I'm trying to gauge and understand activity levels

[GamerGodSP]

So using alot of TDEE calculators and calorie calculators, activity levels range from sedentary to active and even up to athlete.

Going by my stats what would you consider my activity level?

Male - 29 - 199lbs - 5'8

Manual Labor, dragging equipment ranging from 50-100 pounds.

30-60 minutes of cardio, Treadmill, Elliptical.

Fitbit Stats

Average 24,000 steps a day

Average Calorie burn of 4,100 a day

Average 64 miles of walking within a week

[Dominique]

There are usually 5 standard activity levels, ranging from sedentary to extremely active. Based on the description you gave, I would put your activity level somewhere betwee 4/5 and 5/5, maybe closer to the highest level.

That being said, the 4100 calories estimated by Fitbit are probably overstated. If your aim is to lose weight and you’re using the Fitbit Food Plan to do it, you’ll probably notice you’re not losing as much as Fitbit predicts yoou would.

[GamerGodSP]

Thanks, I've decided not to do the Fitbit food plan and just stick to a static calorie number.

So I'm thinking maybe 2400-2600 calories to lose weight given my TDEE.

[Dominique]

I believe this should put you in a deficit, given your activity pattern. What you may want to take into consideration (given you’ve already lost 100+ lbs, though you didn’t say over which period of time) is the law of diminishing returns: the longer you stay in a deficit, the larger that deficit needs to be in order to produce the same results in terms of weight loss. This is what  @JimC_99 (who lost 100 lbs in 11 months) just reported in another topic: while he needed a deficit of 2200 calories to lose 1 lb at the beginning of his journey, he now needs 4600 to achieve the same result. There’s an argument to be made for longer diet breaks in-between weight loss phases (more about that in the Losing All Your Weight At Once video).