very confused as to what to put in as my exercise

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julienamana
julienamana Posts: 27
in Fitness and Exercise
I have a unique exercise question . I own a compuerized embroidery shop. I run it alone so on very busy days like today I was on my feet for about 6 hours. I was running 2-3 machines at a time and in between that I am hooping garments, cutting the sewing material off the back, clippin little threads between letters, loading and unloading the machine and its pretty hard work. I work up a light sweat and I have NO idea what to put as my exercise.

On slow days I dont even count it as exercise but days like today are pretty common where Im hustling all day. The closest I could think to do was enter light to moderate cleaning for 240 minutes (3 hours) and that gave me about 800 exercies calories to eat. I really dont want to be starving myself, I read the posts on that and realize how important it is to eat enough. I feel like all I do is eat and im never hungry. The first 2 weeks I was eating about 1000 calories a day and working hard 3 days a week. Needless to say I was completely drained and ended up getting sick

My question is am I accounting for enough exercise with entering light cleaning? Is there something else I should do instead?

Replies

  • LadyPersia
    LadyPersia Posts: 1,444 Member
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    I dont think Light is correct. You seem to be doing alot of moving around on days like today. maybe a step counter cold help you come up with the amount of steps you day and calories burned over the amount of hour put in. I haave a omron and it tracks my steps and translates it into calories burned. I got my from a sports store. ****s or Sports Authority probably have them.
  • pacmom
    pacmom Posts: 2
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    I was wondering if you might be able to get and use a pedometer? That would let you translate all that hard work into miles walked, which would give you a pretty accurate idea of calories burned.
  • julienamana
    julienamana Posts: 27
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    man you guys are smart! love these threads! thanks :)
  • megsta21
    megsta21 Posts: 506 Member
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    It sounds to me like only half of what your doing is walking... so I would suggest maybe a heart rate monitor?? =)
  • briblue72
    briblue72 Posts: 672 Member
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    I wouldn't consider your daily work "exercise." Instead, go to your Goals tab, look for a description of your Daily Activity...
    Sedentary: Spend most of the day sitting (e.g. bank teller, desk job)
    Lightly Active: Spend a good part of the day on your feet (e.g. nurse, salesman)
    Active: Spend a good part of the day doing some physical activity (e.g. waitress, mailman)
    Very Active: Spend most of the day doing heavy physical activity (e.g. bike messenger, carpenter)

    I am a 2nd grade teacher - constantly on my feet, squatting, reaching up high & down low, lifting books/boxes, etc. and I have "Lightly Active" selected. Sounds like maybe you might want to choose that or the "Active" option.

    That way, MFP can build your deficit to automatically include your daily work.

    I reserve the exercise log for activities I do for the purpose of exercising.... sweating hard in clothes I put on for that purpose. I don't count my job as exercise, or a trip to the grocery store or mall, or housework. I did all of that stuff "before" and was considered obese. Daily work is not exercise (with the exception might be construction workers/roofers).
  • beccabeccac
    beccabeccac Posts: 28 Member
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    I wasn't sure what to put either. I work in apparel retail, and I'm on my feet for almost my entire 8 hour shift. I usually am doing a lot of the same tasks as you - bending, picking things up, carrying around armloads of merchandise, pushing carts, etc. I have only been on this site for about a week, but I've been entering it as 4 hours of light walking. I'm reconsidering that however, since even though I haven't really started to change my eating habits yet, this site has been saying that I am below on my calories most days (and I've even been bad lately splurging on candy and ice cream). I'm thinking that maybe (like the last poster said) I should stop counting my work as exercise and only count "working out" as exercise.
  • megsta21
    megsta21 Posts: 506 Member
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    If its constant I would update your Daily Activity, however as it seems to be only 3 days out of a week, I would say maybe Sedentary activity and a Heart Rate Monitor... =]
  • julienamana
    julienamana Posts: 27
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    yeah thats the part that confuses me. I dont want to change my activity level because its not an everyday thing, some days im sitting on my butt because I dont have alot of work or im designing something on the computer its only maybe 2-3 days that I hustle like that. I do think I should count it as exercise though because im working hard enough to sweat, alot sometimes lol and I have got to be burning quite a few calories.I am so tired when I have days like that its hurts to walk like Ive been doing squats all day. I just dont want to go into starvation mode by not eating enough but also dont want to over-judge my activity level and end up eating too much, I find it hard to fit in all my calories as it is and with the 800 more calories I tried to eat today and just couldnt do it was super hard lol. Does anyone else feel like they are just eating all the freakin time? It feels like this just cant be right but I guess when you are eating healthy you can eat alot more good food
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
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    I have a unique exercise question . I own a compuerized embroidery shop. I run it alone so on very busy days like today I was on my feet for about 6 hours. I was running 2-3 machines at a time and in between that I am hooping garments, cutting the sewing material off the back, clippin little threads between letters, loading and unloading the machine and its pretty hard work. I work up a light sweat and I have NO idea what to put as my exercise.

    On slow days I dont even count it as exercise but days like today are pretty common where Im hustling all day. The closest I could think to do was enter light to moderate cleaning for 240 minutes (3 hours) and that gave me about 800 exercies calories to eat. I really dont want to be starving myself, I read the posts on that and realize how important it is to eat enough. I feel like all I do is eat and im never hungry. The first 2 weeks I was eating about 1000 calories a day and working hard 3 days a week. Needless to say I was completely drained and ended up getting sick

    My question is am I accounting for enough exercise with entering light cleaning? Is there something else I should do instead?

    The risks of overestimating your output is greater than the risk of undereating--in general. For now, I would just do some experimenting--increase your intake by 200-300 calories on those days that you are more active--and see how it goes. If you hit a balance that works for you, then you could create your own activity--e.g. "busy work day"--with a set number of calories and just add that on so that you have a "marker" in your diary. To me, that makes more sense than either changing your profile all the time or using some other "activity' as a substitute. Most of the calorie counts for activity --e.g. "housework"--are wildly off and are ultimately more confusing that helpful IMO.

    Your biggest problem was not accounting for the "active" days, but trying to get by on 1000 Kcal/day.
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
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    It sounds to me like only half of what your doing is walking... so I would suggest maybe a heart rate monitor?? =)

    HRMs are useless for monitoring this type of activity. Sure, they'll spit out a number, but it has no foundation in reality. HRMs are designed to work with steady-state aerobic exercise, or with sustained activities that represent an effort greater that 40% of VO2 max.
  • ShaneT99
    ShaneT99 Posts: 278 Member
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    I think the best place to account for this type of "exercise" is in your profile settings. Use the active or very active lifestyle setting.
  • cnance
    cnance Posts: 92 Member
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    I have a suggestion.

    Once you update your weight, have it calculate your daily calorie intake with the 'Active' setting and note this number. Then change it back to the Sedentary setting and keep MFP on this setting. Make a new custom exercise for the difference in the two calorie intake levels and use this exercise on the Active days. This way you are eating for active when you're active and sedentary when you're not.

    Just be sure to recalculate the numbers each time you update you weight.
  • jac2lyn
    jac2lyn Posts: 90
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    I agree that you should see what they give you if you put in active lifestyle and then go back to sendentary and subtract the calories. Create yoru own exercise using that amount of calories for a full work day. Remember, if you calculate for too much exercise that is not good either. In this case you will be over eating... Its tricky but this seems to be the best idea!

    Good luck!

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