How active am I

MPink13

Hi all

I'm new to this and can't decide whether to put lightly active or active. I work as Care Assistant but just part time 3 evenings one week and 4 the next. I try to work out but some weeks don't manage to squeeze in my
3 workouts due to work or children!

Sorry for a silly question but wanted some advice from some of the more experienced people on here :-)

Thanks for your help

ElegantElle

I'm a care assistant as well. I put lightly active because the majority of the time I'm not on my feet and when I am I'm going at the pace of someone who is trying to recover (walking alongside patients). Though there are times when the work is physically strenuous (boosting, lifting, turns, and transfers) it for briefs stints of time. I totally get the struggle to get in those workouts WITHOUT giving up sleep. I try to include my kids in my workouts. I go to parks that have tracks around them. They walk with me and then I stretch while they play. It's a great way to have quality time.

MPink13

Thanks Ellegantelle. I was finding it hard to decide. Info a twilight shift so I find some shifts I don't get 2 minutes to sit as I arrive at supper time and then it's a constant flow of serving food, helping people to bed answering buzzers then the next shift is quieter. So yeah I will go with lightly active.

Sounds like you've found a fab way to fit in fitness. I will definetly try that sometimes :-)

LivingtheLeanDream

You can do it any way you prefer - you can put in sedentary and log your activity or you can put in lightly active and not add in activity, it works the same...
When just starting out I'd advise sedentary. If you use an app to count your steps that would let you see how active you really are.
ie up to 5000 steps is sedentary, up to 10000 steps is lightly active etc

MPink13

Thanks, guess it's just going to be trial and error :-)

WendyLaubach

It's not a question whose answer you really have to get right. If you choose something more active, the program will assume you can afford a few more calories, even before you start logging deliberate exercise routines. If you're not really that active, you'll find that your loss rate is a little less than you might have expected otherwise, and you'll either have to reduce your eaten calories or increase your exercise calories (bearing in mind that your exercise calories are almost certainly going to be over-estimated, so a good rule of thumb is to cut them in half when you're making calculations and deciding what to do). The program is just trying to figure in some base level of ordinary activity before you start logging your special workout activity, so you don't have to keep track of every step you take all day, which would be more trouble than it's worth for the kind of thing you do day in and day out.

MPink13

Thanks, I've decided to go for sedentary and take it from there. I'll log my activity as and when I manage as no days or weeks are the same :-)