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Calories burnt through your job? e.g. shop work

Shelly_here
Shelly_here Posts: 44 Member
edited January 8 in Fitness and Exercise
Hi all!

I'm currently working in a office type job 9-5 mon-fri so my calories are geared up to a sedentary life style. However i also have a second job working in a shop at the weekends (I'm saving up to go travelling in March :) ) which is obviously a lot more physical.

The retail job entails alot of standing and walking, stacking shelves, lifting and pushing items etc. Today I did a 7 hour shift and probably sat down for about 30 minutes in total. Has anyone got any advice on how to calculate the calories? I don't want to over estimate!

As i type this it occurs to me that i may be a good time to invest in a pedometer......

any suggestion appreciated! xx

Replies

  • Cocacoladdict
    Cocacoladdict Posts: 80 Member
    I would just put your activity in as not sedentary? If its something you do every weekend then its not really extra exercise is it?
  • crazybookworm
    crazybookworm Posts: 779 Member
    I work retail from 10-5 daily, and I also run my own Pet Spa as well, so grooming and retail gives me a lot of physical activity! Your best bet is to check with a heart rate monitor to calculate your exact calories. However, I don't even bother logging what I do at work. Just because you don't log it, doesn't mean that you're not going to lose it. Unless you have a HRM, it would be difficult to say specifically how much YOU burned. If you really do want to log it, I would say maybe log it as moderate or vigorous cleaning..

    Good luck and have fun on your trip!!
  • trogalicious
    trogalicious Posts: 4,584 Member
    it's basically built in to your profile when you set up the account.
  • dovesgate
    dovesgate Posts: 894 Member
    I'd leave your activity at sedentary and not count the shop work. It's like me working a desk job and counting the trips to the printer 3 yards away - even if I make that trip 20 times in a day, I'm not going to count it because it doesn't get my HR up.
  • Shelly_here
    Shelly_here Posts: 44 Member
    Yeah i dont really like the idea of logging it at all as i've alway thought of it as cheating and not "real" exercise! xx
  • ReinasWrath
    ReinasWrath Posts: 1,173 Member
    Personally I don't log my job as exercise <only stuff I do in the gym> because the way I see it is your body adapts and unless you are doing *really* heavy lifting/carrying/ect you probably aren't burning a ton like you might imagine.
    I used to log standing/walking/ect for my job last year and I think I ended up over eating big time because of it <thinking I burned a ton through work when I really didn't so I ate more when I really didn't need it>. This is all just my opinion though, if you did want to log it all you could get a HRM and it should tell you your daily burn. Some people wear theirs all day long.
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