Do You Count Part-Time Active Work as Exercise?

cchunseim
cchunseim Posts: 3 Member
edited November 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
Hey guys.

So I work a full time desk job and have my lifestyle set as Sedentary. However, I've recently been working 7-13 hours a week as a barista. The job involves standing most of the time, constant use of 20-30 lbs of pressure for espresso making, lifting/carrying things up to 20 lbs and cleaning. I go home exhausted, feet throbbing, etc. My heart rate is usually up during rushes and the closing cleaning. Would you count any of this time as exercise?

I've been debating listing a few hours of walking per shift and twenty or so minutes of walking while lifting 15 lbs.

Thanks!

Replies

  • jennybearlv
    jennybearlv Posts: 1,519 Member
    I wouldn't count it as exercise because it would be so hard to track. I used to work two days a week as a baker and I just watched my weight over time and adjusted my calories accordingly. I still do that and I'm not even working. If you are hungrier those days maybe bank calories from your more sedentary days.
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,562 Member
    Just change your activity level on those days, or invest in a tracker that can connect to MFP and give you extra calories
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 15,792 Member
    It doesn't matter how you burn the calories IF you burn them.

    The goal is to capture the correct calories you burn and to achieve a reasonable deficit from that.

    Your weight trend over time tells you how accurate your logging and estimations are.

    At a guess and using the page below as a guide and some gross conversion assumptions I would call your job a MET 2 activity, which means that you should be getting a credit of about 0.75x BMR per minute as compared to what MFP sedentary has you at.

    Or you can log a walking exercise with a MET 2 value for the same amount of time though you will then run into the problem that MFP forgets to deduct the base 1.25x BMR it has already credited you for that time!

    Or, as someone mentioned, just eat an extra apple or two that day :wink:

    https://sites.google.com/site/compendiumofphysicalactivities/Activity-Categories/occupation
  • cchunseim
    cchunseim Posts: 3 Member
    Thanks! I'm not really interested in being able to eat more those days. Mostly, I just want to be able to not work out those days since I'm usually achy/tired afterward. I might log a small amount of walking, but other than that it's probably best not to over-estimate it.

    As far as the effect on my weight, I worked this barista job full time for a year and had a steady weight. When I moved to a full time desk job I gained ten pounds in a year... and I'm five foot zero :D

    Thanks again!
  • cchunseim
    cchunseim Posts: 3 Member
    malibu927 wrote: »
    cchunseim wrote: »
    Thanks! I'm not really interested in being able to eat more those days. Mostly, I just want to be able to not work out those days since I'm usually achy/tired afterward. I might log a small amount of walking, but other than that it's probably best not to over-estimate it.

    As far as the effect on my weight, I worked this barista job full time for a year and had a steady weight. When I moved to a full time desk job I gained ten pounds in a year... and I'm five foot zero :D

    Thanks again!

    You don't have to work out any day to lose weight, just create a calorie deficit

    That is true! But with my height, I can only eat 1300 calories a day and not exercise and lose half a pound a week :# I don't have that much self control! :blush:
  • SusanMFindlay
    SusanMFindlay Posts: 1,766 Member
    cchunseim wrote: »
    As far as the effect on my weight, I worked this barista job full time for a year and had a steady weight. When I moved to a full time desk job I gained ten pounds in a year... and I'm five foot zero :D

    Perfect! Numbers we can use to estimate.

    10 pounds in 52 weeks is 0.19 pounds/week. At 3500 cals/pound, that means that when you stopped the barista job, you had a calorie surplus of 673 cals/week. Divide that by the number of days you worked each week to convert to cals/day worked. Keeping in mind that your calorie intake may have dropped a little bit when you stopped the barista job - especially if the job meant free or discounted baked goods (and this math only works if there were no other major changes to factor in). So, you were burning a minimum of 673 cals per week as a barista.

    If you want to call this job your workout for the day a couple of times a week, I see no reason not to.
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