Hungrier on days that I work.

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purpleipod
purpleipod Posts: 1,147 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I've noticed on days I work that I am ravenous between lunch and dinner, compared to perfectly fine on days that I am off. I'm not eating more or less when I'm not working, so all I can think is because I'm up moving around more and I suppose burning more calories on days that I work, that is making me more hungry.

I'm a massage therapist, so when I do do massage it's fairly physical work. I have my activity level set to sedentary though, because I never know when or if I will be doing massage on a day I'm at work, plus I'm only working 4 days a week right now. If I'm not doing massage I'm not really doing anything at work. When I'm at home (unless I'm exercising) I'm pretty sedentary. My calories are currently set at 1350, which in my mind really isn't THAT low.

Thoughts? Any advice is appreciated.

Replies

  • lizard053
    lizard053 Posts: 2,344 Member
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    Yup. You have an active job. You will need to eat more on days that you work. Probably up to 500 more calories. This is definitely why you are hungrier when you work than on days you don't. Unless you exercise the same number of hours you would have been working that is!
  • beach_chelle
    beach_chelle Posts: 221
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    I would say since your work is so sporadic yet physical wear a heart rate monitor when working and record it as exercise since you aren't accounting for it by recording sedentary activity level. There ar all kinds of heart rate monitors that you could get that people wouldn't know or try one of those fit bugs or something.
  • purpleipod
    purpleipod Posts: 1,147 Member
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    Hm.. this is what I was afraid of. Some days that I work I end up going a couple hundred calories over my recommended number, but I try not to worry about it. So far it doesn't seem to be effecting my losses.
  • beach_chelle
    beach_chelle Posts: 221
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    Well then if it is working it is working, just keep that in mind. Good luck!
  • lizard053
    lizard053 Posts: 2,344 Member
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    Do what works for you! If you're losing, you're doing great!
  • chevy88grl
    chevy88grl Posts: 3,937 Member
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    I have my daily calories set at 2300, but on the days I work (Sun-Wed) I write in my notes that it is a 2500 day since I am at work all day long.

    I think it would be okay for you to eat over your 1350 on the days where you are busy. Go ahead and leave it set at 1350, but just write in your notes "Busy day at work" so when you go back and look at things, you won't wonder why you were over that day.

    I wish you could set your calories for individual days on here.
  • taso42
    taso42 Posts: 8,980 Member
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    Try bumping up to lightly active or active. Especially if you work out regularly on top of work. The Sedentary option seems more like it should be renamed "Comatose"....
  • purpleipod
    purpleipod Posts: 1,147 Member
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    I guess I'm afraid to set it to lightly active because it doesn't seem like a consistent thing in my situation. Then again neither does being sedentary. Bleh.
  • fatty_to_fitty
    fatty_to_fitty Posts: 544 Member
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    Add your work as exercise and eat back the calories on those days.
  • taso42
    taso42 Posts: 8,980 Member
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    I guess I'm afraid to set it to lightly active because it doesn't seem like a consistent thing in my situation. Then again neither does being sedentary. Bleh.

    FWIW, my job is sedentary, and so is my lifestyle. But I work out 3-6 times a week. I have to set MFP to "Active" to make the numbers work out. A while back, when I was more consistently exercising 6-7 times a week, and aggressively burning fat, I had it jacked up to "Very Active", and then some (I had to manually adjust the calorie target to give myself even more). I know the settings are supposed to indicate lifestyle with exercise factored out of the equation, but for me, that is simply not the case.

    There have been one or two controversial threads discussing this.
  • purpleipod
    purpleipod Posts: 1,147 Member
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    Maybe I'll leave it this way for now but change it to at least lightly active once summer roles around. I'm pretty much guaranteed to be busy that time of the year.

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