So..what exactly is sedentary?

aprilm15 · February 2015

Hi,
I'm struggling with this possible notion that I may be leading a sedentary lifestyle, as I always thought I was active, at least somewhat or lightly active. In short, I got a jawbone UP tracker, resumed normal life just to see where I stand. Three days in, my average is 4,000 steps. Is this thing working right?? I feel like I'm barely sitting! Maybe you guys can help, this is a typical day for me as a textile designer:

Morning- packing and prepping shipments, which I then load in my car (5-20lbs depending) and drive to post office

Next I run an errand or two (grocery shopping, picking up fabric supplies, or dropping off an order)

Afternoon- Walk a mile to work + 3 flights of stairs to my studio, where I spend the majority of my time around a table I am standing at, cutting, piecing quilts, and then when I do sit, I am sewing.

Late afternoon/evening-walk mile home.. Then I am doing any computer work, and by 630 I'm cooking dinner, doing laundry, vacuuming whatever.

By 8/830 I finally lounge for TV, I go to bed at 11ish.

I'm sorry for all the details but I am just stumped, I'm exhausted by the end of the day. I'm mostly on my feet besides about 2 hrs on the computer for work, and then also before bed.

I'm a little concerned, I do know I need more dedicated excersise but I read under 5,000 steps is considered sedentary. Why am I just obliterated by the end of the day?? That may be a question for my doctor...but tell me do you guys think my Jawbone is off, am I in fact leading a 'sedentary' lifestyle?

If so, how do you guys do it? Where do you find the time and energy to move so much??

Thanks!

Packerjohn · February 2015

I would say sedentary would be the right category. As far as time to exercise, you watch TV for 3 hours at night. What time do you have to get up to be at work/getting kids ready? Many people have time to exercise at 5:00 AM.

aprilm15 · February 2015

I don't have kids, so no exuses there. But 5:00am..that would mean I would have to be in bed by 9, which is pretty much just after I'm done dinner and cleaning or whatever. It just doesn't seem possible, I am someone who needs 8 hours of sleep. I should also mention I am not over weight or even trying to lose weight (BMI is 22) just trying to stay healthy. I do jog about 2 miles once a week, but Thats so little it seemed petty to add it..I just hate hate hate the cold so once it starts to warm up I'll be back up to 3 miles 3-4 times a week.

aprilm15 · February 2015

That being said, I am totally able to get excercise in at lunch, im struggling with my energy levels though, I'm already so wiped out at the end of the day.

futuremanda · February 2015

Could you make time for, say, 15-30 minutes of yoga, either when you get up, before sleep, or right before relaxing for the evening? Give it a bit of time, and see if that boosts your energy. (I find it does for me.)

And if not, I think you should be focusing more on this feeling of being wiped out, and looking for root causes, and table the worry that you are too sedentary for now. You stand a lot, and have a good amount of activity broken up throughout your day, so I doubt it is a thing you should be sacrificing sleep to try to correct. Maybe you should look at what foods you eat, or chat with your doctor.

Besides which. Your lifestyle is outside of your workouts. So even if you woke up at 5 am and worked out hard for an hour everyday, if your life was otherwise the same, you'd still be sedentary. It's a way of describing your motion above just existing, outside of purposeful exercise.

aprilm15 · February 2015

Futuremanda thank you for explaining it that way! I was under the impression that being sedentary was something I could change though it seems it's not really possibly with my job. So that being said yoga is great advice, hopefully will boost my energy and also incorporate some more purposeful excercise

LKArgh · February 2015

How tired you feel has little or nothing to do with leading a sedentaty life or not. I work full time and my job means mostly sitting, plus I have 3 young kids, with all the cooking, laundry, chasing around, driving to and from activities and so on this means, and I am usually exhausted by early evening. This does not make my life any less sedentary when I exclude the few hours of exercise I can fit in my weekly routine.

KarenJanine · February 2015

I use a fitbit and I consider a <5000 step day sedentary, and >10000 as active.

It does sound like your device might not be recording all your steps - one mile is usually around 2000 steps so if you really are walking one mile each way for work then this alone would see you getting around 4000 steps.

StaciMarie1974 · February 2015

My only comment: walking 1 mile each way to/from work should be ~4000-4500 steps there unless you are fairly tall/long stride. So I'm thinking your tracker may not be accurate.

StaciMarie1974 · February 2015

Ps-I am also a Fitbit user. I have MFP set to 'lightly active' and generally when I put in 10k-12k I earn additional calories. Meaning, by my way of thinking, that I am at least lightly active. I would think a true 4-7k steps would be sedentary.

esjones12 · February 2015

Choose sedentary in MFP.

Start eating more whole foods and make sure you are eating the amount of calories MFP tells you to. Do this for a few weeks and if you are losing weight but hungry and exhausted all the time try upping your calories a bit and see if you are still losing weight.

Also, adding a short workout could help boost your energy levels. A short run or cardio machine or even some yoga can help get your blood and endorphin's going.

JoRumbles · February 2015

Hi,

I recently took part in a study which measure how much I was sitting, standing and walking. I have a VERY sedentary desk job. On a typical work day I was sitting for 16 hours (including sleep time), standing for 1.4 hour, walking for 1.2 hours. I took about 6,504 steps on that day.

In contrast a day when I went on a shopping trip in town I took 17,000 steps.

So yeah, you like me are sedentary. The guys doing the study recommended I get up from my desk for even a brief walk every half an hour- but I have been aiming for an hour as this is more achievable
I've added in exercise outside of work time as well- but I need to sit for shorter periods overall

JoRumbles · February 2015

Sorry, I've just realized that didn't add up, cause I looked at a day which only recorded part so:

Sit/lie: 21.22hrs
Stand: 1.46hrs
Step: 1.33hrs

No Steps: 7508

nono706 · February 2015

If you want to compare the accuracy of your jawbone up with another steps tracker try downloading one of the free apps (I've used Argus in the past, but there are many) for comparison.

I am on my feet most of the day as a stay at home mom, but don't get out of the house much and I'm recording between 10k-17k a day with a Fitbit charge.

aprilm15 · February 2015

I checked my tracker, it's definitley off, but I don't think its defective, I think it's just my walking style. I only have my arms down swinging when I am really walking to like, the bathroom. Usually I am carrying boxes, bags, fabric whatever. It's also winter, so during my walks to/from work my hands are in my pockets.

I tested this, hands in and out of pocket, carrying things around, etc. sometimes the counter would register the steps, and other times not at all. That being said, I still think I'm sedentary, maybe just very slightly above. I'm going to estimate I do 6000ish a day maybe more maybe less. I'll just get a different pedometer to figure that out, the wrist one just doesnt fit my lifestyle.

dogsarebears · February 2015

there are some short (less than 30min) workouts on the BeFit channel of YouTube and on fitnessblender, many of which don't require any equipment. They are short enough that maybe you won't feel like it's cutting into your chill time in the evening?

cwolfman13 · February 2015

aprilm15 wrote: »

That being said, I am totally able to get excercise in at lunch, im struggling with my energy levels though, I'm already so wiped out at the end of the day.

Regular exercise actually helps with that, particularly when combined with solid nutrition.

Also, you may want to download a pedometer or something to your phone and do a side by side...given what you described, I'm having a hard time believing you're only getting 4000 steps. I have a desk job and I still get in a good 8,000 - 10,000 steps before deliberate exercise.

LaurenAOK · February 2015

StaciMarie1974 wrote: »

My only comment: walking 1 mile each way to/from work should be ~4000-4500 steps there unless you are fairly tall/long stride. So I'm thinking your tracker may not be accurate.

Came here to say this. If you really are as active as you describe in your post, especially the walking to/from work, your tracker is not accurate. Based on your post I would definitely say you are not sedentary. Sedentary means sitting around virtually all day.

I agree with what one poster said that sedentary would be something like less than 5000 steps a day, and active would be more than 10,000 a day. Lightly active somewhere in between.

Maybe contact the Jawbone company and ask for a replacement! See if the new tracker counts differently.

So..what exactly is sedentary?

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