Sedentary or Lightly Active?

Calamitycazza
Calamitycazza Posts: 87 Member
edited November 13 in Health and Weight Loss
Hi Everyone!

I've always had my normal daily activities set at lightly active, but I'm not sure if it is correct or whether it should be set at sedentary. I have a desk job, I am an ICT Technician in a school, but my days vary. There could be a day where I'm sat at my desk all day and do not need to move, but those days are very rare. Most days I'll be gong about the school and sorting whatever needs to be fixed. Do I put it down as sedentary as it is technically a desk job, or lightly active as there is walking involved?

Thanks!

Replies

  • pinkteapot3
    pinkteapot3 Posts: 157 Member
    I put sedentary. I have a desk job but I work at a large employer (a University with a large campus) and have meetings all over the place. It's still sedentary. Walking from one end of the site to the other barely increases my heart-rate so I don't count it as activity.
  • pinkteapot3
    pinkteapot3 Posts: 157 Member
    The sedentary/active thing is about your day job/occupation, and nothing to do with workouts. You should put sedentary if you're a student (unless you're studying Sport!), and then log all your workouts as exercise, which will earn you extra cals for that day.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    Get a fitbit ..even the most basic one ..I have a zip (and a flex) then it logs your activity quite accurately and you only need to bother about purposeful exercise
  • Calamitycazza
    Calamitycazza Posts: 87 Member
    rabbitjb wrote: »
    Get a fitbit ..even the most basic one ..I have a zip (and a flex) then it logs your activity quite accurately and you only need to bother about purposeful exercise

    Can the fitbit also be used for tracking purposeful exercise? and also, how would it use it in conjunction with my normal diet/calorie deficit? (I don't know if that makes any sense)
  • EvgeniZyntx
    EvgeniZyntx Posts: 24,208 Member
    pinkteapot3 wrote: »
    The sedentary/active thing is about your day job/occupation, and nothing to do with workouts. You should put sedentary if you're a student (unless you're studying Sport!), and then log all your workouts as exercise, which will earn you extra cals for that day.

    Unless you spend most of your time sitting at a computer, a student isn't sedentary but moving around campus, attending classes, casual walking which is lightly active to active.

    Sedentary is the person sitting at a desk job 9-5.
  • RSEC75
    RSEC75 Posts: 45 Member
    It sounds to me like you are more active than my desk job. I work in ICT and rarely move from my desk, and if I do it's only a few desks up or down the office. I'm sedentary and the sedentary calculations are allowing me to loose weight.

    You sound more active if you are moving arround the school most days. What I would do in your situation is just see what works. Calculate for lightly active, then if you are not loosing weight after 3/4 weeks try re-calculating for sedentary.

    What's correct for you, is what gives you the weight loss you are looking for (or if you are maintaining then what keeps you at the same weight).

    It's all estimates anyway, so don't get hung up on exactly which category you should be, experiment and see which gives the result you want.
  • _runnerbean_
    _runnerbean_ Posts: 640 Member
    Calamitycazza wrote: »

    Can the fitbit also be used for tracking purposeful exercise? and also, how would it use it in conjunction with my normal diet/calorie deficit? (I don't know if that makes any sense)

    The fitbit does track purposeful exercise if it is step based- eg walking, running, cross trainer. Most of my own cardio work is one of those three so I have set my MFP status to sedentary then if if do lots of walking (over 6k steps) MFP starts to give me extra calories to eat back (if I choose). I have the fitbit zip which is a very basic one.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    edited February 2015
    Calamitycazza wrote: »
    rabbitjb wrote: »
    Get a fitbit ..even the most basic one ..I have a zip (and a flex) then it logs your activity quite accurately and you only need to bother about purposeful exercise

    Can the fitbit also be used for tracking purposeful exercise? and also, how would it use it in conjunction with my normal diet/calorie deficit? (I don't know if that makes any sense)

    Yes if it's step based

    You just link your fitbit to your MFP account and wear it then it automatically adds your step based activity to your calorie allowance

    Set your activity to sedentary or lightly active with negative adjustments enabled so if you fall below it reduces your allowance

    I like the zip cos I clip it to my jeans waistband, my work trouser belt or my bra if I'm wearing a dress and nobody notices it ..I can also wear bracelets which I couldn't wear with my zip
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,151 Member
    Lightly active.
  • jessicapk
    jessicapk Posts: 574 Member
    I have a Fitbit and love it because I also have a desk job but I tend to be active after work on some days and not others. It encourages me to walk around more at work and to be more active in general and it rewards me with extra calories. It makes it so much easier. As far as purposeful exercise, if your Fitbit and MFP are synchronized, log your exercise with MFP and make sure you include the time started and Fitbit will import that information so you're not double dipping. I actualy use Runkeeper to log exercises and it imports into MFP and then MFP imports into Fitbit. It's pretty impressive how these apps all work together!
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