Do I have an active/sedentary lifestyle?

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nescio88
nescio88 Posts: 2 Member
in Getting Started
How do you determine your level of activity in your lifestyle? There is a significant difference in daily calories based on lifestyle. What criteria should I use to determine if I am "active" "lightly active" or "sedentary"?

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  • jnv7594
    jnv7594 Posts: 983 Member
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    I wonder this sometimes too. My activity varies from day to day. I have mine set at sedentary because I work a desk job. However, on days we are busy (I work in a surgeon's office) I am on my feet a lot of the day. On other days when it is quieter...usually Tuesdays and Thursdays when the doc is in surgery...I do a lot more sitting. I just keep mine at sedentary, so the worst that will happen is I'm underestimating my calories burned, but that's just me.
  • titania_one
    titania_one Posts: 26 Member
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    Sedentary seems to me to be you pretty much sit aside from activities of daily living (dressing, bathing, fixing food, eating, walking to/from car, etc). I picked sedentary but it seems I'm at least lightly active as I've been losing weight too fast so I had to change it. I have 3 kids and take care of them, household chores, work in a not- very- busy medical clinic, etc. You can always try a setting and if it's too high/low just change it like I did.
  • fembat75
    fembat75 Posts: 57 Member
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    I put sedentary too as I am a website designer - but I spend a lot of time walking places as I don't keep a car, plus ALWAYS running after my two rescue dogs! If you job entails a greal deal of sitting around, as mine currently does, then its sedentary - but if you do spend a lot of time on your feet then you're looking at a more active level...
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 24,937 Member
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    I sit at a desk at work approx. 8 hours a day ... therefore I am sedentary.

    However, I walk and cycle at lunch and after work ... so I add those in as exercise.

    As jnv7594 says, "the worst that will happen is I'm underestimating my calories burned" ... and that's no problem at all. Seems to work for me. :)
  • ScrAgnX
    ScrAgnX Posts: 368 Member
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    Machka9 wrote: »
    I sit at a desk at work approx. 8 hours a day ... therefore I am sedentary.

    However, I walk and cycle at lunch and after work ... so I add those in as exercise.

    I do this as well. All moderate activity gets logged as exercise and I eat back what exercise calories I feel hungry enough to eat (typically less than half).

    If you are on the fence, set it at sedentary (or lightly active), then reassess in a month to see if you are losing quick enough (or too quick). Don't take your results for the first two weeks in account though; water weight will make you loss more in the first few weeks.
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,268 Member
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    desk job <> sedentary. I have a desk job and before exercise average over 8k steps a day before exercise.

    It is based on how much you move without exercise included.

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18562971

    Per this article
    1) <5000 steps.d (sedentary);
    2) 5000-7499 steps.d (low active);
    3) 7500-9999 steps.d (somewhat active);
    4) > or =10,000-12,499 steps.d (active); and
    5) > or =12,500 steps.d (highly active)
  • nescio88
    nescio88 Posts: 2 Member
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    This is great. Thank you.

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