What should I set my activity level as?

I am never quite sure which to select as none seem to directly match what I do.

I am very inactive at home/in general life because I work from home, sat at my computer for several hours per day and when I am not working I am usually sat watching TV etc, I live at home with my parents and have no kids so don't have tons of housework to do each day or any thing like that.

However I then work out 6 days a week, an hours cardio and then another hour on toning or weights.

Any advice? Thanks :)

I'm in the same boat. Inactive at home unless its a big cleaning day but active while exercising.

I go back and forth to setting it at lightly active to moderately active because I still can't get into a losing groove.

If you feel it would be more accurate, you can try setting yourself at sedentary, and logging your exercise (or other high calorie burns) each day - some people prefer that method.

Original Post by amethystgirl:

If you feel it would be more accurate, you can try setting yourself at sedentary, and logging your exercise (or other high calorie burns) each day - some people prefer that method.

That's what I would do in a case like that.

You seem to be sitting for most of the day, with your only real activity being your workouts. I would set it sedentary and track exercise, or set it to lightly active and not track.

I'd call it moderately active since you're exercising intensely for an hour six days a week.  Lightly active is either lots of informal exercise (chasing after young children, having a job that requires a lot of standing like bartending, that sort of thing) or half an hour of formal exercise three or four days a week.

The problem with the sedentary + exercise method is that it will underestimate your burn while inactive.  I guess that trades off with the fact that most people tend to overestimate their burn while exercising, though.

I always set my level at sedentary as that way it shows the minimum number of calories possible and then I add specific exercise to it.  That way in the worst case scenario I am under estimating my burn which is only a good thing.  Rather under estimate the burn so you actually burn more than you think than over estimating and wonder why you are not loosing :)

If I set mine to sedentary, I can only eat 1200, the minimum! I have not been able to stick to that at all! Which is probably why I can't seem to lose that last 15 lbs.

^ Sounds like we are in a similar boat. I am also struggling with that last 15lbs or so, I have all but stalled the last 3 or 4 months and nothing I do seems to get things moving again.

If I set to sedentary I am given 1200 a day to eat, which I can do as I did it for a long time, but it's not been working for me -- I see no difference if I eat 1200 or 1500 so I may as well enjoy 300 calories more per day.

I am at a bit of  a loss.

Thanks for all the advice though all :)