How do I describe my activity level??

mwilke

I don't know whether to describe my lifestyle as sedentary or lightly active. I have a full time job in which I sit down all day, so I had my profile set to sedentary. However, I have just started a part time job in retail, so now I am not sure which to set my profile at. Any thoughts??

photo_kyla

It depends on how much walking you do in sales. If you're just standing for the shift, I'd still call it sedentary. The last time I was working retail, our department was about 40x75 feet and I spent the entire time walking all over it. I moved my level up to "Lightly active". (I also was sticking to my calories, drinking at least 2 liters of water per day, and was losing an average of 10lbs per month. )

It's always better to under-estimate calories burned and over-estimate calories eaten.

Dinnylirium

I'm with ^, but if you're also exercising every day or every second day, you could probably safely amp it up to light activity.

Dinnylirium

It depends on how much walking you do in sales. If you're just standing for the shift, I'd still call it sedentary. The last time I was working retail, our department was about 40x75 feet and I spent the entire time walking all over it. I moved my level up to "Lightly active". (I also was sticking to my calories, drinking at least 2 liters of water per day, and was losing an average of 10lbs per month. )

It's always better to under-estimate calories burned and over-estimate calories eaten.

You would think so, and I've traditionally done that, but precision is desirable because, well... Doing both of those things can put you into starvation quicker than you thought possible.

NoAdditives

I'm with ^, but if you're also exercising every day or every second day, you could probably safely amp it up to light activity.

Not if she's counting her exercise separately.

Dinnylirium

I'm with ^, but if you're also exercising every day or every second day, you could probably safely amp it up to light activity.

Not if she's counting her exercise separately.

Good point. I used to use Calorie Count, where the definition of "light activity" was "lots of standing throughout the day, moderate amounts of exercise". I forgot that this site has an exercise log.

Pebble321

Try it out and see if you lose weight at the expected rate. I started out set at sedentary but i was losing faster than I thought I would at first and changed it up to lightly active which seems to be the right fit for me.