Housekeeping - Active or Very Active?

lttlelady

I work in housekeeping at Crown Towers in Melbourne. I work 6-7 hours usually and my duties are a lot more strenuous than those I've had in my 4 years experience.

Just wondering if I should put myself down as active or very active in MFP app.

Going to wear my HRM to work tomorrow to get an idea of what type of calories I'm burning over my shift.

KarenJanine

It may be more helpful to know how many steps you're doing in a day rather than using our HRM. HRMs are not designed to be worn all day so the reading may not be very accurate.

If you were able to obtain a pedometer that may help determine your activity level based on the following :

<5000 sedentary
5000-9999 lightly active
10000-14999 moderately active
>15000 highly active

SonicDeathMonkey80

An HRM is not meant to wear for daily activity burn. Try a fitness tracker such as a Fitbit for that.

Phrick

It may be more helpful to know how many steps you're doing in a day rather than using our HRM. HRMs are not designed to be worn all day so the reading may not be very accurate.

If you were able to obtain a pedometer that may help determine your activity level based on the following :

<5000 sedentary
5000-9999 lightly active
10000-14999 moderately active
>15000 highly active

KarenJanine, I'm interested to know where you got this information. I'd always thought of myself as sedentary because I spend a LOT of time sitting, but I recently got a FitBit and have never averaged less than 7,000 steps a day (even on days I don't do any intentional extra walking) so according to the info you posted I've been cheating myself on calories! This makes me sad :laugh:!

lauren3101

It's hard to estimate what sort of activity you are, as it all depends on how many calories you burn. You could have two 200lb people doing the same job, and depending on fitness levels, bodyfat, etc, their calorie burn could be very different.

You won't get an accurate calorie burn from wearing a HRM all day; it's not designed for that.

My recommendation is to just start off as active. Any TDEE calculator is purely an estimate, anyway. Give yourself a minimum of 6 weeks on this calorie count, then evaluate. If you are losing 2lb a week, then it's not enough, and change to very active. If you are losing 1lb a week, it's spot on. Etc etc.

KarenJanine

I can't find the link right now but here's a similar thread, although it's broken down into more activity levels. There's are links to original articles in the first post in this thread: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/476174-steps-per-day-and-activity-levels

lttlelady

Thank you for all the answers! Very helpful. I'm hoping to buy a FitBit in the next week, so I'll wait for that.

I'm 5'7 and 118lbs, so I'm slim.

Thanks guys!