Have you ever wondered how many calories it takes to maintain your body weight? Or how active you are during the day? This is the blog post for you!
Step One: Determine your activity level based on N.E.A.T.
NEAT or non-exercise activity thermogenesis is a major contributor to your overall daily activity and calorie burns. It’s basically all the physical movement of our lives that isn’t planned exercise or sports. It includes activities such as cooking, shopping, daily hygiene, walking around, cleaning, and even small movements such as fidgeting.
For tracking your NEAT an activity tracker or pedometer can give you a general idea of how much you’re moving around and burning. Don’t have one? Don’t worry, you can still estimate it below!
Less than 5,000 steps: sedentary
Example: an office worker, a student, or someone who sits for most of their day. If you do not perform atleast 30 minutes of exercise a day you are sedentary.
5,000 – 7,500 steps: lightly active
Example: Someone who stands for most of their days. For example, a stay at home mom, a bank teller, a customer service representative in a grocery store, etc. The key here is standing, but not walking or heavy lifting.
7,500-10,000 steps: moderately active
Example: Someone who walks a lot of the day (atleast 2 hours continuous), like nurses, teachers, restaurant workers, etc. they spend most of their day walking around but are not performing hard labor.
10,000 steps: active
Example: Someone who walks a lot and also performs manual labor. For example construction workers, athletes, warehouse employees, etc.
Okay, so what if i *do* exercise?
Step Two: How many calories are you burning through exercise every day?
This information is best tracked with a heart rate monitor but will vary from person to person depending on the activity and their body size. If you don’t have a HRM here’s an idea about general activity below.
Sedentary: 0 – 50 extra calories per day through exercise
Less than 30 minutes of sustained activity
lightly active: 150-200 extra calories per day through exercise
Between 30-45 minutes brisk walking, leisurely biking, weight lifting, etc.
Moderately active: 400-500 extra calories per day through exercise
Atleast an hour to an hour and a half of sustained activity like running, swimming, etc.
Active: 1,000+ extra calories per day through exercise
Over 2 hours of sustain activity, for example marathoner/triathaloner.
That’s it! With these two factors you can determine or approximate your estimated activity level.
If you want to see how many calories it takes to maintain your current body weight based on this level check out the tool below!