Part time worker

nibblerbigcat

Right now, I have considered myself sedentary and my daily calorie intake is set at 1,200. I am a waitress/busy worker normally at a pizza place about 3-4 days a week, 7-8 hour shifts (normally). I am always on my feet, most of the time cleaning, walking back and forth helping people, stocking soda coolers, etc. I have been tracking this "excercise" by "cleaning, light, moderate effort" for about 2-3 hours (even though I'm working 8, it feels weird to put 8 hours in).

My question is: how accurate do you think this is? Should I even be tracking what I burn off at work? Sometimes when I'm running around all day and have eaten 1,200 calories I am still starving. So of course I eat, but then I feel like I'm not going to make progress by going over. I don't want to put that I'm "lightly active" because I don't work every day and I'm a full time student so I do spend a lot of time sitting.

Any suggestions/thoughts?

kathytexas

Sounds like you are wondering if your work counts as exercise and if you are burning off enough calories at work? I've wondered that too when doing yardwork or housework, but when I've checked my heart rate is not high enough for a long enough period of time to realy count as cardio.

My suggestion if you are trying to lose weight:

1. Know your calorie counts and don't overeat (eat healthy and so on....). I think nutrition is the bigger contributor to weight management and losing weight.
2. Have a dedicated workout time (30 minutes to an hour) with your heart rate elevated for a consistent length of time so you KNOW that you should count those calories as being burned off.
3. Wear a heart rate monitor at work or take your heart rate at work frequently (if possible) so you know if your heart rate is getting up enough and staying up long enough to count as exercise.

Hope that helps.