Confused.....Confused.....Confused.....

Help me with my calories....PLEASE!!  I am 30, 5'8" and 189 pounds.  If I set myself at Sedentary, it tells me to eat 1325 calories.  I workout 5x a week and if I add that in (700 calories burned) I'm at 2025.  I work in a office at a desk but am up and down and do the usual chores in the evening.  Do I add in all those activities and THEN deduct my 750 calories to lose 1 1/2 pounds week?

I figured I'd set myself at Moderate and it tells me to eat 1750 calories a day.

HELP!

Jenn

I would go backwards if i was you.  Take every minute of everyday and log every activity.  Then get a total...subtract 5-700 deficit and that is the amount of calories I would eat.

good luck

I'd go on to light activity if I were you.  That covers more of a sit down job, but still moving around. I'm on my feet all day at work and log myself on light activity.  I'm not very active when I get home, and then I just log any work outs I do.  On a moderate level you would be on your feet all day and strenous work all day or on an evening. 

I'd say do one category for the month of October, then do another category in November and see what works best for you.

The deal is to eat less calories than you use, by 500 cals a day. I mark myself as sedentary, and do not track how much I walk, most days I put that I walked 20 minutes at 2 miles per hour on level ground. But really, I walk for closer to 60 minutes and have a nice big hill to walk....

Technically, your TOTAL calories consumed should be 500-700 lower than your TOTAL caloreis burned.

Calories burned are the standard calories your body needs to function each day and all the activities you do.  If you set your activity level to sedentary, that takes into account walking around at work, walking around the house, cooking a meal, and so on.

I'd suggest set your level to sedentary and then log all the activities you do for the purpose of exercise that are out of the norm for your daily routine such as biking, jogging, dancing, weight lifting,...

I thought Sedentary was doing NOTHING?  Sitting around all day not light activity??

Hi princess - to me sedentary means someone sitting in a rocking chair - but that is not what it means.

edited to add: I went wandering the 'net to find a definition for sedentary as regards to health. I could not find anything, but found a definition for "appropriate physical activity", which in my opinion would be one step above sedentary:

"exercise which involves large muscle groups in dynamic movement for periods of 20 minutes or longer, three or more days per week, and which is performed at an intensity of 60 percent or greater of an individual's cardiorespiratory capacity."

from: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/0000 0900.htm

So, IMO - if you are not doing the above paragraph, you are sedentary. Just my opinion, if someone wants to correct me, feel free.