Activity level

[Agebell]

I was wondering what activity level I should put. I sync my Fitbit to MyFitbess Pal, I work a desk job and I average about 13,000 to 18,000 steps a day. I go to gym 5 days a week and do 30 minutes of weights and 45 minutes of cardio. I am on sedentary and was wondering if that sounds correct 

[Dominique]

I’m not sure how the integration between Fitbit and MyFitnessPal works (since I’m not using MFP), but isn’t Fitbit supposed to feed MFP with your real-time activity data (calories burned)? If you were using MFP standalone (without an activity tracker), you would have to give it a clue about your average activity level, but since you happen to have a Fitbit, it should "know" your real activity level everyday, even if it varies from one day to the next. MFP users can correct me if I got it all wrong.

If the activity level MFP wants is one of the five standard levels used by most online calculators (such as this one), I would say 13-18k steps, including your gym workouts 5 times a week, definitely isn’t sedentary. I would put it somewhere between moderate and high (13k  + rest day would be moderate, 18k + workout day would be high). You can play with the calculator and compare the TDEE with calories burned reported by your Fitbit (which often tend to be sligthly on the high side).

[emili]

@Agebell you are for sure not sedentary. If your 13K is cumulative through the day at a normal pace then I would say choose moderate- but if half or more is at a cardio level then I would pick high. Here is a recently published article that may help you: http://www.livestrong.com/article/401892-what-are-sedentary-moderate-high-activity-exercise-levels/