Trying to decide calorie loss during a work day....

9star · March 2018

Hi guys, I'm totally new here.

So I was trying to figure out how many calories I would loose during an 8 hour work day. My weight got worse and worse during my 20's. I'm now in my early 30's. Not obese, but I over weight over sure. I want to lose 50+ pounds (eventually).

I am a painter, residential/commercial, interior/exterior. I work steady through the day, it is physical (rolling walls, carrying 5 gallon paint buckets, ladders etc, plus I'm basically stretching all day). I have muscle, I'm fairly strong, especially in my legs (I grew up doing sports, synchronized swimming, along with other things).

SO... I figured my painting at work is about equivalent to yard work, which I see is on the database list. If I work an 8 hour day, I would say about 6/7 hours are equivalent to yard work (taking off the breaks/lunch/downtimes/easy going times). So the database told me that 7 hours (420 minutes = 2008 calories lost).

So, I was figuring that on days that I go to work, I could 'Make my own exercise' called "Work", and use the 420minutes/2008 calorie loss for that day. Does this make sense to you guys?

Any suggestions how I could do this better? Thanks for any ideas. Cheers!

TavistockToad · March 2018

Work is covered in your activity setting, you don't need to add it as exercise

MeanderingMammal · March 2018

Just set it in your activity level. No need to overthink it.

heybales · March 2018

Meaning - make your activity level Active at the least for 5 day x 8 hr and perhaps busy house work afterwards.

If you mean you don't work every day, I caught the "if" - then indeed harder to set a baseline activity level that isn't always true.

In which case set it to Active - look at your eating goal tomorrow.
Set to Lightly Active - look at eating goal tomorrow.
Or if not working you are on the computer/couch all day, use sedentary.

That difference could be used to just manually add on the extra calorie burn.
Because you are thinking right.
You do more - you eat more.
You do less - you eat less.

Or compare that to the method you did, which is decent way of doing it to.
The problem with your method is you haven't added what occurred above and beyond otherwise sedentary day.
If you are expected to burn say 80 cal an hour already at sedentary, and that workout at 286 cal/hr already includes the 80 in it.
So you'd only add the 200 cal/hr on.

Or whatever the math workouts out for you.

What is your day like on days you don't work?

What are the numbers from the above changes?

And how much deficit do you have selected for weight loss?

9star · April 2018

This is all great information! I am new to the site so still figuring it out, and these ideas are great!.

My cal intake between Active and Light Active is 1720 vs 1380... which I find is a pretty big difference, but do-able. I initially had it set on Active.... but I would call my everyday activity Light Active (when I'm not working). I'm always doing something around the house, or grocery shopping, or sweeping, etc etc.

So I agree. The days I work I can add the 200/hr instead of 286. (I'll have to figure out how many cals I lose on a day off, but I'm assuming 80/hr is probably about the case). Then I can add my work, and any other exercise on top of my Light Active days off.

Thanks for the great tips!

9star · April 2018

Hmmm, now I'm a little confused. The database is telling me I would lose over 230 cal/hr sitting in a boat fishing or riding on a lawn mower. That's definitely more then 80.

9star · April 2018

I would consider work to be like, bowling, dancing, general fishing, yard work, general carpentry, light cleaning which are all the same number! - 287/hr! .... But I'm sure I lose more than 50 cal/hr difference between work and days off. I need to find those golden numbers that I would use for work compared to day.

When you set it to Light Active, does that mean, around 80 cal/hr? Where did you come up with 80?

Redordeadhead · April 2018

Why do you need to figure out calories burned per hour on your days off? You're making this too complicated.

Set up your profile in MFP using the guided set up.

Select your activity level based on your general activity across the week without considering exercise (i.e.your job. It sounds like lightly active is a good place to start).

Select an appropriate loss goal per week (maybe 1lb per week, depending on how much you need to lose in total).

MFP will give you a number of calories to eat each day. This includes a deficit, so if you eat that number of calories consistently over time, you will lose weight.

Use a food scale to weigh all solid food and choose accurate database entries to make sure you count your calories correctly.

If you do any additional exercise (not your job, housework or groceries but something like jogging or going to the gym), add that exercise in MFP. It will give you additional calories to eat. Eat back those calories. Some people only eat back 75% off exercise calories to avoid over estimated calorie burns.

Do this consistently for 5-6 weeks and then you can check whether your real world results match your activity level estimate. I recommend using a weight trending app light Libra to be able to monitor your weight trending over time, as you can expect some normal fluctuations throughout the weeks.

TavistockToad · April 2018

You're still overthinking.

Start with active. then only log purposeful exercise and eat a portion of those cals.

After 6 weeks see what the scales say and increase/decrease as necessary.

9star · April 2018

Ok guys, thx. I do tend to overthink a lot of things, obviously I'm doing it here as well. Deep breaths, relax, eat right, keep busy, get healthy... Much simpler!

9star · April 2018

I've changed my activity level back to Active... and I'm only going to add exercise off the database list... swimming, dog walking, bowling, etc etc etc.... much better.... much easier, less confusing. So glad I posted here! You guys are awesome! Thanks everyone!

heybales · April 2018

I was going to say the difference between work day Active, and non-work day Lightly-Active - is 340 calories a day.

Now - MFP method is averaging the whole week, you are just talking about work days which could be it sounds like 1 to 5 days of work.

If you always work 3-5 days - then go for Active.

If it's truly variable anywhere from 1-5 days - then I'd suggest go for Lightly Active, and add on 350 calories on work days.

Add exercise of course as it happens per the method MFP uses.

Because yes - that is a big difference between levels if you don't really do the higher level.

Some people don't like to spin their wheels for a month waiting to see how it works out, and then have seasons or activity levels change such that the next month isn't constant either.

Trying to decide calorie loss during a work day....

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