Need Advice on Activity Level!!!!!

LadyMustard

So.... here's the story:

I'm attending college at the moment, and during the school year my activity level is essentially sedentary since all I do is sit on my butt and read text books all day. In the months between classes (right now) I drastically change my activity level when I go back to work in the factory but I'm not sure what category I would qualify for: Lightly Active, Active, or Very Active.

Details about the job: I work a 10 hour shift, with only an hour of it sitting (lunch break, and the two 15 minute breaks). The rest of the 9 hours is spent mostly walking and always standing usually restocking shelves (which requires lots of light lifting and occasionally having to lift up to 30lbs+, as well as climbing ladders)

Here is all that MFP has to say about the categories:
Lightly Active: Spend a good part of the day on your feet (e.g. teacher, salesman)
Active: Spend a good part of the day doing some physical activity (e.g. waitress, mailman)
Very Active: Spend most of the day doing heavy physical activity (e.g. bike messenger, carpenter)

There is definitely a lot more involved in it than just standing, so I'm pretty sure that lightly active is off the list. On the other extreme, I don't think that the labor is so intensive that it would qualify for "very active" since its mostly walking and light lifting. However I'm not sure if I should take into account the occasional heavy lifting/ 9 hour duration and bump it up to very active.

What do you guys think?

sunshinenjjr

I choose active when I joined MFP. I work in a supermarket, and I am on my feet all day moving around. I also set MPF up to lose a 1/2 a week. I have lost 1 pound a week since I joined. I just bought a fitbit, and according to the fitbit, I could eat about three hundred extra calories a day from what I was eating and still lose 1/2 a week. I track my food fairly accurately, so I believe that I should have chosen very active when I joined up. It sounds like your job maybe somewhat similar to mine. You may want to consider choosing very active.

DavPul

I don't have to read that WoT to feel comfortable saying that you're Overthinking this. Just pick lightly active, move on with your life, and adjust 3-5 weeks down the road if needed

sunshinenjjr

I should have also added that I always ate all the calories allotted to me, plus I always ate back all calories earned from exercise before I started using the fitbit. Hope this helps.