is a job classed as exercise??????

slimsdown
slimsdown Posts: 122 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Heya i know this is a random thing to ask and i mite be a lil strange but can a job be classed as exercise???.

when i lost weight before 2 years ago i never exercised and the weight did drop off. My job was very physical , i was a hostess on a coach traveling to a city. when i was there i would walk around, buy stock, carry heavy bags ect, and on the journey i would serve drinks on a moving vehicle which took alot of balance, there was also stairs on the coach.

when i changed my job for less hours and working full time in an office.... the weight went back on.

now i am starting a new career in hairdressing i currently only have 4 days in an office ,
one day at a college and one full day in salon.
I have found i eat alot less when im at college or in the salon but can this actualy make me fitter and lose weight by not being in an office enviornment or am i being way to optomistic>>>??

Replies

  • uyent
    uyent Posts: 88 Member
    Absolutely! As a chemist I had a time of 6-8 months were I had to work on mostly computer stuff and I noticed I did gain weight. Otherwise, I would be walking around the lab, on my feet working. So it does make a difference what you do as your career for weight loss. Some careers help more than others. Always good to be optimistic!
  • ahmommy
    ahmommy Posts: 316 Member
    Any time you're moving more, you're burning more calories. So if you're on your feet all day versus sitting at a desk all day, you will burn more calories. This generally goes into your "activity level" when you enter it into your goals on MFP.

    I have mine set on sedentary because I work an office job, but I only work 3 days a week. The other 4 days I spend with my children and while I'm not getting a strenuous workout, I'm still burning more calories just playing with them, cleaning house, etc. I consider it a bonus for me but if I were doing it every day I would set my activity level to lightly active.
  • jenneal89
    jenneal89 Posts: 243
    Yep. Anytime you move you're burning calories so with a physical job like that you'd burn quite a bit :)
  • mummy_gerdes
    mummy_gerdes Posts: 336 Member
    no its not but your bmr should go up as your daily activity increases so you will be eating more cals to offset your daily activity - does that make sense! lol for instance i work as an hca and i was eating 1700 cals a day to lose weight and then i changed my settings from lightly active to sedentary as i was in the office 2 days a week and it went down to 1540 cals. hope that helps! :)
  • Slove009
    Slove009 Posts: 364 Member
    Try to categorize your normal daily activities to meet what your lifestyle is. Working in an office at a desk all day is considered sedentary, but if you are up and moving around all day, try to put it as lightly active or active.

    When I worked in retail I was on my feet for 9-10 hours a day, with only one chance to eat during the day, and did very similar things to you. (Runnig back in forth, carrying bags, moving heavy boxes, ect.) I was at my lowest weight ever as an adult back then, but steadily gained once I went to an office job myself.

    My best suggestion would be to get a discreet HRM, one that looks like a digital watch, and track yourself for a few days using that to get an idea of how many calories you will be burning on an average day at work.

    Hope this helps!
  • BerryH
    BerryH Posts: 4,698 Member
    My best suggestion would be to get a discreet HRM, one that looks like a digital watch, and track yourself for a few days using that to get an idea of how many calories you will be burning on an average day at work.
    Sorry to be a party pooper, but this won't work well. HRMs are only calibrated to calculate calorie burn during steady cardio exercise, and even then they are only 75% accurate. Only something like a FitBit will give a fair estimate of TDEE.

    To answer the OP, your job should be included in your MFP activity level, and only separately record exercise in addition to this.
  • slimsdown
    slimsdown Posts: 122 Member
    thanks people, xxx
  • LCBinGA
    LCBinGA Posts: 102 Member
    To quote an earlier thread this week:

    Rather than give you bogus information about meal frequency, or hot sauce, or a crash diet....

    NEAT: Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis. It's the stuff you do when you're not in the gym. It's the walking your dog, or the cleaning of the house, or the mowing of the grass. It's the energy expenditure that you create when you're just being active and doing things OTHER than laying around on your *kitten* (I said that just for Sara).

    NEAT is something that, by end of day, can comprise a significant energy expenditure.

    Ever hear people give those recommendations like:

    "Park your car really far away so you have to walk further"
    "Get up from your desk every 20 minutes"
    "Move around with that book instead of sitting"
    "*kitten*"

    They're right.
    So instead of thinking about whether or not you should buy those keytones, or whether or not you should load your breakfast with cinnamon and hotsauce, or whether or not you need to eat every 1.8 hours -- How about instead, you get up from your desk and move around?

    Don't disregard this rather trivial advice. Increase your NEAT, increase your success.
  • slimsdown
    slimsdown Posts: 122 Member
    i currently have 1 hour for lunch for office job so i do tend either walk to shops or do somthing active for that time but i cant really move from my desk in the other times :-(

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