Burning Calories at work

oxnina

Hey, just a question for someone who may know..
I live a pretty sedentary lifestyle: I'm a student who sits in class all day but will walk to bus stops and classes etc.. but when i get home, i don't do a lot of moving.
So i selected my lifestyle to be sedentary, which makes sense, but my problem is that i am a waitress at a large chain restaurant, and while i work, i'm at high pace for 2-3-4 hours on end. I don't stop, i'm continuously moving and lifting trays up to 25 lbs almost all the time.
Just curious how i should count this in redeeming my exercise calories? I was looking on some websites and it was stating that with my weight and age that in a 3 hour shift i can burn anywhere between 800-1000 calories in a shift!? does this sound right? and if so, because i only work twice or 3 times a week, i don't feel i should change my lifestyle to lightly active, because i'm mostly sedentary. What do you guys think?
Help! ?

ladyraven68

When I changed it to lightly active it only gave me an extra 150 calories a day, so check what your settings give you.

If you average those work calories out over the week you may even be more than lightly active.

I would rather eat those work calories spread over the week than try to eat so much extra on work days.

EsaP1

Invest in a pedometer and you can track the steps your take at work. Then at the end of your day, go to http://walking.about.com/library/cal/uccalc3.htm, to calulate the aproximate calories burned.

TavistockToad

yes, you could change your setting to light active, or you could log 3-4 hours walking on the days you work and eat back the extra calories.

whichever suits best. keep an eye on your weekly net figure and see if you are losing weight consistantly, and adjust as needed if you think you are getting too many/too few calories.

douglasmobbs

Log your food and additional exercise for a couple of weeks, then see how much you lose. The difference between your expected weight loss and actual weight loss could be largely attributed to the calories you burn whilst doing your job.

cheekyleonie

Get a Heart Rate Monitor, then you will know how many cals you burn at work.
Problem solved! :laugh:

Laddiegirl

What I would do is if you can, wear a pedometer to work on those days to get an average of how many calories you burn and then log walking on those days for that much. That way you count for the days you do the activity but are still good for your mostly sedentary lifestyle. You'll be surprised what a pedometer can reveal, I always knew I walked a lot at work but didn't know I walked 5-7 miles a day at my job alone. It adds up!

oxnina

Thanks everyone! I think i'll invest in a pedometer. Anyone know of any good ones that are relatively cheap? thanks!