What activity setting should I be on?

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bwilton77
bwilton77 Posts: 93 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I have had my activity level at sedentary since I started but I work 3-4 times a week and when I am at work I am on my feet the whole time. I have worn a HRM to work the last 4 times I worked and it shows that I burn 2000-2400 while there my calories goal is set at 1500. The days I am off I am in front of a computer handling my ebay site except for when I do my scheduled workouts. Should I change my activity level ro slightly active or leave it as sedentary and enter my work hours as exercise for the days I work or does it even matter? Can anyone help with some direction here because I am lost.

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  • rfialkiewicz
    rfialkiewicz Posts: 183 Member
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    I would be interested to know the answer too. I currently work 6 days a week on my feet, but if I ever go to part time it would be good to know how others are measuring it.
  • 4lafz
    4lafz Posts: 1,078 Member
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    My activity goal is set just above yours - lightly active. With that my "normal calories burned per day" (see your Goals page and look in the upper right side) is 2000 calories. While I am sure your work is a great workout - I would think part of that may be "normal calories burned" - not all of it but some. Basically what it tells me is that I need to burn more than the normal 2000 per day to lose weight - so I work out. Just my understanding - I could be wrong!

    Do what works for you - you can play with the goals and see if it changes as you will be able to change it back immediately.

    All the best!
  • aprilshowers13
    aprilshowers13 Posts: 105
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    I've always wondered this also. I say it depends on what you actually do at work.

    I stand on my feet and walk alot at work. Some days I do alot of lifting. When I wore my pedometer to work it said I walked 3.25 miles before I realised it fell off. Just recently started eating 1600 calories, 200 more than before. I'm still losing weigh with the increase. On my days off I don't eat as much.

    You can always lower your calories on your off days.
  • beccabeccac
    beccabeccac Posts: 28 Member
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    I wondered the same thing at first too. Originally I had set my activity setting at reasonably active since on the days I work I'm on my feet for 8 hours straight (I work in retail). But since I'm very sedentary on my days off, I changed my activity setting to sedentary, and created an exercise called "work" that burns 140 calories (the difference between my calorie goals for sedentary vs. active). That way on days I work I just enter that in as my exercise. I was realizing that on the days I'm sedentary I wasn't meeting my calorie goals and yet I was feeling plenty full, so I knew my calorie goal was too high. I was actually adding in candy bars to meet my calorie goals, and I know that's not healthy.
  • millerll
    millerll Posts: 873 Member
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    You might qualify as lightly active. One warning, though, if you're planning to use sedentary and manually enter your daily activity as exercise: Heart rate minitors ARE NOT accurate for measuring normal daily activity. They are really only accurate when you're in a certain VO2 max range. I don't have all the specifics on this, but I do know that normal daily activity doesn't get you there, and the numbers the HRM reads are pretty useless. If you search the site for HRM or VO2, you will find some excellent articles on this topic by people a lot smarter than I am! Good luck!
  • bwilton77
    bwilton77 Posts: 93 Member
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    Thanks I think I will try adding a spot in my exercise marked work and try that first.

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    Created by MyFitnessPal.com - Free Calorie Counter
  • abyt42
    abyt42 Posts: 1,358 Member
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    Since I gained the weight with the same job I'm working now, I don't count my job as exercise (though I've used a pedometer and know I walk between 2 and 2.5 miles a day teaching high school English. However, I don't break a sweat unless called on to discuss sensitive matters!)
  • Rivalee
    Rivalee Posts: 22
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    I'd say if you are choosing between two levels, choose the more sedentary level so that you aren't thinking you're working toward your goals but actually having too many calories.

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