Your opinion on my activity level?

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NavajoGirl85
NavajoGirl85 Posts: 164 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I started my journey at 241 pounds. As of right now I’m about 120 pounds. On top of my daily activities like housework errands etc. I have a job as a laundry attendant at work. I work at a hotel, winter is slower than summer of course. Daily activities include lifting sheets, towels ( wet and dry) each load probably atleast fifty pounds, etc folding, putting it on shelves. Usually I do no less than 6 loads and in the summer I can get up to 15 or more loads a day. Industrial size dryers and washers to give you a hint. Anyway I’m really confused on why my activity level would be. Usually I work anywhere between 4-7 hours a day 4 days a week in the winter 5 days a week in the winter. At this point I have my activity level set to lightly active because I just don’t know what to put my activity level at. I’m trying to maintain this weight and I know I should probably just play with the numbers until I no longer gain or lose. Just looking for opinions.

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  • NavajoGirl85
    NavajoGirl85 Posts: 164 Member
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    In the summer I usually work between 7-10 hours a day.
  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,182 Member
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    Lightly active. That means your job is lightly active. If you do deliberate exercising outside of work, log that as exercise.

    Sedentary is when you sit for a job and sit for bouts of sitting lasting more than 1 hour and interrupted by less than 5 minutes of walking.
    That means that if you sit at desk and only get up to go to the bathroom once an hour, it's sedentary.
  • NavajoGirl85
    NavajoGirl85 Posts: 164 Member
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    JeromeBarry1 wrote: »
    Lightly active. That means your job is lightly active. If you do deliberate exercising outside of work, log that as exercise.

    Sedentary is when you sit for a job and sit for bouts of sitting lasting more than 1 hour and interrupted by less than 5 minutes of walking.
    That means that if you sit at desk and only get up to go to the bathroom once an hour, it's sedentary.

    I’m not doing any exercising right now. At this point the job I do is my exercise lol. I’m gaining muscle with the lifting that I’m doing. Thanks for your response.

  • CHRISL15TER
    CHRISL15TER Posts: 2 Member
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    I would class that as active as you will find that tiring. I have personally being finding that I have to walk hard for 45 minutes or cycle hard for 20 minutes to get my aerobic fitness to improve... I can only do this every other day at present as I am still over 300 pounds in weight after losing 15 pounds so far... I have found the app very good though it does not have any settings for people with medication or medical issues that affect metabolism.
  • NavajoGirl85
    NavajoGirl85 Posts: 164 Member
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    CHRISL15TER wrote: »
    I would class that as active as you will find that tiring. I have personally being finding that I have to walk hard for 45 minutes or cycle hard for 20 minutes to get my aerobic fitness to improve... I can only do this every other day at present as I am still over 300 pounds in weight after losing 15 pounds so far... I have found the app very good though it does not have any settings for people with medication or medical issues that affect metabolism.

    Thank you. I am always busy enough that my heart rate is fast but some days is busier or more tiring than others. Winter time I work 4 days some days are long some days are short. I think I don’t realize how hard my work is because I don’t feel it anymore. When I first started losing weight, one day working where I work would feel like I ran a marathon but now it’s hard to realize how hard I’m working because I’m used to the physical activity now.

  • NavajoGirl85
    NavajoGirl85 Posts: 164 Member
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    CHRISL15TER wrote: »
    I would class that as active as you will find that tiring. I have personally being finding that I have to walk hard for 45 minutes or cycle hard for 20 minutes to get my aerobic fitness to improve... I can only do this every other day at present as I am still over 300 pounds in weight after losing 15 pounds so far... I have found the app very good though it does not have any settings for people with medication or medical issues that affect metabolism.

    Also congrats on your current loss!
  • ladyhusker39
    ladyhusker39 Posts: 1,406 Member
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    My husband cleanse houses professionally. He maintains his weight with a setting at active. It's probably fairly comparable to the work you do.

    But you're right in thinking that at the end of the day you'll have to experiment and adjust to get your actual numbers.
  • emilygduran
    emilygduran Posts: 48 Member
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    I'd start with active and adjust from there. I'm a server working around 16 hrs a week and lose on track with that setting, it sounds like our activity might be comparable.
  • Psychgrrl
    Psychgrrl Posts: 3,177 Member
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    Because your work isn’t consistent, four days a week, it makes it harder to choose an activity level because you’re looking at more of a weekly average than a daily one.

    I would classify your work days as active. Are you sedentary in your days off? If so, they would be sedentary. Maybe lightly active would be a good way to start out as it’s between the two. (?)

    Do you wear an activity tracker?
  • kayak4water
    kayak4water Posts: 155 Member
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    Similar problem here (deciding whether my Exercise (swimming) was a "fast/vigorous" or "light/moderate" effort).

    My approach: I chose light/moderate effort. I'd awaken at night hungry and have to feed myself to get back to sleep. Meaning that my choice wasn't giving me enough to eat. I switched to fast/vigorous just yesterday
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
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    Lightly active sounds about right for you.
  • mitch16
    mitch16 Posts: 2,113 Member
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    Have you considered investing in an activity tracker to see where that puts you?
  • stanmann571
    stanmann571 Posts: 5,728 Member
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    mitch16 wrote: »
    Have you considered investing in an activity tracker to see where that puts you?

    Activity trackers are really horrible with dealing with non-step activity.

    Some count every typing keystroke or turn of the steering wheel when driving, and others are so restrictive that they don't count walking steps until the third or fourth step
  • NavajoGirl85
    NavajoGirl85 Posts: 164 Member
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    The only time I’m sedentary is at the end of the day when I watch tv for an hour or so. Other than that I’m never sitting I never stop moving. I’m always moving it just depends on the time of year or the kind of day I’m having as to how fast I’m moving. I have cleaned houses before and I personally, feel the job I have now is far more physically demanding than than what my house cleaning job was. Thank you all. I don’t have an activity tracker.
  • mitch16
    mitch16 Posts: 2,113 Member
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    stanmann571 wrote: »
    mitch16 wrote: »
    Have you considered investing in an activity tracker to see where that puts you?

    Activity trackers are really horrible with dealing with non-step activity.

    Some count every typing keystroke or turn of the steering wheel when driving, and others are so restrictive that they don't count walking steps until the third or fourth step

    It depends on the tracker I suppose... I have a Garmin Fenix 5S that I wear when working out. I always stop the workout mode before I lift weights, but in the Garmin Connect it still shows that I was active during that time. I don't take any of the calories burned numbers as gospel truth, but I can at least see trends of how active I am, comparatively.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    After losing 120lbs (amazing!) you have a really good grip on your logging consistency and your recent weight loss tells you far more accurately the kind of deficit you are currently running at rather than twiddling with vague activity settings or equally vague activity trackers.

    Just make a series of small manual adjustments until your weight stabilises in your chosen weight range, give time for the effect of the adjustment to become clear to avoid reacting to normal weight fluctuations rather than the real trend.

    The only possible addition which might be worthwhile is tracking your weight into a trending app to help see the trend clearer.
  • NavajoGirl85
    NavajoGirl85 Posts: 164 Member
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    sijomial wrote: »
    After losing 120lbs (amazing!) you have a really good grip on your logging consistency and your recent weight loss tells you far more accurately the kind of deficit you are currently running at rather than twiddling with vague activity settings or equally vague activity trackers.

    Just make a series of small manual adjustments until your weight stabilises in your chosen weight range, give time for the effect of the adjustment to become clear to avoid reacting to normal weight fluctuations rather than the real trend.

    The only possible addition which might be worthwhile is tracking your weight into a trending app to help see the trend clearer.

    Thank you!

  • Psychgrrl
    Psychgrrl Posts: 3,177 Member
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    mitch16 wrote: »
    stanmann571 wrote: »
    mitch16 wrote: »
    Have you considered investing in an activity tracker to see where that puts you?

    Activity trackers are really horrible with dealing with non-step activity.

    Some count every typing keystroke or turn of the steering wheel when driving, and others are so restrictive that they don't count walking steps until the third or fourth step

    It depends on the tracker I suppose... I have a Garmin Fenix 5S that I wear when working out. I always stop the workout mode before I lift weights, but in the Garmin Connect it still shows that I was active during that time. I don't take any of the calories burned numbers as gospel truth, but I can at least see trends of how active I am, comparatively.

    Ditto for me, also use Garmin. But I've heard similar things from people using Fitbit. I think it depends on the device. Some are better than others. PC Magazine does an in-depth annual review, usually in Jan-Feb--show it should be out soon. You can google the last couple of years and see what's held up over time as well as the highest rated, new and shiny ones.

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