Tracking Lifestyle Calories = A Question

MercuryBlue

Hello my fellow MFPers! I am having a bit of a pickle and was wondering if some of you would mind weighing in on a subject I've been wrestling with for a couple of days.

First off, some stats (which will probably help). I'm 27, female, 5'6.5" and about 140lbs (I say about because some days it's higher, some days it's lower, but that's what it's been hovering around the past few weeks).

Now, I work four days a week (8 hour days) at a desk job. I drive a half hour each way to and from work. During the weekends, I am somewhat active (I have a 5 year old and an 18 month old), doing housework and whatnot.... but I don't do a lot of intensely physical activity (other than my workouts, obviously, which I track with a HRM and log regularly). As a result, I have my 'lifestyle' set as sedentary. I don't usually log housework (because I consider that part of my lifestyle calories burned) unless I do something really out of the ordinary (like heavy yardwork, renovations, or that time I spent 8 hours reorganizing boxes in my storage room). Again, I always wear my HRM to track these sorts of things.

I recently picked up a second job, working two days a week in retail. I'm on my feet the entire time, moving continuously, and often lifting heavy boxes, organizing shelves, sweeping floors, etc. Out of curiosity one day, I wore my HRM and found I'd burned 1000 calories in five hours work (considering I burn about 60-80 calories doing an hour of deskwork, that's about 400-600 calories extra burned in that 5 hours). Because this new job is in town, I usually walk or ride my bike to and from work (and obviously, log those exercise calories).

My question is this... what should I be doing the these extra calories I'm now burning at my second job? I figure I could a)keep my lifestyle set as 'sedentary' and then wear a HRM for each shift at my second job, adding those additional calories burned per hour as 'exercise'. b)I could change my lifestyle setting or c)I could leave my settings as they are and not log the calories burned at my second job.

I suppose part of the reason I'm going back and forth on this is because I only have about 15-20 pounds left to lose, and have been struggling the last little while. Because I'm at a healthy body weight and so close to my goal, I know that it's that much more important for me to accurately track my calories in and out if I want to continue seeing a loss. And extra 50 calories per day not counted that didn't matter too much six months ago will matter quite a bit more now.

I hope I've given enough information to get some good advice. So please- thoughts?

EDIT: Forgot to add (because I know this matters)- I am still nursing my toddler. It's only before bedtime/naps (also during the night, and right after I pick him up from daycare), and I eat an additional 200 calories to account for this (and drink extra water).

lisawest

Personally I would leave my settings alone because that is what a typical day would look like. Then I would enter my shifts as exercise.

That's just my opinion! That and a buck 50 will buy you a bottle of Diet Coke!

WrenLynn

If it were me I would count half of the extra calories as exercise. I would also wear the HRM on every shift because it may vary greatly from day to day as your body gets more use to doing the work. Have you actually worn your HRM to your desk job to verify that you only burn 60-80 calories? If not I would start there and then also do the other things mentioned.

mworld

I think this one is pretty staight forward. For the two days you do this job you want to log an additional amount of calories.....but how many?? Well, you want the difference between standing at the retail job versus sitting at the deskjob. Your activity level already takes into account the calories you burn at your deskjob which is why its important to take the difference of the two activities.

go here and do the math for you for the two activities (standing versus sitting) - you'll find they have a couple different variants for standing.....just pick the one you think is best: http://www.caloriesperhour.com/index_burn.php

edit: if you are doing this in addition to your deskjob, then you would take the difference between the standing activity and the amount of calories you would burn at home (say sitting on the couch watching tv - yes, they have those activities listed as well).

MercuryBlue

Yes, I'm doing this job in addition to doing a desk job. So for most of the week (well, four days out of the week), I'm still sedentary. The tricky part, for me, is determining how different my new weekend activities (that is, the 16 hours I now work on weekends) are from what I usually do (which varies between somewhat active - ie, doing housework, chasing toddlers- and sedentary .)

I suppose the only way I will really know for sure is if I measure the calories burned in an 'average day off' (which would be my only day off), and compare that to the calories burned in an 'average day at job number one' and then compare THAT to an 'average day at job number two'.

Maybe I'm over-complicating things, but I guess I'm just finding it tricky determining what my lifestyle is, period... (4/7 days = sedentary, 3/7 days = lightly active) Would be so much easier if I had a normal routine, lol.

mworld

Yes, I'm doing this job in addition to doing a desk job. So for most of the week (well, four days out of the week), I'm still sedentary. The tricky part, for me, is determining how different my new weekend activities (that is, the 16 hours I now work on weekends) are from what I usually do (which varies between somewhat active - ie, doing housework, chasing toddlers- and sedentary .)

I suppose the only way I will really know for sure is if I measure the calories burned in an 'average day off' (which would be my only day off), and compare that to the calories burned in an 'average day at job number one' and then compare THAT to an 'average day at job number two'.

Maybe I'm over-complicating things, but I guess I'm just finding it tricky determining what my lifestyle is, period... (4/7 days = sedentary, 3/7 days = lightly active) Would be so much easier if I had a normal routine, lol.

well you know, there is another way to skin this cat if you don't want to do it that way. All selecting sedentary actually does is multiply your BMR/RMR by 1.2. to come up with the totals for the day to maintain what little activity your body does on top of sustaining itself.

Now the multiplier for Lightly Active is 1.375. So if you tell me that 3/7 is lightly active and 4/7 is sedentary, you can just do a weighted average like this: (3/7 * 1.375 * yourBMRorRMR) + (4/7 * 1.2 * BMR/RMR) = total calories for the day [you would still add in exercises as you normally would above and beyond this daily total]. There's a BMR calculator on this site you can use to do the math.

I think that's the simplest way