How Would You Log A Catering Gig?

chefswife1975

Working a catering event tonight and I never know what to put on my exercise log for it. Any suggestions? It involves walking, but not the whole time, it involves lifting, but not the whole time and it involves walking up and down stairs, but not the whole time. It's usually an 8 hour shift. Anyone have a good formula for this kind of thing?

cmriverside

If it were me, I'd just add 250-400 calories to my intake for the day. If you try to enter it as "exercise" you'll get some crazy number like 700. Um, no. I have an exercise category I call, General walking. I just adjust my calories there.

TylerJ76

I wouldn't.

chefswife1975

This is extremely hard work that I do once a week, if I'm lucky. It definitely deserves to be put on the log. If I just put regular walking, with out the lifting for 4 hours, which is about half of what I'm there, it would be about 800 calories, if not more. Maybe I'll just do that. It's just if I'm running up and down stairs of a three floor venue carrying 10 pound hotel pans of food, it seems like it would be more.

secretlobster

Is your activity level in your MFP profile set to "sedentary"?

I would not log any kind of activity that is part of my normal day, like my job. That's what changing your activity level is for...

chefswife1975

I normally work in the office at the catering company, 8 hours at a desk. I pick up a gig two or three times a month to supplement income, so it isn't a typical work thing for me, which is why I am adding it to my exercise. When I do it, I use it as an exercise day, because it is so intense aerobically and I only will do a gig once in a week, rather than those that do gigs as their full time jobs.
If I didn't have a full time desk job and I did this for a living, I wouldn't log it as exercise, but as this is not the case, I don't see why it wouldn't be considered exercise.

I'll just figure it out myself.

cmriverside

This is extremely hard work that I do once a week, if I'm lucky. It definitely deserves to be put on the log. If I just put regular walking, with out the lifting for 4 hours, which is about half of what I'm there, it would be about 800 calories, if not more. Maybe I'll just do that. It's just if I'm running up and down stairs of a three floor venue carrying 10 pound hotel pans of food, it seems like it would be more.

Right. Which is what I'm having (or have always had) an issue with. I don't know what your Goals are, what you are eating or anything.

For me, I don't log exercise anymore. I have ten pounds to lose. I just eat the same amounts, give or take a couple hundred, every day.

Even if I changed my Activity level to reflect a waitress job category, it would only increase my daily calories by about 250. If I was doing it every day, that's what I would do. Some days I walk up and down hills for four or five hours here in the PNW. Fairly hard work, carrying a 25lb backpack. If I used the database, it would give me 700-800 extra calories to eat. Like I said, um. No. I eat 300-400 extra. Not 700. YMMV.

There is no "right" answer.

medoria

I wouldnt log it at all. You risk overestimating the calorie burn and undereastimating the calories you eat back. For me this is a big no no.