Sedentary, Light, or Moderately Active?

I have a general question about the qualifications of the activity levels!

I work in an office and spend the majority of my day sitting, and at home I am normally pretty sedentary, except that I go to the gym about 4 times a week and participate in group exercise classes as well as strength training and extra cardio.

I really only satisfy the exercise qualification for Moderate Activity (you exercise several times a week and push yourself pretty hard) and I would love to know if others are in a similar situation, and how you selected your activity level!

example:
Moderate Activity

• At work - you are very active much of the day
• At home - you rarely sit and do heavy housework or gardening
• Exercise - you exercise several times a week and push yourself pretty hard

Any input would be great! Thanks!

I would say your average is currently 'light'... because your job and home-life are not 'very active' or 'heavy housework'.  If you were to up your activity on the days when you didn't go to the gym... say 10,000 steps on a pedometer... then you'd warrant 'moderate'.

If in doubt go for the higher classification.  It's better to start with too high an allowance that you trim down than to start with too low an allowance that you have to add to

I agree, light is probably most appropriate based on your "average" weekly activity.  Another option is to choose sedentary and follow those calorie guidelines for the days when you're NOT exercising....then follow moderate for your exercising days.  It makes it a little more complicated but it ensures you get more calories on the days you work out so you don't get fatigued.

I was following Sedentary before, because when I first joined CC I wasn't being as active as I am now, and I've just made the switch to Light, and I hope that will average it out.

The weird thing is I probably eat more on the Sedentary days because I'm one of those people who has a small snack before and after working out, but exercise seems to curb my appetite. I need to work on eating like that on my Sedentary days too! Or just have less Sedentary days altogether haha :)

Thanks so much for your advice ladies!

I had the same dilemma when I was selecting my Activity level. Like you, I mostly sit all day at work, not very active at home but work out 5 times a week and try to push myself pretty hard when working out.

I decided to go with "light" and as my work out gets a little bit more intense and works gets a little bit more hectic I will change to Moderate"

Just my 2 Cents...

That’s a great question to ask. This same dilemma had me confused for awhile also. I work out every day for 40-50 minutes doing intense workouts and then after that I’m mostly in front of a computer the rest of the day. I had selected sedentary at first to figure out my calorie intake/burn but it didn’t feel right as I do exercise regularly.

Recently, I changed my activity level to light (as I’m also spending less time in front of the computer and more time playing on the Wii). Hopefully, this will be the correct information I need to start losing the weight again.

I'm at the desk or commuting 10 hours a day.  This is in my view, sedentary.  I'm at 200 pounds now, so I only get 2,140 burn awarded for sedentary.  However, I average about 700-750 calories a day on the treadmill 5 days a week.  Plus, I have a 90 minute total commuting time, and earn some activity points for that.  So I add 650 calories a day for the treadmill (have to subtract 90 for what I would have burned sitting on the sofa) and maybe 100 a day for the commute, so I figure about 2,900 calories a day Mon-Fri, and maybe 2,300 calories a day burn on Sat or Sun, unless it's spring summer or fall, then I can add in some golfing calories burned.  I target about 1,500 to 2,000 intake calories a day, and have dropped 64 pounds since June 10, from 264 to 200.0 this morning.

My question is if you put in light activity do you get to log in the exercise as well? 

I was stumped too and ended up choosing Light. I sit all day watching TV screens all day and work out an hour and 15 mins averaging 6 days a week at night. So, Light seemed the most appropriate. 

Sfredbull:

Yes you do. The different options are basically for CC to "guestimate" how many calories you burn during the day however, if you know the exact activity that you performed that would help you towards your burning count (Gym, walking, etc..) you should add it as well.

Hope that makes sense!

thanks ikhonlord.

i did set it to light then added my run, it seems like it added an aditional 200 calories to the burn.

idk i think i'll just keep it at sedentary and add all my runs.

i manually upped the calories eat meter though..

Hi everyone!

I was wondering the exact same thing about myself. Any opinions?

I am sedentary most of the time (in lecture halls, or at home at a computer), but I walk at least 4 times a day for 30 minutes (a total of 2 hours) to and from the campus. I power walk. But the rest of the day I am still as a brick, unfortunately. Then before bedtime, I do 20 min of sit-ups/push-ups/twists/etc.

I always found that I am somewhere in between light and moderate. But choose light just to be safe.

Anyone know what that would fall into? Thanks!

it will be best for you to put your account at sedentary and log any extra walking ir exercise you do in the activity log

If you put in 'light' or 'moderate' and on top of that you also add your activities, then your burned cc will be higher than it actually is.

What i do is this: I put in sedentary' (which with office job & commuting my day really is) and then I add all my activities on the side. 

It gives a more precise estimate if you do it like that.

And this system has been working for me: since April '09 I have lost 16 lbs.

I have a similar dilemma! I'm sedentary but burn 300 calories every day on the elliptical machine. If I consume 1500 calories and burn 300, then my intake is really only 1200. And if I burn 1600 naturally every day, just sitting around....will I lose a pound every week? Even though I'm sitting around when I'm not on the machine?

hm