirl'...thanks for posting and sparking the idea!  :)  It would be nice to not have to log all my activity and just try for the same caloric goal every day.

Good luck to you as well! 

WOW, I was just about to ask the same question.  I hesitate being 'very active' because I am totally sedetary at work, but I work out a lot.  I always thought I was 'moderately active' but I think now I may switch to 'very active'.