walking and sedentary

commsgirl2016
commsgirl2016 Posts: 30 Member
edited November 18 in Health and Weight Loss
Hi,

I work at a desk three days a week and get either the bus or a lift to and from work so set myself as sedentary.
Therefore just a quick question when sedentary does this assume you walk no where?
I'm feeling a bit tired today (first time in 10 days of calories counting) and just wondering if I can eat the calories earned from walking the 1 mile there and 1 mile back to school or if these calories are part of my 1400?
Thanks

Replies

  • Seffell
    Seffell Posts: 2,244 Member
    No, sedentiary assumes you're walking around 5000 steps a day. That's about 2 miles per day.
  • commsgirl2016
    commsgirl2016 Posts: 30 Member
    Hi, thank you :smile: So I can eat the pick up calories if still tired?
  • Seffell
    Seffell Posts: 2,244 Member
    No, I'm saying that sedentary includes 2 miles of walking. If you eat them you will eat more than necessary. Also you need to walk 2 miles a day every day for the calories mfp gives you for sedentiary.
  • animatorswearbras
    animatorswearbras Posts: 1,001 Member
    I have set my cals to sedentary (desk job) and eat back my "walk to work" cals 1 mile there 1 mile back (its only about 150-160 extra cals) :) I still lose. I usually get about 7-8000 steps a day on days I walk to work, plus my general up and down stairs etc in the office. This is just what works for me :)
  • Seffell
    Seffell Posts: 2,244 Member
    animatorswearbras wrote: »
    I have set my cals to sedentary (desk job) and eat back my "walk to work" cals 1 mile there 1 mile back (its only about 150-160 extra cals) :) I still lose. I usually get about 7-8000 steps a day on days I walk to work, plus my general up and down stairs etc in the office. This is just what works for me :)

    I'm not saying you won't lose. You will lose less though.
  • commsgirl2016
    commsgirl2016 Posts: 30 Member
    Sorry i meant the calories earned from walking the additional 1mile to pick DD up and the additional mile home not the ones from this morning.
    Thanks for the explanation, most helpful before I get to far into calorie counting and do things wrong.
    I think I might be down on a typical week with walking then and will need to make sure I don't eat one of my jogging calories. Think in a typical week I get around 12 miles of walking :-(
    Just worried wont get for a jog today with not feeling great and have a night out tomorrow :-(
  • animatorswearbras
    animatorswearbras Posts: 1,001 Member
    Sedentary: Spend most of the day sitting (e.g. bank teller, desk job) <5000 steps
    Lightly Active: Spend a good part of the day on your feet (e.g. teacher, salesman) 5000 - 9999 steps
    Active: Spend a good part of the day doing some physical activity (e.g. waitress, mailman) 10k - 15k steps
    Very Active: Spend most of the day doing heavy physical activity (e.g. bike messenger, carpenter) >15k steps

    it really depends on how much walking she does when at the office and at home if she is completely stationary sat down the rest of the day and doesn't add another couple of thousand steps then fine but I doubt it, I lose at the rate I set, eating back my walks to work, just my twopence worth. ;)
  • allyphoe
    allyphoe Posts: 618 Member
    I have a desk job, but my actual maintenance calories are high enough without any intentional exercise that I set MFP to active for it to match my spreadsheet calculations. So this is something you'll need some trial and error to determine.
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,423 Member
    edited May 2017
    Sedentary is 5,000 steps or less generally. Usually if the activity is something you have always done it is part of your activity level not exercise. But you can do whatever you want.
    You could log the walking and eat some of the earned calories and see what happens with your weight loss over a couple of weeks. If you don't lose at the rate you want don't eat those calories.
    You could have a maintenance calorie day- add 250 calories if you are set to lose .5 lb a week, 500 for 1 lb, 750 for 1.5 lb, and 1,000 for 2 lb.
  • commsgirl2016
    commsgirl2016 Posts: 30 Member
    Thanks for replying. Probably very stationary once at work. At home on days off probably move around more than at work.I'm not tired as much now so might not need the extra calories from pick up.
  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,179 Member
    Sedentary is defined as experiencing bouts of sitting of 1 hour interrupted by no more than 5 minutes.

    If your job is a sit-down job like that, you're sedentary. If you spend an hour sitting in traffic on your commute, you're sedentary. If you're a stay-home person watching Judge Judy for an hour, you're sedentary.
  • savithny
    savithny Posts: 1,200 Member
    Is that walk a part of your daily routine or is it extra?

    If you do it al lthe time you should include it in your activity level, which is a more accurate way of handling it.

    HOWEVER: since there's only about 2000 steps in a mile, if you don't do anything else during the day, that walk may not lift you out of "Sedentary," believe it or not. Even with my daily walk to work, the rest of my job is so desk-oriented that some days have trouble getting over 6,000 steps a day without doing some purposeful additional walking.
  • ChelzFit
    ChelzFit Posts: 292 Member
    JeromeBarry1 wrote: »
    Sedentary is defined as experiencing bouts of sitting of 1 hour interrupted by no more than 5 minutes.

    If your job is a sit-down job like that, you're sedentary. If you spend an hour sitting in traffic on your commute, you're sedentary. If you're a stay-home person watching Judge Judy for an hour, you're sedentary.

    I am a stay at home mom and I get anywhere between 7,000-10,000 steps a day not including exercise. At night I finally relax and watch an hour of tv without getting up...so that puts me at sedentary? I might also take an hour to sit down during my kids nap time....I don't think just sitting down for an hour during the day makes you sedentary but I could be wrong.
  • inertiastrength
    inertiastrength Posts: 2,343 Member
    edited May 2017
    JeromeBarry1 wrote: »
    Sedentary is defined as experiencing bouts of sitting of 1 hour interrupted by no more than 5 minutes.

    If your job is a sit-down job like that, you're sedentary. If you spend an hour sitting in traffic on your commute, you're sedentary. If you're a stay-home person watching Judge Judy for an hour, you're sedentary.

    I sit for hours at a time. I also walk 45 minutes in the morning when I get to the office to get coffee. Then I walk on 2 breaks for 10ish minutes and another 30 on the first half of my lunch. I'm mostly sitting ALL day (and in traffic) but when I leave the office I have 9K steps... I think you may be slightly off with your recommendation. If I set myself to sedentary I'd die of starvation once I hit the gym and the rest of my day after work put me at 13K lol
  • inertiastrength
    inertiastrength Posts: 2,343 Member
    my coffee is still warm and I've got 4700 steps... it's 9am where I am. I plan to sit for another couple hours haha
  • cee134
    cee134 Posts: 33,711 Member
    edited May 2017
    From experience. If you walk a mile a day for exercise, you are probably better off not eating back all the calories. At least not more the 50%. Personally, I don't count anything other than minutes of exercise I get.
  • commsgirl2016
    commsgirl2016 Posts: 30 Member
    Hi all and thanks for all the comments/advise. It was referenced above that 2000 steps is about a mile, I got home from school run so just over 2 miles and according to the step think on my samsung it says I've done just over 6,000 steps!
    I've been fine until today and only wrote in my introduction how easy I was finding it and wouldn't have even considered thinking how many calories did I get on the walk, can they be added in. Now today I just keep feeling tired and no energy. My ears are getting blocked so maybe I'm coming down with something but have to go for my school walk in the moment and honestly feel like it is going to be a struggle. Think I will have to go for a jog tomorrow but eating out tomorrow worries me I will go over by loads :-(
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    edited May 2017
    You could also be tired because you're not eating enough. How much weight do you want to lose total and what weekly weight loss goal did you pick?

    I'd be able to log that two miles, eat those calories, and lose weight.

  • commsgirl2016
    commsgirl2016 Posts: 30 Member
    Hi, looking to lose 80lb in total. Set to 1.5lb a week. Hoping it's just an off day and back to feeling well tomorrow.
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