What counts as lightly active?

tantan120
tantan120 Posts: 3 Member
edited December 23 in Fitness and Exercise
Really confused over this.

I’m an RN so work days can involve 10-15,000 steps, but off days can have much less than that.

To “earn” lightly active, how much activity do I have to do?

I’m heavy (230lbs) but try and be active in life....for example take the stairs and never the elevator, walk as fast as I can, but no formal exercise. And also, since I had a promotion to an office based job rather than a clinical job I’ve done less moving and handling of patients so feel I may becoming less strong.

Will a weights session count as being active?

Replies

  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,692 Member
    There is a definition.

    If you go to Goals > View Guided Setup, the definitions are there.

    I've copied them here:

    How would you describe your normal daily activities?
    Sedentary: Spend most of the day sitting (e.g. bank teller, desk job)
    Lightly Active: Spend a good part of the day on your feet (e.g. teacher, salesperson)
    Active: Spend a good part of the day doing some physical activity (e.g. food server, postal carrier)
    Very Active: Spend most of the day doing heavy physical activity (e.g. bike messenger, carpenter)
  • animatorswearbras
    animatorswearbras Posts: 1,001 Member
    edited September 2019
    You most definitely qualify as lightly active, if you were to average your steps over the week it sounds like you'd be over 10000 a day even when your off days brings the average down (assuming you work 4 or 5 days a week?). I'd definitley put lightly active down as long as you don't double dip and add your walking as exercising seperatley. :)

    EDIT and I'd log my weights training as seperate exercise, your activity level is really your background activity (like what you do for a job or your responsibilities as a carer) not your purposeful exercise (like going for a jog or to the gym and hitting the weights, unless you exercise frequently throughout the week and don't log that exercise seperatley)
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
    Its generally assumed lightly active is doing a minimum of 5000 steps a day.
    Since your job is office based, go with sedentary and log any exercise separately.
  • RealWorldStrengthLLC
    RealWorldStrengthLLC Posts: 552 Member
    Sedentary - couch potato, office worker
    Lightly active - RN, teacher, mechanic etc
    Active/very active - this line can get blurred depending on the work day but Construction, farming, etc.

    How you want to log is up to you. When I was doing my major cut I was "lightly active" (trade school student) and logged workouts separately. Now I work a somewhat physical job in the elements and train an hour plus almost daily so I just call myself very active and call it good.
  • MikePTY
    MikePTY Posts: 3,814 Member
    If you are averaging more than 10k steps daily you are active, not lightly active. If you are averaging between 5000-10000, you are lightly active.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    "I’m an RN so work days can involve 10-15,000 steps, but off days can have much less than that. "
    But what's your average as that's what you are trying to determine?
    (Only you know how many days a week you work typically.)

    Will a weights session count as being active?
    Absolutely nothing to do with your activity setting.
    (Exercise is logged after the event to get an estimate, your daily goal only takes into account your average daily activity and completely excludes purposeful exercise.)
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