Sedentary or Lightly Active?

Good morning!
It is my understanding that 'Sedentary' means that you do little standing, walking. lifting, or movement other than general light movement a person might do throughout the day. This would be things like sitting at home watching tv, working at a desk, perhaps having to get up every now and then to grab a cup of coffee, etc. You would choose sedentary if you do not do much moving around through the course of the day other than general things like checking the mail, going to the bathroom, fixing a meal, etc. And then you would add in things like housework, taking a walk, exercising, etc under your exercise/ calories burned list. Sedentary is when you are generally moving around very little on a regular basis. Jobs that might fall into this category would be a telemarketer, truck driver, cab driver, receptionist (or other desk job where you spend most of your time sitting at your desk),

Lightly active is when you are moving around on a regular basis,,, a bit more than general everyday random movements like described above that would be too much random stuff to enter into your exercise/calories burned log. This would be movement that is done on a daily basis that requires more than basic everyday needed-to-live movement. This would be someone who perhaps works at a desk but has to walk back and forth between floors or areas of an office building on a regular basis throughout the course of a day, someone who works at a job that requires you to stand most of the day, a person that moves and is active for a portion of the day, but is generally sitting or not moving. This is where most non-physical labor jobs are. The typical cashier, office worker, department store worker, forklift driver, etc would fall into this category. Of course every job is different and every person has different responsibilities, but these are just general guidelines. If you know you don't move much- choose sedentary. If you feel that you move around quite a bit but don't really feel like you are expending energy- choose lightly active.

The moderately and very active categories are for those that are in almost constant movement, heavy work, factory work, a lot of bending or lifting, construction, very busy restaurant work, etc.
My doctor told me to follow this formula-
If you are up moving around less than 25% of your total waking hours- choose sedentary
If you are up moving around about half of your waking hours but not exerting yourself- choose lightly active
If you are moving around most of your waking hours- choose moderately active
If you are moving around most of your waking hours and also doing a lot of bending, lifting, carrying, running, or other things that may make you out of breath- choose very active
Hope this helps!

Good morning!
It is my understanding that 'Sedentary' means that you do little standing, walking. lifting, or movement other than general light movement a person might do throughout the day. This would be things like sitting at home watching tv, working at a desk, perhaps having to get up every now and then to grab a cup of coffee, etc. You would choose sedentary if you do not do much moving around through the course of the day other than general things like checking the mail, going to the bathroom, fixing a meal, etc. And then you would add in things like housework, taking a walk, exercising, etc under your exercise/ calories burned list. Sedentary is when you are generally moving around very little on a regular basis. Jobs that might fall into this category would be a telemarketer, truck driver, cab driver, receptionist (or other desk job where you spend most of your time sitting at your desk),

Lightly active is when you are moving around on a regular basis,,, a bit more than general everyday random movements like described above that would be too much random stuff to enter into your exercise/calories burned log. This would be movement that is done on a daily basis that requires more than basic everyday needed-to-live movement. This would be someone who perhaps works at a desk but has to walk back and forth between floors or areas of an office building on a regular basis throughout the course of a day, someone who works at a job that requires you to stand most of the day, a person that moves and is active for a portion of the day, but is generally sitting or not moving. This is where most non-physical labor jobs are. The typical cashier, office worker, department store worker, forklift driver, etc would fall into this category. Of course every job is different and every person has different responsibilities, but these are just general guidelines. If you know you don't move much- choose sedentary. If you feel that you move around quite a bit but don't really feel like you are expending energy- choose lightly active.

The moderately and very active categories are for those that are in almost constant movement, heavy work, factory work, a lot of bending or lifting, construction, very busy restaurant work, etc.
My doctor told me to follow this formula-
If you are up moving around less than 25% of your total waking hours- choose sedentary
If you are up moving around about half of your waking hours but not exerting yourself- choose lightly active
If you are moving around most of your waking hours- choose moderately active
If you are moving around most of your waking hours and also doing a lot of bending, lifting, carrying, running, or other things that may make you out of breath- choose very active
Hope this helps!

I agree with this post. It's the same thing my doctor told me after getting my annual check-up. Even if you take into consideration working out like 3 times a week ( 30min-1hr), but still is mostly on the couch, chair or whatever, you should still consider yourself sedentary. You can add up the calories burned from working out and go from there.