nurses

alsnur1

Just wanting to know if you can add walking from work in the exercise? I am a nurse who works 12 hr days and I am constantly walking, constantly taking steps. If so how would I add it?

CGerman

I would think that was counted in your activity level, not necessarily as exercise. If you're going to log it I'd think just log the number of hours at a slower pace. Either way you'd get more calories to eat since you'd be burning more each day.

KeepOnMoving

That is a tricky one. Lot of walking but lot of stop and start and stand, etc. Would it be leisure walk 2.0 pace? Might under estimate your walking to be on the safe side. But I think it can be included to some extent. I have a set down job, in front of the computer, all day. So that would not work for me.

alsnur1

three days new to this site. Not sure where the activity is?

JulieTX86

I would buy a pedometer. You can pick one up for a fairly cheap price. Then I would look and see how many steps a day you are taking. I would compare the number of steps you take on a day off with the number of steps you take while working. If it is a HUGE difference, then I would probably log the exercise on here somewhere. Perhaps under walking. Based on how many steps you take, I would then determine how much exercise you should log it as. You can look online to see how many steps equal a mile etc.

That's what I would do. (I am not a nurse yet, but I have been a nurses aide, and I am in nursing school, so that is the only good way I can see logging it) Just make sure you compare the numbers to a typical day off, so you can really see how above and beyond you are going when at work.

JulieTX86

three days new to this site. Not sure where the activity is?

When you signed up you should have chose "sedentary life style" or whatever the other options are. I am pretty sure it explains that one of the things may be where you stand on your feet a lot etc. If you chose that option then would NOT count your activity at work as exercise, since you are already eating those calories.

jeesa

Hi! I am also a nurse working 12+ hour days. I just put my daily activity as lightly active in my profile. We do a lot of running down halls but there is a lot of stopping and standing as well. I figured exercise really qualifies as something where there is a sustained elevated heart rate for a period of time. If we have to code someone I put how long it takes though. There is definite pulse elevation there! I hope this helps!

2bFitNTrim

If it were me, I'd go to "Settings" and set my "Fitness/Diet Profile" (I think that's what it is called) to "lightly active". They actually use "nurse" as an example of someone who would fit that activity level. :flowerforyou:

Kminor67

Make your activity level very active, since you're on your feet so much during the day. Then, if you work overtime, or get in an extra workout, log that as exercise.

watkinsc

Hi, I also work 12 hour shifts as a hospital RN... I played around with this for the last two months and finally decided that I would set my activity level to sedentary on mfp, and then on the days I work, I wear my pedometer (it calculates calories as well). I count the calories off my pedometer as exercise calories. The biggest problem I have encountered though, is there is no way to log it. The site won't let me log "pedometer calories burned" it expects a time and speed.. So I just do the calculation in my head. It does LOOK like I over eat on those days, but, oh well. BTW, once I got the pedometer, I was really suprised to learn that I average about 5 miles a day on the days I work! When I am in charge it has been as high as 7 miles a day! No wonder I am sooo tired when I get home

hmsteph

Hey, so I am a student and I walk a lot every single day its almost a mile across campus and I make that trip daily. However, this was my rational when I ran into that same question. Yes I walk a lot daily but at that activity level I was still over weight and gaining so for me I didn't feel as if it counted because while it was better than sitting all day I was still not achieving what I wanted to. Now with that said I agree that if you do something that is out of you normal work activities such as overtime or walking rather than standing when you get a break then yes that absolutely counts. Welcome to the site and good luck on your weight loss journey!

One more thought on the pedometer especially the kind that calculate calories burned whenever you are entering in exercise under the exercise tab you can manually adjust your calories. for example when I go to the gym and do cardio on the elliptical the machine tells me how much i have burned normally 250 but when I log 20 minutes on MFP the calories it shows for 20 minutes on the elliptical is more like 430 so if you click on the number you can adjust it. This applies to any exercise so you should try just logging walking and then manually input the number of calories from your pedometer.

2bFitNTrim

Hi, I also work 12 hour shifts as a hospital RN... I played around with this for the last two months and finally decided that I would set my activity level to sedentary on mfp, and then on the days I work, I wear my pedometer (it calculates calories as well). I count the calories off my pedometer as exercise calories. The biggest problem I have encountered though, is there is no way to log it. The site won't let me log "pedometer calories burned" it expects a time and speed.. So I just do the calculation in my head. It does LOOK like I over eat on those days, but, oh well. BTW, once I got the pedometer, I was really suprised to learn that I average about 5 miles a day on the days I work! When I am in charge it has been as high as 7 miles a day! No wonder I am sooo tired when I get home

5-7 miles a day? Wow!

najelle

Hi all, just wanted to give my thoughts on this. I'm a nurse as well, and when I first made my account here on MFP, it asked what kind of lifestyle I had and I chose lightly active cause it had "nurse" in parenthesis... I'll only log in "walking" as exercise when I do it after work, like walking around the neighborhood, walking the dog, going to the mall, shopping, treadmill, etc.

I think the default calorie limit (minimum) here on MFP is 1200, so having your lifestyle as "not active" will still keep your calorie goal at 1200, but if you increase your lifestyle settings to moderate or heavy activity, then they'll increase the calorie goal.

You can go here to this website and play around with the options and see what it says
http://www.livestrong.com/thedailyplate/


Hope this helps.

Happy Holidays everyone.

NoahVail

Fellow RN here as well. My hospital has a discount on pedometers for staff--that would be a start as well.
I'm a 12-hr Day/NOC rotator in an ICU. I may put on a few miles on some busy days running between rooms,a few yards on others,depends on acuity. I have managed to take off 40 lbs this year DESPITE the sleep deprivation/high caffeine intake/no time for exercise after work,and have counted calories exactly one day in 2010. Hasn't been easy,but it is doable.
Good luck to you!

Valtishia

three days new to this site. Not sure where the activity is?

When you signed up you should have chose "sedentary life style" or whatever the other options are. I am pretty sure it explains that one of the things may be where you stand on your feet a lot etc. If you chose that option then would NOT count your activity at work as exercise, since you are already eating those calories.

Thats what I did with my old job before moving. I am a PSW rather than a nurse but we go go go in the facilities the same way.
In my more recent job (the one I got when I moved to a new city) it isn't like that as it is in palliative care so I changed it to sedetary. Today I got a new job, so it will change again, as it will be back to go go go.

It helps tremendously, cause you don't wanna have to count everything if you don't have to. Then on days where you don't work, the extra calories you get I think keep your body guessing. Kinda like when you hear people talking about calorie cycling.

Hope this helps.

Valenek

I went and looked and livestrong said I should eat 350 more calories per day than MFP. Any suggestions?