Are all office workers sedentary?

kshama2001

mcraw75 wrote: »

SusanMFindlay wrote: »

mcraw75 wrote: »

fitmom4lifemfp wrote: »

newheavensearth wrote: »

I'm glad I found this. I need to help someone set up his account. He is a forklift operator, drives forklift and offloads cargo, 6 to 8 hrs per day, 5 days per week overnight shift . Remaining time sleeps during the day, including weekends. Some incidental walking, maybe half hour per day. What would be his activity level?

Thanks.

This is on the MFP site.

Sedentary: Spend most of the day sitting (e.g. bank teller, desk job)
Lightly Active: Spend a good part of the day on your feet (e.g. teacher, salesperson)
Active: Spend a good part of the day doing some physical activity (e.g. food server, postal carrier)
Very Active: Spend most of the day doing heavy physical activity (e.g. bike messenger, carpenter)

I would say that he is Very Active.

Forklift operators sit all day, similar to truck drivers. His activity level would be sedentary.

Not if they're also doing all the loading and unloading.

They load and unload with the forklift don't they? I work at a plant that uses forklifts, none of the operators get off the truck and actually lift anything by hand. Needless to say, most of them are overweight.

Ya, unloading with a forklift is very different from unloading by hand. I've done both.

kshama2001

newheavensearth wrote: »

I'm glad I found this. I need to help someone set up his account. He is a forklift operator, drives forklift and offloads cargo, 6 to 8 hrs per day, 5 days per week overnight shift . Remaining time sleeps during the day, including weekends. Some incidental walking, maybe half hour per day. What would be his activity level?

Thanks.

@newheavensearth how many hours a day does he sleep? Your post sounds concerning, and something for which your friend should seek medical attention, but I may have misinterpreted it.

LisaTcan

Alatariel75 wrote: »

I'm an office worker who hits 10k steps every day without additional deliberate exercise. My job may be sedentary, but my lifestyle isn't.

Me too. I don't own a car.

newheavensearth

Sleep- 6 hrs with catnaps here and there. When awake, pretty much sedentary. Under dr evaluation for weight related issues (liver & kidney)

Onloads and offloads with the forklift and a jack.

ninerbuff

GuessIgottalog wrote: »

So I'm sedentary even though I work out?

Working out is EXERCISE in this case. The rest of the time you're sedentary for your work. You're not sedentary by fitness LEVEL amongst general population.


A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Larissa_NY

I work in an office, I lift three times a week and row a couple of times a week, and I'm sedentary. I won't even try to deny it. My step count is horrifying. Other people who work in my office, however, have jobs that require them to be up and moving around the building a lot, and they might well hit 10K steps without much effort.

If I were trying to lose weight and for some reason decided to do it the eating-back-calories way - which I would not because MFP has some weird phobia of spin classes and I get tired of it shrieking at me in bold red font that I need to eat a wildebeest or die - I would set my activity level to "sedentary" because (a) it's accurate, and (b) maintaining a healthy weight is more important than maintaining a healthy ego.

Ladybug19761

I am a office worker .. I run an hour before work and take 40-50 minute walk during my lunch break .. that's around 17k intentional steps and I average about 22k steps as per my Fitbit .. I am not hung up on the label mainly because I don't eat my excercise calories ..

ninerbuff

Maybe. If work requires staying in a space for say 6 hours a day, THAT time they are sedentary. What they do on their OFF time is what helps to distinguish if they are a sedentary person.
For example a lot of people work in offices in Europe. But many bike and walk to work.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

WinoGelato

Ladybug19761 wrote: »

I am a office worker .. I run an hour before work and take 40-50 minute walk during my lunch break .. that's around 17k intentional steps and I average about 22k steps as per my Fitbit .. I am not hung up on the label mainly because I don't eat my excercise calories ..

I hope that's because you're doing the TDEE method..

Skee_2802

Some really good insights posted here for a novice to MFP like me - Thank you!

I work a desk job too however, strength train x4 a week (average workout is about 1.5hrs) and daily step count of 15k and on days i work out step count is normally around 20k mark or more.

During work i walk down 7 flights of stairs and around the block generally on the hour or every two hours & walking again during my lunch break for an hour.

I have my settings set to "Sedentary" but after reading some of the posts i might not fit this category and perhaps ought to consider adjusting my settings to "lightly active" or "active"?

Always felt i wasnt "sedentary" despite the classification of desk job. Definately want accurate measures / readings for myself. Might consider changing my settings.

Thanks again.

SusanMFindlay

SkeeAtWork2017 wrote: »

I work a desk job too however, strength train x4 a week (average workout is about 1.5hrs) and daily step count of 15k and on days i work out step count is normally around 20k mark or more.

During work i walk down 7 flights of stairs and around the block generally on the hour or every two hours & walking again during my lunch break for an hour.

I have my settings set to "Sedentary" but after reading some of the posts i might not fit this category and perhaps ought to consider adjusting my settings to "lightly active" or "active"?

Always felt i wasnt "sedentary" despite the classification of desk job. Definately want accurate measures / readings for myself. Might consider changing my settings.

How long have you been at this? If it's been long enough to use your weight loss as a guide, do that. In other words, if you "should" have lost 4 pounds in a month and have actually lost 8 pounds, you know that you're burning 500 calories/day more than expected and need to increase your activity level by about two "steps" from sedentary to active.

If you haven't been tracking long enough to have useful numbers yet then, yes, at 15K steps/day you are more active than "sedentary". You are at least "active" and should increase your activity level to that setting then monitor actual weight loss for a month of so and adjust from there. I suspect that, like me, you are actually in the ballpark of "very active", but getting up to "active" will be a good start and leaves a little wiggle room in case there are any food logging issues.

MaddMaestro

If you have a planned workout routine of at least 2-3 days per week around a sit-down office job, it is still consider "Lightly Active"

Skee_2802

How long have you been at this? If it's been long enough to use your weight loss as a guide, do that. In other words, if you "should" have lost 4 pounds in a month and have actually lost 8 pounds, you know that you're burning 500 calories/day more than expected and need to increase your activity level by about two "steps" from sedentary to active.

If you haven't been tracking long enough to have useful numbers yet then, yes, at 15K steps/day you are more active than "sedentary". You are at least "active" and should increase your activity level to that setting then monitor actual weight loss for a month of so and adjust from there. I suspect that, like me, you are actually in the ballpark of "very active", but getting up to "active" will be a good start and leaves a little wiggle room in case there are any food logging issues.[/quote]


I started tracking macros & steps Aug last year. Had been doing strength training for 12mths prior. Since joining MFP I've lost 20kg with about 10kg before I hit my goal weight.

I'll definitely change my settings to lightly active initially with a view to change it at a later date to active in that case.

This has been really helpful, thank you!! Much appreciated..

Francl27

GuessIgottalog wrote: »

So I'm sedentary even though I work out?

Depends on how active you are. 30 minutes of activity 5x a week don't make you lightly active. Your lunch walks could make you lightly active though, depending on how much you walk (I can do 3500 steps maybe in 30 minutes, if I don't stop to do anything, still not close to the 5000 you need to be considered 'lightly active').

Activity level is MUCH more than just what you're doing at your job. Because you have a sedentary JOB doesn't mean that your LIFE is sedentary.

In the end, pick an activity level, and see how much you're losing in a month or two... then adjust.

I used TDEE because I didn't want to have to log every single walk, but TDEE calculators are EXTREMELY vague. There's quite a gray area between '3-5 hours of moderate exercise' and '5-6 hours of strenuous exercise' and it doesn't take your general activity level between workouts into account at all (which really accounts for half of my added Fitbit calories at least).

I second getting a fitbit. It takes a lot of the guesswork away.

inertiastrength

If you don't "eat back" exercise calories then I'd pick "lightly active" just make sure IF you log your exercise you adjust it to say "1 cal" if you prefer to have steady cals vs eating back a portion on more active days.

LivingtheLeanDream

I work at a desk 5 days a week, I'm not sedentary - usually have 10k steps done before work. Also get up from my desk frequently. When I get home I move a lot around the house doing stuff that needs done/cooking etc and average 15k steps.

jayv85

I'm not in an office job exactly. I work in a powerhouse but I sit at a desk most of the day because it's mostly a locked building and there's no reason I need to play around the turbines anyway. So I'm mostly sedentary, though I try to get up every hour, there's not much place to really walk.

When I get home I exercise. And weekends I'm active in the yard, exercising, taking the kids to the park, or even just cleaning the house. I don't sit much.

LessCookiess

I walk 10k steps a day, and I work in an office setting so I do have myself listed as sedentary.

crooked_left_hook

I have a 'desk' job but I walk to and from work, walk between buildings for meetings, walk to the grocery store, and lift a 40 mannequin multiple times a day to do my job...but most of the time I sit at my desk. On a 'stuck at my desk' or 'lazy weekend' day I log a bare minimum of 5000 steps so I use the lightly active setting. I used this article (amongst others) to make this decision: http://www.fitnessforweightloss.com/rate-your-activity-level-based-on-steps-per-day/

I also walk or run in the morning 5-6 days a week, and often take evening walks so my daily average for steps is 12K (my days range from 8K to 17K). I use my Fitbit to track steps and let MFP make the calorie adjustment. So far MFP and Fitbit have been within 50 calories of each other for my daily calorie burn estimates so I feel good about the numbers.

tinkerbellang83

SrprseButtsecks wrote: »

Well, office work such as selling stuff, internet marketing, design, etc. requires sedentary labor style. You can't make a design for a site while running around like a madman, that's obvious. The thing is in a good offices, they always have something like restroom or fitness hall, where people can do exercises or play movement games. For example, something like that I saw in the Calgary business coworking. I have been there something like a half year ago. A fine place for work.

Zombie thread from 2017.

But even if you sit at a desk for work that doesn't necessarily mean that your Non-Exercise Activity Level is Sedentary, even if I drive to/from work I get around 5000 steps per day which puts me closer to Lightly Active, just because I spend a lot of my morning and after work on my feet cleaning and pottering around doing stuff. I't s based on your home/work/school life activity, not exercise.