Subjective activity levels

I am finding the activity levels on this site difficult to understand.

Light activity "you take long walks"

Moderate activity "you excercise several times a week and push yourself pretty hard"

Very active "you participate in sports or mountain biking daily"

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  This seems simple on the face of it - but not at all clear.  These descriptions are subjective and confusing. 

For example:  I walk every day for excercise 2-3.5 miles.  (long walks),

BUT - I always work up at about 75% max heart rate and usually walk 4 t0 4 1/2 miles per hour.  I really truck.  (moderate activity?)

I participate in no sports but between work and my excercise I walk about 60 miles per week and also do 1/2 hour of strength training every other day (you excercise several times a week and push yourself pretty hard)

Also - some days I dont walk every day.  Usually because I have had to skip my lunch break.  But on these days I come home late and can not get out again.  So I do two 15 minute sessions on my mini stepper or turn on the wii fit and jog in place for 1/2 hour.

I consider myself pretty active - but I am no sports girl.

What do you all think?

I've always considered 'light' as ... half an hour or so of gentle exercise more than three times a week.  Your walks probably take you nearer an hour of exercise and they're quite vigorous.  So I'd class you as moderate on the strength of that alone. 

If in doubt, always go over rather than under.  It's easier to trim back a calorie intake if you find you're not losing at a reasonable rate.  But if you underestimate your needs it can make things pretty miserable.  Go with 'the maximum you can get away with' rather than 'the minimum that's safe'... every time.

I don't have a solution for you, but wanted to say that I feel the same way - the descriptions of activity are very subjective, and I really don't know how to accurately gauge my activity level.

What I have been doing is keeping it on sedentary, then logging any exercise I do and increase my calorie intake accordingly.

Original Post by dawnprado:

I don't have a solution for you, but wanted to say that I feel the same way - the descriptions of activity are very subjective, and I really don't know how to accurately gauge my activity level.

What I have been doing is keeping it on sedentary, then logging any exercise I do and increase my calorie intake accordingly.

 I felt the same way, I exercise 5 mornings a week (about 1 hr to 1 1/4 hr )and then have a sedentary job.  A couple days a week I am active with coaching my kids also so this can be a gray area also.

I just set my activity level at sedentary and use my heart monitor to track my workouts and will plug in any other activities like long drives (for business trips) or coaching based on how hard I work at practice with the kids (don't use the monitor for this).  I always try to be brutally honest with myself on how hard I worked and always use caution when estimating as it can go either way.

I have never used the activity levels because of their vagueness.  With sedentary activity you get to eat 20% more than your BMR; in my case that's 320 calories per day.  But I have no idea what that means.  If it means staring at this monitor, eating and sleeping it's too high.  If it meant doing housework and chasing kids all day it might be about right; or even on the low side.  And if your activity varies from day to day, there's no clear guideline on how to flip activity level up and down.

I count against H-B BMR as a fixed base and add up my activities individually according to what cc posts, adjusted for my age/sex/weight. I think this is simpler than making a daily guess of my activity level.  But no matter how you choose to do it, the important thing is the results.  Your estimated daily calories should be consistent with your weight goal over a period of months, whether losing, gaining or maintaining. 

In regards to walking, I looked at the cc numbers for different speeds and concluded that distance is what matters.  It doesn't matter whether it's aerobic or not, though the faster you go the less time it takes to reach a target calorie burn.  I count 70 calories per mile over and above my BMR.  If I walk 10 miles a day (current weekly average) I target 2310 calories/day (1610 BMR + 10x70 exercise) eating to maintain.  On a weekly basis I've found that if I eat above  this by 100 cal/day I will see a weight gain of a pound or two, but will not see a lower weight with 100 cal/day deficit. 

I did have my activity level set to sedintary and was logging in my activities.  But I was not logging in every little thing.  Just the big stuff.  This wored out numbers wise against my diet.  My calorie intake was about 1200-1300 and logging in my activity I was showing 700-1000 calorie defficit. 

But I seem to stuck in the weight department.

I have been 141/140/142 for almost a month now.  Up a little, down a little.  So I decided to try something else. 

I have decided to eat more.  But I gotta say, I am feeling very unsure about eating more.  So I am only going to eat more on the days when I have more activity than usual. 

I just wish there was an easier formula.  Like:  If your activity level is 200 calories more than your BMR you need to eat X. 

Or maybe strict instructions from an authoritarian source "Q, eat x menu for x days and do x activity and you will lose weight by x date".

I could follow that.  

I share your confusion!

I'm a teacher, and spend a lot of time on my feet, and sometimes, even dancing and lots of movement (I'm a music teacher) as well as moving heavy instruments.

I *also* work out, hard, six days a week.  I am a competitive tennis player, and my workouts are either pretty hard practices, or weights and cardio.  I'm planning to get a heart rate monitor to help me figure out my burns on those activities...I'm just estimating right now.

So, I have mine set to 'light', and I'm logging my workouts only. 

Haven't had the guts to check the scale since I've started here, but I'm pretty sure I'm not gaining.