Calculating calories burned at work?

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Hello everyone.

I work as a cook and a large part of my day is sitter Ib my feet. In addition I frequently have to squat low or reach high, I have to carry heavy objects ranging from 20-75, sometimes 100 pounds. Amoung other physical activities.

I want to figure out how much I burn at work, I'd like to get a FitBit to track my TDEE, but that obviously only tracks steps and such.

Any advice or suggestion to track my job?

Thanks.
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Replies

  • Ready2Rock206
    Ready2Rock206 Posts: 9,488 Member
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    You should up your activity level to reflect your work rather than trying to add it as exercise.
  • sjaplo
    sjaplo Posts: 974 Member
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    It's your job - you do it daily so really you shouldn't count it as exercise. Instead, if you are using MFP, set your settings to lightly active. OR - if you are doing TDEE less 20% there's a spreadsheet on here that's really helpful

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/717858-spreadsheet-bmr-tdee-and-deficit-calcs-macros-hrm

    It's helped me tremendously
  • LazSommer
    LazSommer Posts: 1,851 Member
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    Don't.
  • SpencerGJackson
    SpencerGJackson Posts: 40 Member
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    It's your job - you do it daily so really you shouldn't count it as exercise. Instead, if you are using MFP, set your settings to lightly active. OR - if you are doing TDEE less 20% there's a spreadsheet on here that's really helpful

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/717858-spreadsheet-bmr-tdee-and-deficit-calcs-macros-hrm

    It's helped me tremendously
    I workout 5 days a week in addition to my job.

    I've set my self to: Active and log workouts on top of that.

    Have I been using it wrong?

    Crud!
  • Ready2Rock206
    Ready2Rock206 Posts: 9,488 Member
    Options
    It's your job - you do it daily so really you shouldn't count it as exercise. Instead, if you are using MFP, set your settings to lightly active. OR - if you are doing TDEE less 20% there's a spreadsheet on here that's really helpful

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/717858-spreadsheet-bmr-tdee-and-deficit-calcs-macros-hrm

    It's helped me tremendously
    I workout 5 days a week in addition to my job.

    I've set my self to: Active and log workouts on top of that.

    Have I been using it wrong?

    Crud!

    That sounds correct, although you might even be more than active considering your job.
  • SparrowGal2014
    SparrowGal2014 Posts: 33 Member
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    I move a LOT in my day. Which is great, but if you do that EVERYDAY, it wouldn't count. Perfect illustration of this is heavy marathoners. One MUST train to do a marathon, you don't just run 26.2 miles. BUt they eat a lot anyway & run regularly, so it diesn't do anything for weight loss.
  • marissanik
    marissanik Posts: 344 Member
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    You're probably not burning as much as you think anyway. I thought I burned a lot more at work but turns out I was very wrong after wearing my HRM. Use the TDEE method and adjust activity level
  • FitCattitude
    FitCattitude Posts: 64 Member
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    You can use a Polar FT4 that will record time/calories/heart rate when you press the middle right button (begins training recording). 2.5 hours out walking about today I now know burnt off 620 calories. :smile:
  • HisStrengthCounselor
    HisStrengthCounselor Posts: 191 Member
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    You can use a Polar FT4 that will record time/calories/heart rate when you press the middle right button (begins training recording). 2.5 hours out walking about today I now know burnt off 620 calories. :smile:

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00F42RGLA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

    want to piggy back FitCattiude's post; GET A POLAR FT4! I have it and it is the BEST piece of equipment I have bought.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    You're probably not burning as much as you think anyway. I thought I burned a lot more at work but turns out I was very wrong after wearing my HRM. Use the TDEE method and adjust activity level

    Sorry, wrong application for the calorie burn formula of a HRM.

    The formula is ONLY useful for steady-state aerobic exercise, so same HR for 2-4 minutes.

    It's NOT correct for below the exercise zone, which starts at 90 bpm, up to where you reach anaerobic threshold around 150-170.

    So wearing it all day to see if your active job burns much is wrong use, and wrong calculations on it.

    You can stand still and have HR go to same level it would be sitting. But obviously you are burning slightly more standing than sitting.
    Same way there is a difference between BMR (calories burned sleeping deeply) and the slightly higher RMR (calories burned resting BUT awake).
    HR in each of those cases would match and HRM would never know the difference between them for calculating calories.
  • SpencerGJackson
    SpencerGJackson Posts: 40 Member
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    You're probably not burning as much as you think anyway. I thought I burned a lot more at work but turns out I was very wrong after wearing my HRM. Use the TDEE method and adjust activity level

    Sorry, wrong application for the calorie burn formula of a HRM.

    The formula is ONLY useful for steady-state aerobic exercise, so same HR for 2-4 minutes.

    It's NOT correct for below the exercise zone, which starts at 90 bpm, up to where you reach anaerobic threshold around 150-170.

    So wearing it all day to see if your active job burns much is wrong use, and wrong calculations on it.

    You can stand still and have HR go to same level it would be sitting. But obviously you are burning slightly more standing than sitting.
    Same way there is a difference between BMR (calories burned sleeping deeply) and the slightly higher RMR (calories burned resting BUT awake).
    HR in each of those cases would match and HRM would never know the difference between them for calculating calories.
    my resting heart rate is over 90.
    Yes, i know im unhealthy.

    Wound a HRM even be of use period considering that?
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    I move a LOT in my day. Which is great, but if you do that EVERYDAY, it wouldn't count. Perfect illustration of this is heavy marathoners. One MUST train to do a marathon, you don't just run 26.2 miles. BUt they eat a lot anyway & run regularly, so it diesn't do anything for weight loss.

    Wouldn't count as what exactly? It does indeed count for burning more calories, true it may not count as exercise for making improvements.

    The fact it may or may not be a workout for you personally doesn't matter as far as the fact there are more calories burned and intake.
    It would matter if you wanted your time spent actually getting a workout to improve the body.

    Not sure how your example of marathoners shows it has no bearing for weight loss.
    Sure it does, if they ate less than they burned, which may be high, they would indeed lose weight, done right hopefully just fat.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    my resting heart rate is over 90.
    Yes, i know im unhealthy.

    Wound a HRM even be of use period considering that?

    For non-exercise use in estimating calorie burn - no. Not for anyone.

    Just because you moving around starts getting your HR in to the exercise zone - it's not really exercise precisely because it happens whenever you start to move for normal daily movements.
    For anyone starting to exercise, those first 3-4 weeks are going to confuse any HRM calorie burn calcs.

    For exercise, yes, but I'd suggest the cheap Polars and other HRM's are going to be very inaccurate because they are missing vital stat (VO2max and self-test for it) to estimate calorie burn even decently. They make many assumptions.
    While they can be decent estimates when your BMI is in average range, they assume bad BMI then bad fitness level, and that affects how they estimate calorie burn.
    And while that assumption is true at the start, you can get a better fitness level much faster than you can lose weight to get a good BMI. It's actually also a bad assumption for someone with good BMI that is totally out of shape.

    What's your exercise right now and for a while?
    Walking sounds like it would be a workout for you right now.

    As to your daily non-exercise activity level, I'd agree Active, and you are doing it correctly.
  • justformel
    justformel Posts: 193 Member
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    Get a bodymedia, it will calculate the calories you burn all day long, plus count your steps. :smile:
  • SpencerGJackson
    SpencerGJackson Posts: 40 Member
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    my resting heart rate is over 90.
    Yes, i know im unhealthy.

    Wound a HRM even be of use period considering that?

    For non-exercise use in estimating calorie burn - no. Not for anyone.

    Just because you moving around starts getting your HR in to the exercise zone - it's not really exercise precisely because it happens whenever you start to move for normal daily movements.
    For anyone starting to exercise, those first 3-4 weeks are going to confuse any HRM calorie burn calcs.

    For exercise, yes, but I'd suggest the cheap Polars and other HRM's are going to be very inaccurate because they are missing vital stat (VO2max and self-test for it) to estimate calorie burn even decently. They make many assumptions.
    While they can be decent estimates when your BMI is in average range, they assume bad BMI then bad fitness level, and that affects how they estimate calorie burn.
    And while that assumption is true at the start, you can get a better fitness level much faster than you can lose weight to get a good BMI. It's actually also a bad assumption for someone with good BMI that is totally out of shape.

    What's your exercise right now and for a while?
    Walking sounds like it would be a workout for you right now.

    As to your daily non-exercise activity level, I'd agree Active, and you are doing it correctly.
    I do strength exercises every other day and jog/bike on the other days.

    I honestly don't feel exhausted by walking. I feel perfectly normal dispite high resting heart rate. Im in healthy weight for my height as well. 137 at 5'3
  • PaytraB
    PaytraB Posts: 2,360 Member
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    Don't.

    This.
    Working is your normal routine, not exercise. Use MFP's "normal daily activities" level to include your work.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    I do strength exercises every other day and jog/bike on the other days.

    I honestly don't feel exhausted by walking. I feel perfectly normal dispite high resting heart rate. Im in healthy weight for my height as well. 137 at 5'3

    HRM might be useful for the biking. Not for strength training, which isn't aerobic if done right, and isn't steady-state HR at all.
    Strength training just log as that from database. It may seem low compared to equal time cardio, but that is very true.

    Jogging, the database can actually be more accurate than HRM - IF, if you select a speed you actually did the whole time level. Round down if needed, unless you had incline, then round up.
    If you warm-up walk 5 min, jog slow 4-5 mph, finally reaching 7 mph, and then walk 5 min cooldown - logging that as running 7 mph is obviously wrong and will be inflated calorie burn.
    If you went total distance 6 miles in 1 hr workout, then of course average of 6 mph, then that's what it's logged for.

    Biking, the database is only decent if you went 60 min or more and didn't have many stops for lights or signs, and again are honest with the speed. With a long non-interrupted ride, the up/down hill will cancel each other, head/tail wind will too, meaning your avg speed is good. But start and stop with resting time waiting for light, and coasting down and sprinting off, all ruin the estimate.
    At the least, total time (minus stops) and distance of the ride gives an average that will be underestimated in database.
    Inaccuracy there would likely be about the same as inaccuracy of HRM.

    And a workout doesn't have to feel exhausting to be beneficial.
    In fact if you had a good lifting workout, and really tore up the muscle fibers, you do an intense cardio session the next day leaving you exhausted, you likely just killed the repair process from the lifting, compared to what it could have been.
    And if you do a hard exhausting run, and the next day do leg strength training, you likely won't be able to lift as much with tired muscles. If you can't overload the muscles with weight because of tired muscles, you aren't creating a need to repair stronger.

    And since recovery and repair take longer in a diet, that's bad for either workout.
    Day after day of exhausting workouts will at some point be mediocre after mediocre workouts - might feel the same, but totally different response from the body.

    And if your cardio is training your body to shoot the HR up to almost max you can do, that lower end resting HR will be very slow if at all to respond by going lower.

    Sounds like you should spend some time walking.
  • SpencerGJackson
    SpencerGJackson Posts: 40 Member
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    I do strength exercises every other day and jog/bike on the other days.

    I honestly don't feel exhausted by walking. I feel perfectly normal dispite high resting heart rate. Im in healthy weight for my height as well. 137 at 5'3

    HRM might be useful for the biking. Not for strength training, which isn't aerobic if done right, and isn't steady-state HR at all.
    Strength training just log as that from database. It may seem low compared to equal time cardio, but that is very true.

    Jogging, the database can actually be more accurate than HRM - IF, if you select a speed you actually did the whole time level. Round down if needed, unless you had incline, then round up.
    If you warm-up walk 5 min, jog slow 4-5 mph, finally reaching 7 mph, and then walk 5 min cooldown - logging that as running 7 mph is obviously wrong and will be inflated calorie burn.
    If you went total distance 6 miles in 1 hr workout, then of course average of 6 mph, then that's what it's logged for.

    Biking, the database is only decent if you went 60 min or more and didn't have many stops for lights or signs, and again are honest with the speed. With a long non-interrupted ride, the up/down hill will cancel each other, head/tail wind will too, meaning your avg speed is good. But start and stop with resting time waiting for light, and coasting down and sprinting off, all ruin the estimate.
    At the least, total time (minus stops) and distance of the ride gives an average that will be underestimated in database.
    Inaccuracy there would likely be about the same as inaccuracy of HRM.

    And a workout doesn't have to feel exhausting to be beneficial.
    In fact if you had a good lifting workout, and really tore up the muscle fibers, you do an intense cardio session the next day leaving you exhausted, you likely just killed the repair process from the lifting, compared to what it could have been.
    And if you do a hard exhausting run, and the next day do leg strength training, you likely won't be able to lift as much with tired muscles. If you can't overload the muscles with weight because of tired muscles, you aren't creating a need to repair stronger.

    And since recovery and repair take longer in a diet, that's bad for either workout.
    Day after day of exhausting workouts will at some point be mediocre after mediocre workouts - might feel the same, but totally different response from the body.

    And if your cardio is training your body to shoot the HR up to almost max you can do, that lower end resting HR will be very slow if at all to respond by going lower.

    Sounds like you should spend some time walking.
    Wow. Thanks for all the awesome information.
  • FitCattitude
    FitCattitude Posts: 64 Member
    Options
    You can use a Polar FT4 that will record time/calories/heart rate when you press the middle right button (begins training recording). 2.5 hours out walking about today I now know burnt off 620 calories. :smile:

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00F42RGLA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

    want to piggy back FitCattiude's post; GET A POLAR FT4! I have it and it is the BEST piece of equipment I have bought.

    Absolutely! It's so encouraging while exercising to see that you're in the fat burning zone and to at last be able to be clear about how many calories exercise sessions burn up. Also makes it far easier to fill in myfitnesspal and thus eat right. I like removing the guesswork; makes you feel much freer to concentrate on being more active and enjoying that. Also means that effort put into this really pays off; no time wasted from under or over guessing, that can make progress slower. Efficient! :smile:
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    Absolutely! It's so encouraging while exercising to see that you're in the fat burning zone and to at last be able to be clear about how many calories exercise sessions burn up. Also makes it far easier to fill in myfitnesspal and thus eat right. I like removing the guesswork; makes you feel much freer to concentrate on being more active and enjoying that. Also means that effort put into this really pays off; no time wasted from under or over guessing, that can make progress slower. Efficient! :smile:

    Just thought I'd touch quickly on a myth it sounds like you are referencing with comment about being in the fat-burning zone.

    You burn more % fat calories in that zone because you are burning so much less calories.

    If you go harder, and burn more calories, of course the % of the fat burned is less - but guess what, it's the same quantity if not more.

    The fat-burning zone as the place to stay for general exercise and calorie burn is a myth, if you are limited on time you should go harder.
    Because your whole day needs to be taken in to the picture, not just the mere time of the workout.

    The fact is, you burn same amount of fat during the workout going harder, but more calories which are carbs, then after your next meal more carbs are going to muscle storage that were used up, your insulin goes down faster, and you go back into fat burning mode faster then.

    But, the fat-burning zone, better called the Active Recovery HR zone as it was prior to the fad, is useful for exactly what the name implies - need a recovery workout while repairing from prior hard day, that will get the blood flowing to aid healing.

    But as a goal for a workout in general day after day, you really are missing out on burning more calories, which means you could be eating more.