Totally agree with this. Most people with desk jobs would probably fall under the 'sedentary' category, even if they manage to squeeze in a workout or hit a decent step count. The better comparison for 'lightly active' or 'very active' probably isn’t another office worker who’s just slightly less sedentary, but someone like a nurse, a shop assistant, a farmer, or builder.
I remember reading about a study that compared the health and weight loss benefits of doing a daily intense gym session after a day at the office versus being more active throughout the day with no extra workout (waiters were the example they used, I think). The (somewhat depressing) conclusion was that it’s really difficult to make up for a day of sitting around with just a couple of hours of exercise, no matter how dedicated you are.
@alwaysscared Those TDEE numbers sound really high to me. I’m no expert, but I did look into TDEE for myself a few years ago, and I’m pretty sure the general consensus was that most calculators are on the generous side anyway and, more importantly, way off for overweight or obese people.
The one you used asks for body fat percentage, which is definitely important since the calories you burn depend a lot on your lean/muscle mass. If you leave that blank, the calculator probably defaults to the average body fat percentage for a healthy-weight woman of your age. That’s likely to be lower than your actual percentage, which means it could be massively overestimating your basal metabolic rate.
From what I’ve read, the extra weight we carry (mostly fat, not much muscle) doesn’t seem to have a massive impact on TDEE. When I looked into this a few years back, I used a calculator which adjusted for obesity (unfortunately, I can't find it now). Even so, my TDEE only came out about 100–200 calories higher than it would have been at a healthy weight. I’m 5'11", put myself in as sedentary, and my basal metabolic rate was estimated to be somewhere around 1650 calories. I’ve no idea how accurate that actually is (and it’s definitely not an exact science), but it does line up fairly well with how much I can eat if I want to lose weight versus just maintain.
For me, it’s also very true that 'a calorie isn’t just a calorie'. If I eat the same number of calories but from different foods, I definitely lose more when the meals are low-carb compared to higher-carb ones.
On another note, I do wonder if the Peloton might slightly overestimate calories burned. Can I ask how fit you are or if you know your FTP? I ask because my DH's usual evening workout is an hour of cycling, and his tracker (a Wahoo Kickr) says he burns around 600 calories per hour. He’s a pretty keen cyclist with very muscular legs and a decent FTP. I’d imagine most women might burn a fair bit less than him. Of course, I don’t know if the Peloton or the Wahoo (or neither!) is more accurate, but it’s possible your estimated 500 calories might just be slightly on the high side.