How to account for work activity?

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Athijade
Athijade Posts: 3,247 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Just wanting some opinions on how other people would handle things. I work a couple of jobs where the activity level is a lot higher then my more "normal" levels. As such, I still set my activity to sedentary as I do not work these jobs every day and as such can't count on all my days being at those levels.

So how should I account for the added activity at these jobs? I am on my feet pretty much the whole time and am doing a lot of walking/activity. Should I log a bit under exercise (say moderate walking) maybe? I know I need more calories on those days (trust me, my body screams at me if I don't) but I don't want to increase my base level any to take into account the days where I don't work these jobs.

Thanks in advance for any tips/advice/suggestions.

Replies

  • QAPmom
    QAPmom Posts: 458 Member
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    I am curious as well..
  • elphie754
    elphie754 Posts: 7,574 Member
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    I wear a fitbit at work. Counts my steps for me- problem solved.
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,565 Member
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    I would set it to lightly active, as work is accounted for in your activity level and should not be logged. However, if you're concerned about eating enough to fuel your body on those days, you may be better off purchasing an activity tracker and connecting it to MFP, which will then add in calories for what you do.
  • amphilion
    amphilion Posts: 89 Member
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    I also walk alot, I linked my pedometer (or use a walking app from your phone) with MFP, and it will log in how many calories lost for the amount of steps taken!
  • Ninkyou
    Ninkyou Posts: 6,666 Member
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    elphie754 wrote: »
    I wear a fitbit at work. Counts my steps for me- problem solved.

    I would suggest this too.
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,268 Member
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    Yes I use an activity tracker as well for that sort of thing. I have a desk job but I still manage about 6k steps at work and another 3-5k at home without exercise...

    My activity level is set to lightly active.
  • Athijade
    Athijade Posts: 3,247 Member
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    malibu927 wrote: »
    I would set it to lightly active, as work is accounted for in your activity level and should not be logged. However, if you're concerned about eating enough to fuel your body on those days, you may be better off purchasing an activity tracker and connecting it to MFP, which will then add in calories for what you do.

    See, the days I don't work one of those two jobs I am very inactive except for when I specifically exercise, which isn't every day (I get some medical stuff done just about weekly that pretty much keeps me in bed for a day for example). I am worried that if I set myself as lightly active that I will be over estimating the calories I need in general once things are averaged out. But at the same time, I KNOW that when I work from 9:30AM until 7PM and am on my feet for all but maybe 1.5 hours of that I need more calories to keep myself happy.

    A fitbit or something similar is on my list of things to buy, but isn't possible right this moment. It would need to wait until the end of the month due to budget. Plus, it doesn't really help me this weekend lol.
  • RavenLibra
    RavenLibra Posts: 1,737 Member
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    "normal" activity... is accounted for in your daily requirements... unless you are in an extremely physical job... mountain climber/guide; bike courier; home builder; ditch digger etc... consider the calorie burn from infrequent activity an added bonus... IN my opinion the only caloric burn you should count is from intentional "voluntary" physical exercise that you engage in as part of your switch to a healthy lifestyle. I classify your question in this context... YOU might as well try to calculate how many calories you burn by lifting your full coffee cup to your maw... it is pretty close to doing a bicep curl no? :D
  • lilapr
    lilapr Posts: 9 Member
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    If this is something you do on occasional days or maybe even just once or twice a week I would log it as exercise. When I do a full overhaul cleaning of my house or yard (not the regular activities, but when I know it's a lot more activity than normal) I add it as Cleaning, light moderate effort or gardening. I usually log about half of the time (if it's 1 1/2 hrs minutes I log 45 minutes). It helps account for that extra work that day.
  • sandryc79
    sandryc79 Posts: 250 Member
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    RavenLibra wrote: »
    "normal" activity... is accounted for in your daily requirements... unless you are in an extremely physical job... mountain climber/guide; bike courier; home builder; ditch digger etc... consider the calorie burn from infrequent activity an added bonus... IN my opinion the only caloric burn you should count is from intentional "voluntary" physical exercise that you engage in as part of your switch to a healthy lifestyle. I classify your question in this context... YOU might as well try to calculate how many calories you burn by lifting your full coffee cup to your maw... it is pretty close to doing a bicep curl no? :D

    If this were true Fitbit, Tdee-calculator etc wouldn't have different daily calories for different levels of daily physical activity. Of course you burn more calories on a day you work a very active job. If you are set on sedentary the basic level of calories it gives you won't be accurate for these active days.

    Without an activity tracker I would look at how many daily calories you would get if you are moderately active. (Just play with the fitbit app to see or use a TDEE calculator. Track the level of walking as exercise that increases your calories to that level for the day.
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
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    I vote for FitBit too. Set your activity as sedentary and credit yourself with extra calories on active days.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    edited May 2015
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    Fitbit zip or one ..basic model under $50

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