Do I need to do more?

MintyStarshine

In my normal day-to-day life, I'm very sedentary and often do nothing more than a little cleaning here and there. I am an artist and do my work digitally, so I have to be at the computer to work on it.

However, I also have a part-time job as a cook. I work between four and six hours per day, up to three days per week. I am on my feet the entire time and the restaurant is very fast paced. When I'm not preparing food, I'm preparing for the next shift to come in, which includes carrying and lifting several loads of items that can weigh up to 40lbs each, depending on the items. I know that one of our dough batches weighs 30lbs before the dough rises. When I come home from work, I'm often dehydrated (despite drinking tons of water while on the clock) and can't stay awake more than three hours after my shift is over even if I woke up to immediately go to work.

To make a long story short, the work is hard. When I plug my work shifts into MFP, my calorie burn is always more than 1,200 calories burned.

My question is this: Do I need to do MORE exercise during the week? Again, these are four to six hour shifts of hard work that happen 2-3 times per week that burn an excess of 1,200 calories per shift. Do I need more than that or is that good?

audram420

I'm not sure if this is the right answer, but I'm going to compare you to myself and say YES add extra exercise. I am on my feet almost all 8 hours of the day...I work at a hospital. I never understood why this wasn't enough, because I too push, pull and lift a lot of heavy equipment and patients, etc.

I think you body get used to these things and you've got change it up and ADD extra stuff. I try to walk around the hospital a few times when I have a free chance and I do the 30 day shred in the mornings while Im at home.

Good luck!

beckyinma

It depends on how you feel. If you put in lightly active, and don't include your shifts as part of your exercise, what does it do to your calorie base?

I would try to add something to the days you aren't working the restaurant shift, just because it would get you out of a routine your body is obviously used to. Even if it's just a walk during lunch, or a set of weights you lift for a few minutes or both.

Skeith5

Burning calories is great but you should be doing aerobic exercise that keeps your heart rate up while you are doing it. It sounds like what you are doing is more strength training which is great but you should do aerobic exercise as well.

It looks like from your profile that you started in April and you've only lost 6 pounds in 3 months. That would indicate to me that you are consuming almost what you are burning. Are you happy with your progress so far? I know people say the normal weight loss goal should be 1-2 pounds a week, but I think if you are bigger you can safely lose more than that a week.

Scott

SueInAz

As long as you're still losing weight, I'm going to say "no". Losing weight is more about what you eat than your activity. However, when you hit a plateau, you'll know that it's time to do something a little different. At that point, I'd say to add in some cardio and/or strength training on the nights you don't work in the restaurant.

zeeeb

the easy way to tell:

are you losing weight (as fast as you want to be)?

If yes, then you don't need to do more exercise, if the answer is no, you either need to eat less or exercise more or both. Simple.

When I started to be really honest with myself, for me, it was the food that was my problem, not so much the exercise. I love to exercise, it comes quite easily to me, but food doesn't, i struggle to keep control of my food. There were times in my life that i'd exercise for over an hour every single day in one form or another (at times 2 hours) and I'd still not lose weight, or put on weight. It was all food for me.

Now that i've admitted to myself that my food was out of control, the weight has come off alot mroe effectively, because i'm not busting my butt physically and still eating loads of food. Sure, i love vegies, salads, fruits etc, but i was just eating too much, my meals were too big as well as the sweet and salty snacks that i shouldn't have been eating so much of.

Skeith5

I really disagree that losing weight is the only criteria you should look at. Getting to a healthy weight range is just one part of living a healthier life. You needd to do aerobic exercise if you truly want to be healthy. (and it helps the weight loss...)

Scott