Nutrition Settings

I was looking at the BMR setting for me and was playing with the settings. Wondered where I should set my activity level. I workout with weights 5 – 6 days a week and do cardio 4 – 5 times a week on top of that. I do have a desk job where I sit for 5 hours a day. Pretty active on the weekends as well. Any suggestions?

I have my goal set to Body Builder and I have advanced Diet goals turned off. I have my activity level currently set at Moderately Active.

during term time I set my self to lightly active and keep the same level of work outs but out of term time i switch to sedationary as im generally working on my masters ect so do spend more time sitting not moving much but still keep the same level of work outs or even sometimes up them a little bit

seems to work for me at least :) one thing i do remember someone saying do not count your work outs as part of your weekly activity so if you take them out of the equation how active do you feel you are

@mantin19 How intense are your cardio workouts? If they’re a full 60 minutes with no BS’ing around than I would use the very active. If on the other hand they are 30 minutes or less and not so intense I would use a lower activity level.

I think the BMR setting is independent of your workouts. So only consider how active you are outside of the gym or anything else you log in the workout section. Otherwise you’d be counting calories twice and projecting more weight loss than you’d be really getting.

It’s taken me a while to find the right BMR setting. I think it’s best to start conservative and then observe how your actual body weight compares to the projected weight change from DB. I started out with Sedentary and ended up losing weight faster than DB projected, so I’ve been increasing my BMR to where the two are somewhat close.

@kday33 This is only true when using the advanced diet goals. He isn’t using them so exercise is factored in.

BMR tells you how many calories you burn when sitting or just doing nothing. And then you have to add more calories if you need. The best way to determine your BMR is trying and watching where your body weight goes.

I would say start with what you have, moderately active. Monitor how you progress and feel for the next few weeks. If you aren’t seeing results, then you can switch to lightly active.
Pamela

www.ThrivePersonalFitness.com

Thanks all. My workouts are pretty intense and I would say that outside of the gym I am lightly active. My cardio sessions range from 30 min to an hour and I don’t take it easy. Lots of sprint work, 3 miles runs, and steep hiking. I do have 2 small kids so I am always running around with them every day of the week. It is really the desk job thing that got me thinking. I will leave it at moderately active as it has worked for me thus far.