Recording Exercise During my Work Day

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rljohnson11
rljohnson11 Posts: 44
in Health and Weight Loss
I have a sedentary job and spend a lot of my time at my desk on my computer. However, during the course of a regular day, I am walking around and up and down some stairs (my desk is on second floor).
I'm thinking I should add these calories burned to my diary to accurately reflect my calories burned, but by the time I remember to record them, I can't remember how long I walked or how many times I went up and down the stairs.
Any advice from others with sedentary jobs and occassional bouts of exercise regarding recording the correct amount of calories burned would be greatly appreciated!:smile:

Replies

  • Schmoopy221
    Schmoopy221 Posts: 19 Member
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    I have the same dilemma. Any input would be greatly appreciated.
  • kao708
    kao708 Posts: 813 Member
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    If it's just trips from one are of your office to another I wouldn't count it. Just consider it a cushion and move on. Too much room for error if you try to guess how long you "walked".
  • lisy28
    lisy28 Posts: 156 Member
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    I am the same situation i normally put 60 mins of walking at a slow pace... to capture the calories during a work day

    I only put this to capture some of them i know i am on my feet a total of longer than an hr in an 8 hr day but just to be on the safe side that is what i do. As i dont want to be wrong and eat a **** load of calories that i didnt actually walk off

    Hope this helps

    if you want to be 100% accurate you can wear a pedomoter (spelling) or HRM
  • foxxybrown
    foxxybrown Posts: 838 Member
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    I wouldn't count them.
  • redxmasqueen
    redxmasqueen Posts: 81
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    Wear a pedometer during the day. At least it would give you a better idea of how much walking you are actually doing.
  • altorock13
    altorock13 Posts: 7 Member
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    One great thing that I do is to have a monitor that I wear as a watch on my wrist. I got it for under $30 at Walmart. When I start my work day, I start my calorie burner that is on there and it monitors my heart rate and calorie burning for the day. If you check your heart rate during those times of activity, it will adjust accordingly to give you a more accurate calorie burning count. At the end of your work day, write down the calories burned and enter it in as one grand total when you imput your exercise.

    The other option you could do is to up your activity level when you do your goals. It will keep track of calories that you burn on your own and subtract them. Because I am up and down a lot in my job, for awhile I upped my activity level under my goals and that led to less calories I had to burn working out because I burn them during my day. I kept my monitor on for a day and added up all my calories burned and they came out to be pretty close, give or take a hundred.

    Hope that helps:)
  • cheangela
    cheangela Posts: 173
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    I have a desk job too that I have to run to any one of our four buildings to fetch paperwork. I also sit on a yoga ball instead of a chair so I can constantly be moving around without disturbing my work. I just upped my status from "sedentary" to the one just higher than that (I think it's moderate?). Neither is going to be accurate anyways -- there is no cookie cutter way to dictate what your metabolic burn is. If you're really interested in finding out your real burn, I would suggest one of those fancypants bodybugg type thingies like the fitbit - http://www.fitbit.com/. That seems to be the cheapest and most bang for the buck one out there.
  • kellybelly113
    kellybelly113 Posts: 60 Member
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    I am the same situation i normally put 60 mins of walking at a slow pace... to capture the calories during a work day

    I only put this to capture some of them i know i am on my feet a total of longer than an hr in an 8 hr day but just to be on the safe side that is what i do. As i dont want to be wrong and eat a **** load of calories that i didnt actually walk off

    Hope this helps

    if you want to be 100% accurate you can wear a pedomoter (spelling) or HRM

    I do the same, but I don't do it everyday. Just if I'm doing more walking than normal. If I'm doing just normal walking around the office, I use it as cushion knowing I at least worked off those many calories that I've already entered.
  • laurelderry
    laurelderry Posts: 384 Member
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    One great thing that I do is to have a monitor that I wear as a watch on my wrist. I got it for under $30 at Walmart. When I start my work day, I start my calorie burner that is on there and it monitors my heart rate and calorie burning for the day. If you check your heart rate during those times of activity, it will adjust accordingly to give you a more accurate calorie burning count. At the end of your work day, write down the calories burned and enter it in as one grand total when you imput your exercise.

    The other option you could do is to up your activity level when you do your goals. It will keep track of calories that you burn on your own and subtract them. Because I am up and down a lot in my job, for awhile I upped my activity level under my goals and that led to less calories I had to burn working out because I burn them during my day. I kept my monitor on for a day and added up all my calories burned and they came out to be pretty close, give or take a hundred.

    Hope that helps:)

    What brand was the monitor?
  • MrsCon40
    MrsCon40 Posts: 2,351 Member
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    I think you shouldn't count them.

    Wearing an HRM will misstate your metobolic burn because MFP already has calculated what you burn just sitting there - so you would be double counting your calories expended.

    If you were to wear a pedometer you would probably be surprised at how little walking it actually is and you won't do yourself any favors overstating your activities. Aren't most of us here because we're not active enough? :laugh:
  • aristel
    aristel Posts: 110
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    get yourself a pedometer watch. tracks your daily steps
  • mislove68
    mislove68 Posts: 240
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    I am a stay at home mom so I changed my activity to active and it didnt change how many calories I needed to eat. i would suggest checking that settings.
  • wildkatt7
    wildkatt7 Posts: 163 Member
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    every day I put 20 minutes walking, 15 minutes meal prep, 15 minutes chores, and 15 minutes stairs.... that covers the basic life... If I do more, I don't worry about it, unless it is substantially more (like a 2 hour prison tour I took my students to last week)... I am losing average 2 lbs per week, so it seems to be working.

    when I lecture, I walk around the room some, but not the whole time, so I could 1/3 of the actual class time to account for the time I walk around and the weight shifting!!!!

    hope that helps
    :happy:
  • ShakenWithJoy
    ShakenWithJoy Posts: 24
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    consider a pedometer to track your steps per day

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