Determining Current Activity Level

[TexasToast82]

Hey all!  I have a question about how to determine my current activity level for the purpose of determining my daily calorie needs and planning out some workout stuff.

 

My main goal is to gain weight (preferably muscle of course, but I could stand to get a bit fatter too.) I've used those online calculators before and they always ask for your activity level. This is where I run into problems, because the explanations of each activity level almost invariably reference how often you "workout." I NEVER work out. NEVER. Okay, sometimes I play around on my weight bench at home, but those times are so few and far between it isn't worth mentioning.

 

However, I work as a produce receiver at a grocery store. So for 4-8 hrs a day I am breaking down palettes of produce, putting them on carts, pushing them across the length of the store to the produce cooler, and putting them down on dunnage and shelves. So I lift 200-700 boxes five days a week, most boxes ranging 20-50 pounds. I lift as many boxes as I can manage in one lift depending on size and weight. So I figure most lifts are between 40-80 pounds.

I used a shipping manifest one day to get a (very) rough estimate of how much I'm lifting total each day and I figure it's anywhere between 4k-8k pounds a day depending on the size of the order. So in terms of a weight lifting session, not exactly grueling, but I'm also never really standing in one place for long either, so it's a mixed bag. Most days I finish the truck in about 4 hours and then work the produce floor, which is lots of walking, standing, and light lifting. On double truck day (once a week), I spend pretty much my whole 8 hr shift on putting up the palettes.

 

I'm not very experienced with workouts, so I don't know how to quantify my activity level in terms of "How often do you workout?" And in my free time, I'm pretty sedentary. Beyond the occasional walk around the neighborhood and household chores, I'm mostly playing video games, reading, youtubing, drawing/painting, and other low energy activities. But I'm pretty sure my entire job classifies as a workout of some sort. At least my body tells me so. By my age (37), the men in my family have usually gained a sizable gut, while my six foot tall frame still struggles to reach and maintain 150 lbs. 

 

I use MyFitnessPal to track what I eat. I set a goal of gaining 1 pound per week, and set an Activity Level of 'Very Active,' the highest setting. But I don't know if I should back it down to just 'Active.' Here are how the app describes each level: 

 

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)

 

I could see myself fitting into either of those categories, and the occupation examples don't particularly help. I know that my current job is much more tiring than any of my previous food serving jobs, but beyond that, I don't know. Does anyone have a solid idea on how to translate that to "workout" terms? And bonus points for a rough estimation of how many calories I'm burning in an average day. I'm just completely in the dark on this one. When I'm really trying, I attempt to eat 4k calories a day.

[Sylvaa]

16 minutes ago, TexasToast82 said:

I use MyFitnessPal to track what I eat. I set a goal of gaining 1 pound per week, and set an Activity Level of 'Very Active,' the highest setting. But I don't know if I should back it down to just 'Active.' Here are how the app describes each level: 

 

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)

 

Since your goal is to gain weight, I don't think there would be an issue with going with either of these and in the grand scheme of wanting to gain weight, either would serve you well. In general people tend to over estimate their activity, so in that sense, I would say active, but since your goal is to gain weight, saying very active shouldn't necessarily hurt anything. This is a really neat link to estimating activity levels. I really like it because it goes in terms of daily exercise goals to actually be considered a specific level. 

 

Also, MFP is just going to be a guideline. Regardless of which way you go, you'll have to tweak your actual calories based on whether or not you are seeing progress. Realistically, if you are currently not losing weight at your job, you should be able to add in a daily 500 calorie snack and end up gaining a pound a week keeping everything else consistent. Now, weight is never that cut and dry, but it's a perspective to keep in mind.  

[Harriet]

54 minutes ago, TexasToast82 said:

I could see myself fitting into either of those categories, and the occupation examples don't particularly help. I know that my current job is much more tiring than any of my previous food serving jobs, but beyond that, I don't know. Does anyone have a solid idea on how to translate that to "workout" terms? And bonus points for a rough estimation of how many calories I'm burning in an average day. I'm just completely in the dark on this one. When I'm really trying, I attempt to eat 4k calories a day.

The thing is, they're really only rough estimates, because people vary quit a bit in their calorie requirements due to body composition, genes and NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis). I would say pick one and adjust based on your results. The active category seems to be for workers who are on their feet but not necessarily lifting objects, so I guess I would try very active for a few weeks and see what happens. 

 

24 minutes ago, Sylvaa said:

MFP is just going to be a guideline. Regardless of which way you go, you'll have to tweak your actual calories based on whether or not you are seeing progress. 

In other words, what Sylvaa said  

[TexasToast82]

1 hour ago, Sylvaa said:

. This is a really neat link to estimating activity levels. I really like it because it goes in terms of daily exercise goals to actually be considered a specific level. 

 

 

 

Thanks! That link actually helps quite a bit. It goes into more specifics, and makes me think Very Active is probably the best fit for me, although perhaps somewhere more than Active but not quite Very Active. Hard to tell only in that it doesn't go into many specifics about lifting heavy things. Like how lifting compares to walking or jogging in terms of calories burned. Still, as pointed out, since weight gain is the goal, there's no harm in overstating my activity unless I start developing a gut.