Sedentary or lightly active?

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I'm not sure what to choose as my activity level. I used to use sedentary as I have a desk job, but I'm more active than I used to be and I now average about 12000 steps per day, up from about 5000 before. Any advice?

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  • According to my Pacer App anything above 10,000 steps per day classes as highly active, at least in regard to walking.
  • jennifer_417
    jennifer_417 Posts: 12,344 Member
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    Off subject, but how do you manage 12,000 steps a day at a desk job? I work an office job and I average 3000, even though I'm on my feet all day.
  • NicholePotato
    NicholePotato Posts: 113 Member
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    I'm also confused, I sit around mostly, but on work days i stand for 5-8 hours at a time. Not walking, just standing in place. Is 8 hours of standing still sedentary?
  • LouiseH238
    LouiseH238 Posts: 199 Member
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    I walk to work in the morning (half an hour), spend an hour and ten minutes walking at my lunch break, and walk home in the evening. It usually adds up to about seven and a half miles. I go for a big long walk on a Saturday afternoon/evening (usually about three hours) and then take Sunday off. It averages around 12,000 - my record for one day was about 17,000 and my record low was about 1500.
  • sargessexyone
    sargessexyone Posts: 494 Member
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    I would keep it at sedentary and add in your walking as an activity. This will give you more calories to eat if you choose to do so. I think most people on here only eat back about 25-75 % of their activity calories.
  • Cathalain
    Cathalain Posts: 424 Member
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    I have a desk job - but I also average about 10 to 15,000 steps a day. I walk at the very least 3 miles a day, though, to and from work, so that probably accounts for most of it. I'm also up and down a lot, but not enough to the point where it would be over 10k steps. Most likely, the OP probably does a lot of walking as an outside activity like I do.

    I also kind of struggled with this - walking a minimum of 3 miles a day is not what I'd call "sedentary" - but I left mine at that setting and did what sargessexyone suggested - I let my Fitbit add the calories in and I eat to that level.

    I've now set mine as "lightly active", though, because I'm also doing C25K and other gym work in addition to the walking. It seems to work for me so far.
  • BeingFatSucksss
    BeingFatSucksss Posts: 368 Member
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    Okay so im a student.. I walk 1.5kms to university daily. I sit all day. I smh manage to walk nearly 10k steps per day (incl. the treadmill walk) So is it considered sedentary or lightly active ??
  • 4daluvof_candice
    4daluvof_candice Posts: 483 Member
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    I walk to work in the morning (half an hour), spend an hour and ten minutes walking at my lunch break, and walk home in the evening. It usually adds up to about seven and a half miles. I go for a big long walk on a Saturday afternoon/evening (usually about three hours) and then take Sunday off. It averages around 12,000 - my record for one day was about 17,000 and my record low was about 1500.

    If you log your walks sedentary, if not I would say lightly active
  • LouiseH238
    LouiseH238 Posts: 199 Member
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    I think I might leave it as sedentary, then, and let my fitbit work the rest out. And yeah, I maybe confused things by mentioning the desk job - I definitely don't get that amount of steps from being up and down at work! I mentioned it because the sedentary option specifically mentions a desk job, which I have, but I do much more exercise than that.
  • 4daluvof_candice
    4daluvof_candice Posts: 483 Member
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    Okay so im a student.. I walk 1.5kms to university daily. I sit all day. I smh manage to walk nearly 10k steps per day (incl. the treadmill walk) So is it considered sedentary or lightly active ??

    If you log the 1.5km and treadmill as exercise I would say sedentary, if you dont lightly active and dont log it.

    edit: spelling
  • BekaBooluvsu
    BekaBooluvsu Posts: 470 Member
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    I would continue the sedentary. I clean for hours everyday and exercise however I only log my exercise. Anything that is part of normal everyday life I leave out.
  • sargessexyone
    sargessexyone Posts: 494 Member
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    Okay so im a student.. I walk 1.5kms to university daily. I sit all day. I smh manage to walk nearly 10k steps per day (incl. the treadmill walk) So is it considered sedentary or lightly active ??

    Technically, I would consider that lightly active. I am a stay at home mom with a 5 yr old. I rarely sit longer then 10 mins at a time, I would consider myself lightly active but I have mine set to sedentary and let my fitbit add in any walking I do. With my sedentary setting I get 1200 calories to start the day but as my fitbit adds in activity I usually average 1400-1500 calories per day. Sometimes more.
  • ktsmom430
    ktsmom430 Posts: 1,100 Member
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    I have an office job too. I have been consistently getting over 20,000 steps per day for the last month, participating in a challenge on fitbit's site.
    Even before that, I was getting 16,000 to 18,000 steps per day.
    I work out on the elliptical and/or treadmill, M-F in the office gym before I begin my work day. Every time I get up from my desk, I take a walk around the office and walk up and down a flight of 20 stairs. Believe me, it is doable and it all adds up.
    I have my activity level marked as sedentary, maybe I should change it.
  • 4daluvof_candice
    4daluvof_candice Posts: 483 Member
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    I think I might leave it as sedentary, then, and let my fitbit work the rest out. And yeah, I maybe confused things by mentioning the desk job - I definitely don't get that amount of steps from being up and down at work! I mentioned it because the sedentary option specifically mentions a desk job, which I have, but I do much more exercise than that.

    I have a desk job, i walk from the printer to the fax daily but to me thats still sedentary, I have two 15min breaks where I walk each day. I log these; so since I do becasue I plan on eating those back if needed, i choose the sedentary setting, if I didnt log this 30 brisk walk each day I would set it to lightly active and then log another exercise I do outside of work or normal activity if I wanted to exercise that day.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
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    I would keep it at sedentary and add in your walking as an activity. This will give you more calories to eat if you choose to do so. I think most people on here only eat back about 25-75 % of their activity calories.

    This, or use http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/ and use lightly active... it will be more accurate as it accounts for exercise (and your walking).
  • kshadows
    kshadows Posts: 1,315 Member
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    I'm not sure what to choose as my activity level. I used to use sedentary as I have a desk job, but I'm more active than I used to be and I now average about 12000 steps per day, up from about 5000 before. Any advice?

    I found an awesome description of this today. MOST people are NOT sedentary, regardless of whether or not they work at a desk. The website I found described the levels as:

    Sedentary - I'm bedridden
    Lightly Active - I have a desk job
    Moderately Active - I'm a teacher/spend most of my day standing
    Heavy active - I work construction, landscaping, or other physically demanding job