Heavy physical jobs

pikselinka
pikselinka Posts: 154 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Do you log these in to see caloric in and out? I am not talking about eating calories back, but logging this as a workout.

I work as warehouse packer and spend around 8 to 10 hours walking and carrying boxes weighting from 1 to 20 kg. I estimated that during that time I burn from around 1500 to 2000 additional calories per day. I only work 4 days a week thought, that's why upping my daily caloric intake for the whole week is pointless.

The reason I would like to see these logged is in case I feel the need to go over my non-working day caloric goal.

I am interested about your opinions on this.

Replies

  • humble
    humble Posts: 12 Member
    That might be expecting a bit too much from this site. for example: the food logs are made by the other people on the site so there's a lot of room for inaccuracy right there. and there are many other examples like that also. you may want to try one of those wellness monitors. with that being said, i still really love this site. i log (be it not regularly) my info to help me better recognize what i'm taking in. generally healthiness, so to speaking.
  • liftingandlipstick
    liftingandlipstick Posts: 1,857 Member
    It's good to know the approximate burn amount. I work retail, so I was interested to know how far I walk in a given workday (about 6 miles usually), but I don't log it as exercise. If you want to log it, I would log it as half the time, just to account for breaks and lazy periods during the day. I sometimes do this when I do physical labor at work that I feel is above and beyond my activity level. (I set myself to lightly active to account for the walking, but some days I do spend and hour or so slinging heavy boxes around).

    That said, if you're just looking for insurance, and you don't otherwise workout, you may want to look into TDEE.You would calculate your average burn for the WEEK, take off a percentage (10-20%usually) and you have your daily calorie goal.
    It would allow you to eat more even on days that you don't work, but would still give you a calorie cushion for the days that you do. 2,000 extra cals is way high for one day anyway!
  • brandnewsnickerpuss
    brandnewsnickerpuss Posts: 110 Member
    You could try getting something like a Fitbit. That would sync with MFP and adjust your calories for you on an as-needed basis.
  • kdeaux1959
    kdeaux1959 Posts: 2,675 Member
    The option here is to classify yourself as "sedentary" and log the work as exercise... Be careful to only log the amount of time you are actually performing the activity and not the whole shift... The danger here is that this is a regular activity that you are accustomed to doing and you probably don't burn as much doing it as someone who does not do it daily.

    Most of us would go to our original settings and list ourselves as moderate activity level... This would accommodate this extra activity. The downside to this is that you probably don't perform at this level on your days off so those days would be inaccurate... It is your call.
  • pholbert
    pholbert Posts: 575 Member
    I am a custodian, I use a body media fit. I wear it all the time. I put my setting at sedentary .And Have my body media fit linked to MFP. And it adds the calories burned for me
  • prestigio
    prestigio Posts: 181 Member
    If you use caloric expanditure calculators that use the Harris-Benedict or katch Mcardle method, they take into account your daily activity level.
    For the days that you work the heavy jobs, I would say use the appropriate activity level during the calculation.
    For the other days calculate the caloric expanditure again using a lower activity level.
    This way you will get two caloric goals to reach on your work/off days.
  • 3laine75
    3laine75 Posts: 3,069 Member
    Personally, I'd set it as 'very active' and not log it as exercise. If it's something you've always done, your body will be used to it.
  • healthdiscoveryjournal
    healthdiscoveryjournal Posts: 8
    Very nice to hear that about your work !!!
    apart from it you can also plan "coaching yourself thin ".with coaching yourself you can lose weight faster than you ever thought possible and also boost your energy level.

    thanks
  • pikselinka
    pikselinka Posts: 154 Member
    Thanks guys, as of now I am set as Very Active, due to work and workouts on my non work days. Although I have set up my own calorie goal to lose weight. I do log my work days just to see calorie expenditure.

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