calories burned working part time

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sherrielafleur
sherrielafleur Posts: 9
in Fitness and Exercise
OK, I work part time during the summer so I set my daily activity level to sedentary under my Goals. During the school year I am a teacher so I plan on putting it at lightly active then. My question is how do I capture the calories burned working part time during the summer? I work part time as a retail clerk. So during the evenings I am sometimes standing, sometimes moving around, carrying items, re-arranging items, cleaning, straightening...I work at JCP.

If the sedentary setting is for a desk job or bank teller, and lightly active is for a salesman or nurse, I think the retail sales and teaching fall under the lightly active title. And working part time I work about 20 hours per week at JCP. During the school year I am doing 5 days a week teaching and 12-15 hours at JCP, so I am definitely more active then. Can anyone tell me what they do it or offer any ideas?

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  • beckajw
    beckajw Posts: 1,739 Member
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    When I worked at JCP I was able to eat a lot more than I am now. You are probably more active at JCP than as a teacher. However, it's only 20 hours per week. I'd probably say lightly active or active.
  • sherrielafleur
    sherrielafleur Posts: 9
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    DUring the summer I work 18-20s and during the school year 12-15 per week. Yeah i am pretty active. I am not just on a register. I bounce between all departments and do sales support and the cleanup after closing takes us about an hour or two, where we are solidly folding and putting stuff away. I work up a sweat.
  • sherrielafleur
    sherrielafleur Posts: 9
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    Exactly, it is only 20 hours per week so I don't want to set it at lightly active during the summer. During the school year I have no problem doing that. But I want to capture some of the calories burned and give me some more to eat.
  • beckajw
    beckajw Posts: 1,739 Member
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    DUring the summer I work 18-20s and during the school year 12-15 per week. Yeah i am pretty active. I am not just on a register. I bounce between all departments and do sales support and the cleanup after closing takes us about an hour or two, where we are solidly folding and putting stuff away. I work up a sweat.

    Yeah, that's what I remember. I'd set it to active for the summer. Plus, I'm sure during the summer, you're doing more walking and outdoor stuff in addition to the added work.
  • sherrielafleur
    sherrielafleur Posts: 9
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    Thanks for your input. I just started doing MFP with my husband a few weeks ago, before vacation so I don't want to screw myself up. I like being conservative with my exercise and a little overboard with the calorie estimations so I make sure I am eating at a deficient calorie count for the day. Does that make sense? lol

    Anyone else do anything different?
  • beckajw
    beckajw Posts: 1,739 Member
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    Thanks for your input. I just started doing MFP with my husband a few weeks ago, before vacation so I don't want to screw myself up. I like being conservative with my exercise and a little overboard with the calorie estimations so I make sure I am eating at a deficient calorie count for the day. Does that make sense? lol

    Anyone else do anything different?

    That makes perfect sense and that is exactly what I would do. We tend to overestimate the calories we burn while working out. IMO MFP's estimates are almost always high. So, I would go with active for lifestyle and underestimate the working out calories.
  • sherrielafleur
    sherrielafleur Posts: 9
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    But won't going with active then give me too many calories to eat per day. I don't get that much exercise beyond walking. I know I need to do more, but just havne't gotten to it yet. I started right before vacation, so we were doing a ton of walking and swimming on vacation, that helped. So I under estimate the time spent exercising and over estimate my portions, thus calories. That gives me a good deficiency. I just worry about going from sedentary setting to active, that might be too big of a jump.
  • HeatherNoyes
    HeatherNoyes Posts: 114 Member
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    I think your best bet would be one of two things. You can get a heart rate monitor that you wear during work and see what you are burning, or you can set your activity to sedentary and worst case scenario you will lose a little quicker. My friend is also on mfp and is a nurse and she keeps hers at sedentary even though she walks a lot because it isn't strenuous.

    MFP sometimes runs a little on the high side of calories burned for exercise so a heart rate monitor is almost a must. Sometimes MFP will cut me short of calories burned and sometimes give me way more than it should. Having the heart rate monitor is an awesome tool and you can usually find them pretty inexpensively. Some prefer the kind you wear strapped around your chest or the watch type which is what I prefer. I wear it to zumba.

    At any rate, if you lost weight while on vacation, that is AMAZING! Congrats on the loss and keep going!!

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