What would you consider my job for activity level?

matchbox_girl
matchbox_girl Posts: 535 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I work at Red Cross as a Phlebotomist, but we do EVERYTHING ourselves. Here's a run of my average day:

Get to work, load the van. We have 10 suitcases to load along with blood boxes each filled with almost 20 pounds of ice. That takes about twenty minutes. Once we load we go to our site, where we unload all of the equipment (enough equipment for anywhere from 15 to 100 people depending on the day) and haul it into our space.

Once unloaded, we then set up our blood drive. Soooo much lifting, bending, kneeling, squatting, etc. That takes about an hour of constant motion.

After that we can take our 15 minute break, and then we start processing donors. Our actual drives are between 4-6 hours a day. If it's a four hour drive, we don't have a break. If it's five or six, we have one 15 minute break. Other than that 15 minutes, we are on our feet almost the entire time.

Afterwards, when the draw is finished, we clean all of our equipment and put it away in the designated cases. This takes about 45 minutes. Then we load our equipment back out to the vans, drive back to the center, and unload all of our equipment yet again.

My average day is 10-12 hours, but when we drive to other cities we generally sit in the van for 1-2 hours, sometimes more.

Would this be considered lightly active or active?

(Keep in mind, we work as a team....sometimes there's only three of us, sometimes ten. So it varies.)

Replies

  • BarackMeLikeAHurricane
    BarackMeLikeAHurricane Posts: 3,400 Member
    I would say lightly active just to be on the safe side. Personally, I'd rather underestimate activity and be pleasantly surprised when I lose weight quicker than expected than wonder why I'm not losing weight.
  • bms34b
    bms34b Posts: 401 Member
    I'd say active. That sounds about as active as a job could be.

    However, I'd keep this in mind that no matter what your settings are, listen to your body. If you feel like you aren't cutting as much as you could and aren't losing, try eating less. If you have no energy, eat more.

    Also, with such an active lifestyle, be aware of macros. I'm not sure what the best balance would be for your type of lifestyle/job, but pay attention to what amount of fat/protein/carbs make you feel best throughout the day.

    Thanks for your work with the Red Cross!
  • kathleennf
    kathleennf Posts: 606 Member
    I'd say active.And yes- thanks for working for Red Cross!!
  • stuntpilot51
    stuntpilot51 Posts: 53 Member
    I would consider that lightly active.
    Get yourself a Fitbit or any of the other calorie and step counters and see what it says, it will automatically adjust your food diary with exersize calories. I still think they overestimate slightly but I've had success using one.
    I found that I was alot more active than I thought for my job.
  • Dave198lbs
    Dave198lbs Posts: 8,810 Member
    lightly active
  • pkw58
    pkw58 Posts: 2,038 Member
    I would consider that lightly active.
    Get yourself a Fitbit or any of the other calorie and step counters and see what it says, it will automatically adjust your food diary with exersize calories. I still think they overestimate slightly but I've had success using one.
    I found that I was alot more active than I thought for my job.

    Agree with trying a fitbit ... If you lose clp on things try a nike fuel band ...
  • Martucha123
    Martucha123 Posts: 1,089 Member
    with all the loading I'd say very active
    you are looking here at at least 300 kcal extra if you are loading and unloading for 1 hour.
    given that you dont work every day I would drop activity level to active to compensate for free days holidays ect

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