How active are you ? I feel so sedentary.

[SedentaryCecily]

According to the NhS guidelines I am a very active person, however, I feel so sedentary. My children are grown up now, so I have far too much time just sitting around as well as a desk job which are often quite long hours. I am 50 and this is how much I move on an average week:

Weekdays: total 40 mins walk to and from train stations and 1 hour in the gym cardio and weights or swimming.
Weekends: 1 hour gym and a couple of hours walk outside on Sundays usually.

I know written down this looks like I am a fairly active person, but I feel like I spend soooo many hours sitting down. Obviously I move around my house doing chores and go out socially, but I feel I spend so many hours sitting at my desk.

How much do you move in a day or week if you have a sedentary job?

I think of myself as reasonably active, since I walk at least 1.15 hrs a day. I like it when I also do weights, ballet or other such(in addition to walking) and on those days I might do half an hour extra. But work is so busy atm I haven’t done weights etc since before Xmas. If I was doing your level, I’d think of myself as very active. You obviously have a lot of energy! Lucky you :-)

We are not all frazzled mums, many of us have older/grown up kids

One year, I said I could only go to a pub if I walked to it. I then went to more pubs than I knew existed and travelled throughout Britain doing so! If you have no kids and a bit of spare cash then all you need is a tent. It's a great way of living weekends before the older years hit, absolutely fantastic.
I appreciate not everyone can afford this but Britain has spectacular walks and home made cheese sandwiches are cheap as chips. The only big investment is a decent thermos.

That’s a lot more than me. My commute involves a 45 min walk a day. I’ve got a treadmill and might do 40 mins on that every other day. Walk round my local NT place twice a week.

That’s all I’ve got the energy for tbh. My office days are up at 6am, home at 7pm if I’m lucky. Mid fifties.

I get what you mean, I’ve been on maternity leave and returning to work makes me feel so sluggish during the day as I’m used to always being on the move. And similarly my job used to involve walking or travelling around to talk to people about half the time I was at work, now it’s a tiny fraction of that as you say. I miss it. I used to get thousands of steps in just walking around my workplace working!

I consider myself active. I'm mid 40s.

Teacher - so 5 hours a day on my feet, often more. Then gym twice a week and also kick boxing twice a week.

Have you thought about a hobby that involves standing or moving round? Not necessarily a sports one - drama group, choir, drumming, helping with scouts etc... if you're active and moving round in the evenings then that lessens how much you're sitting.

I think I understand OP. I am 54, been a lone parent for many years, have a sedentary job and love exercise. DS2 has been old enough for me leave alone for a few years now. I'm still very busy as I work full time, live rurally so DS2 (age 15) needs lots of shuttling about and I have quite a few interests/older people I spend time with and take out.

It's still a juggle to get to the sports I love, but then there are days when I find myself with a big old stretch of time because DS is elsewhere.

It's an adjustment to plan a day rather than it just be filled with chasing my tail.
It's been so long since I've had a day where I get all the jobs done, do some sport, see a friend AND have an evening watching telly - sometimes I wander around the house feeling torn - shall I watch a film, do a jigsaw, go into the loft and sort out boxes from 15 years ago, get a ladder and clean some gutters, deep descale the shower, tidy the admin draw?!

In answer to your question, this is what I try and do exercise wise. I wfh so no commute.
Monday - lunch time swim and evening strength/core class
Tuesday - walk with friend at lunch time, running club in the evening
Wednesday - rest day
Thursday - running club in the evening
Friday - rest day
Saturday - rest day
Sunday - long run or race day

I'd like to do more evening sports, but I do need to be at home some evenings for DS! This is rough - sometimes I do more, rarely less.
I cycle when the weather is good. Also open water swim, but unless it's pretty warm it's more a feel good thing rather than actual exercise!

I am either stupidly active or very lazy!

As of next week I'll be running 4 days a week for about an hour each time. Mix of intervals, slow runs, long runs, short easy run. I'm hoping to gym 3 days a week too for an hour each time to weight lift but it might actually end up being 2 some weeks depending on how I'm feeling and what my husband has on because the kids aren't old enough to be left.

I walk 4 miles every week day to get said children to school and back and 4 days a week I have a job where I'm on my feet for 5 hours.

When I'm not at work and I've done my exercise for the day I can be pretty lazy but everybody needs downtime to relax and recharge.

I think there are a huge range of people here.

Nope, this just sounds like you are boasting about how active you are

What's your daily step count OP?

I think your exercise levels are fine, but I get that you feel sedentary because so much of your day is. Could you take a lunch break and add in another walk? If I go into the office, I set my watch to remind to get up every hour, otherwise I’d not move. I walk down 3 sets of stairs, across the building and up the opposite 3 sets of stairs. I’ll do that around 5 times in a day.

Really? OP acknowledges that she knows she is active enough to maintain health and that it is a lot of exercise, but that there are still many hours where she is sedentary.
She has moved from raising a family and all the hectic juggling that brings to having a lot of free time. It doesn't seem like she's looking for "it's OK hun, you do loads of exercise" affirmation, but to find out what other people in her position do.

I get what you mean. I have a sedentary job, get a reasonable amount of exercise, but humans are not made for sitting so much.

I think it's easy to feel more sedentary then you are when you spend 7-9hours a day at a desk. I often feel really lazy on the days I got into the office (twice a week) but, when I think about it, I probably do similar amounts of exercise as when I am at home - it just feels different because it's spread across the day rather than in two long walks.

On my commuting days, I walk the dogs for thirty minutes in the morning then I walk an hour as part of my commute (15 minutes to the station, then from the station to the office and then repeat to go home). I walk the dogs for an hour once I am home. So, I average about 2.5hrs walking on a day where I can spend 8 hours sat at my desk...and I still feel like I don't exercise enough.

I recently got a standing desk and that has really helped with the feel sedentary - but I had to fight to get it given I am only in the office 2(ish) days a week!

But take away at least eleven hours for meals (prep plus eating), nighttime and morning routines, and sleep, and you get a more realistic picture of your active hours vs sedentary hours.

Could you bring a set of hand weights to your office and try using them at intervals during your workday?

Could you use little ankle weights to increase resistance when you walk?

Could you get one of those little pedal exerciser gizmos to use at your desk so your legs move, or use one at home if you're sitting down in the evening?

Getting in a little yoga daily might be good too - there's more to exercise than aerobic.

How many steps do you walk a day?

I really try to stand at my desk if I'm not with a client. I feel better when I get home , and I can really feel it if I don't.

Not all parents are frazzled, and even if they were, that frazzlement often takes the form of running around a lot. I see the OP’s point entirely. I have experimented with a walking desk and not got on with it at all, alas — some friends find them great.

This sounds great, a constant potential for adventure - am tempted to take this up also. DH and I do a more mundane version: we have to move for our meals. We do our grocery shopping daily for that day’s dinner ingredients and incorporate exercise so that a 5km run ends at Sainsbury’s; or walk the very scenic way around to the cafe at the end of the street on. Sunday morning. We started this during lockdown when we were just desperate to be out of the house in the lovely weather and so came up with lots of walking and running routes to various shops and coffee stands to elongate our “one trip out to exercise and one trip to the shops”, and it just stuck afterwards.

I think that the problem isn’t perhaps that you’re not doing enough exercise/activity - on paper (and in reality) as you say, your activity levels are very good. Is it not that you are sitting for big chunks of time whilst you are working, and you feel your sedentary hours cancel or outweigh your active hours? I think pp’s ideas of a standing desk or a treadmill are great, if you were able to incorporate these? For my part, I certainly don’t do an hours gym session everyday, however, I have a job where I am on my feet all day (work on a hospital ward) and so don’t feel like I lead a sedentary lifestyle. However, on paper, my activity levels (and level of fitness) I would think are much less than yours.

At the moment I walk to the corner shop when we run out of milk or to take the DC to the park. I am on my feet at work too but I'd love to be able to be half as active as you OP.

@SedentaryCecily I owe you an apology. I genuinely thought you were being one of those 'oh I only ran three marathons last week instead of four, does that make me super lazy??' types. But now I understand you are sincere and I was unfairly snippy. I still think you sound pretty active mind you!

I think you sound fairly active OP but I do know what you mean about working hours. My previous job was 12hr shifts and I was on my feet walking around for most of the time. Slightly different role now more office based and work a 9-5 pattern but I do way less walking around. However the more sociable hours mean that I’m able to get to the gym more often so I do 5 times a week plus dog walking in between.

You sound active to me but I do understand. I used to have a job where I was out and about all day and felt 'busy' and the kids were younger.
I now have a primarily desk based job however I still do around 12000 steps a day. My step count and exercise levels haven't altered a great deal but I definitely feel like it's a steadier pace.

I tend to do:
Mon - Fri: home exercise workout or a longish walk.
Saturday: walk, yoga or something stretching based
Sunday: nothing other than my general daily steps