Job and logging burnt calories

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Hi


I'm starting a job in a few weeks and it will involve me walking the majority of the time (probably about 6 hours a day 5 days a week). The job will only last a month, so do I wear my heart rate monitor and log it as exercise or just leave it?

Replies

  • eeeekie
    eeeekie Posts: 1,011 Member
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    if you're moving, you're moving. It's exercise. You're sweating and burning calories. I'd log it.
  • wbgolden
    wbgolden Posts: 2,071 Member
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    It looks like if you change your profile to "Active" (mail carrier, etc), it should take it into account. Or log it :)
  • luciamrg
    luciamrg Posts: 11
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    I agree. If you're up and moving, wear it. You need to be sure of you're calorie intake as well as what you burn off.
  • MrsBehaving
    MrsBehaving Posts: 100 Member
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    I never count my job. To me exercise is diligently setting aside time and doing some diliberate exercise. I don't count cleaning either but I see many people do. I guess I just take those kinds of calories burned as bonus but perhaps that is my plateau problem. I just may not be eating enough. Oh, darn it. Now I am second guessing myself when I was just trying to help. Shoot. :sad:
  • Charli666
    Charli666 Posts: 407
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    change your activity level for the month - saves having to log!
  • Kirstie_C26
    Kirstie_C26 Posts: 490 Member
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    id log it :) i walk ALOT for my job and log it, my setting are set to sedentary, as i was until i started working :)

    best wishes
    Kirstie x
  • rosiesparkle100
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    change your activity level for the month - saves having to log!

    Yes I agree with this. Put it up to active and enjoy those extra calories while still losing!
  • wolfchild59
    wolfchild59 Posts: 2,608 Member
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    As others have said, that's a change to your activity level, not added exercise. Exercise is what you do above and beyond your normal daily activity. HRMs aren't meant to be worn during times of non-heart rate elevated activity. They aren't designed to accurately record caloric burn for times that your heart rate isn't elevates during actual exercise, so you'll be recording inaccurate info into your log and possibly eating the wrong amount of calories for what you're doing.

    Up your activity level to the one that sounds like what you'll be doing at the new job. Then continue to log any additional exercise outside of that.
  • david081
    david081 Posts: 489 Member
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    I never count my job. To me exercise is diligently setting aside time and doing some diliberate exercise. I don't count cleaning either but I see many people do. I guess I just take those kinds of calories burned as bonus but perhaps that is my plateau problem. I just may not be eating enough. Oh, darn it. Now I am second guessing myself when I was just trying to help. Shoot. :sad:

    Till I found this site I never heard of people saying they might not be eating enough as the reason for not losing weight - I think it's bizarre, and would like to see hard medical facts on this, as many African countries might be interested in the theory...
  • wolfchild59
    wolfchild59 Posts: 2,608 Member
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    I never count my job. To me exercise is diligently setting aside time and doing some diliberate exercise. I don't count cleaning either but I see many people do. I guess I just take those kinds of calories burned as bonus but perhaps that is my plateau problem. I just may not be eating enough. Oh, darn it. Now I am second guessing myself when I was just trying to help. Shoot. :sad:

    Till I found this site I never heard of people saying they might not be eating enough as the reason for not losing weight - I think it's bizarre, and would like to see hard medical facts on this, as many African countries might be interested in the theory...

    Long term starvation due to lack of appropriate amounts of food and nutrients such as is seen in African nations is very different than creating a stalled or mildly slowed metabolism from not eating enough calories comparatively to what your burning. Personally, when I stalled and bought a BodyMedia Fit to see what I was truly burning each day compared to what I was eating I found I could add 200-400 calories a day (depending on what workout I did) and be closer to my desired caloric deficit than I had been. So I did and I began losing again.

    Basically, when your body doesn't get enough fuel in the form of food, it first begins holding onto what it is given moreso than before. That is a typical weight loss plateau. If a person continues to severely undereat for extended periods of times, that is when the body will begin to actually feed on itself to survive. That is where you get anorexics and actual starvation.

    So the short term effects that people talk about here, on a weight loss site, are going to be very different than a lifetime of malnutrition in an impoverished country and it's really not logical to try to compare the two discussions.
  • em80
    em80 Posts: 91
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    Thanks everyone :)

    I will look into changing my settings.
  • dave4d
    dave4d Posts: 1,155 Member
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    I wore a heartrate monitor to work one day. I noticed it kept counting calories, even when I was sitting behind the computer doing nothing. I wouldn't know how to deduct the basic calories mfp decides from my bmr, so I went with a pedometer instead, and counted those ones. Some days I have at work are more active than others, and I get real hungry at while I'm working. I figured a pedometer was safer.
  • taso42_DELETED
    taso42_DELETED Posts: 3,394 Member
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    change your activity level for the month - saves having to log!

    Yes I agree with this. Put it up to active and enjoy those extra calories while still losing!

    I'll third this (or fourth or fifth or whatever we're on now). Wherever it's at now, bump it up one or two notches.
  • MrsBehaving
    MrsBehaving Posts: 100 Member
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    I never count my job. To me exercise is diligently setting aside time and doing some diliberate exercise. I don't count cleaning either but I see many people do. I guess I just take those kinds of calories burned as bonus but perhaps that is my plateau problem. I just may not be eating enough. Oh, darn it. Now I am second guessing myself when I was just trying to help. Shoot. :sad:

    Till I found this site I never heard of people saying they might not be eating enough as the reason for not losing weight - I think it's bizarre, and would like to see hard medical facts on this, as many African countries might be interested in the theory...

    Long term starvation due to lack of appropriate amounts of food and nutrients such as is seen in African nations is very different than creating a stalled or mildly slowed metabolism from not eating enough calories comparatively to what your burning. Personally, when I stalled and bought a BodyMedia Fit to see what I was truly burning each day compared to what I was eating I found I could add 200-400 calories a day (depending on what workout I did) and be closer to my desired caloric deficit than I had been. So I did and I began losing again.

    Basically, when your body doesn't get enough fuel in the form of food, it first begins holding onto what it is given moreso than before. That is a typical weight loss plateau. If a person continues to severely undereat for extended periods of times, that is when the body will begin to actually feed on itself to survive. That is where you get anorexics and actual starvation.

    So the short term effects that people talk about here, on a weight loss site, are going to be very different than a lifetime of malnutrition in an impoverished country and it's really not logical to try to compare the two discussions.
    Thanks wolfchild! You do a very nice job of explaining! :)
  • SherryBeaulieu
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    Thank you....I asked the same question on my profile with no answers....now I have it and it makes sense. I guess I need to post as appose to putting something on my profile.