Calories burned serving..

I think you're in the same category as I am there - your work activity level can vary a great degree, and you can't always predict, or even accurately remember/categorize it. I found getting a BodyMedia to be extremely helpful. You might consider going that route. Wouldn't need to be a BodyMedia: maybe a FitBit or whatever. But some sort of activity monitor that could help track your activity level for you, so you can adjust your eating to match your activity on a daily basis.

Many years ago I managed a restaurant that had servers and many times I've thought about this issue of waiting tables as exercise. First, there is a difference being busy and being active. Waiting tables involves a lot of walking briskly to point A and then standing, walking quickly to point B and standing. As a result, it can seem like a lot of walking, and it might be, but most of that walking is not aerobic. That is, not moving continuously enough to keep your heart rate up. Also, I know I feel more worn out after standing around for a few hours than if I had spent that same time walking. Feeling "worn out" and tired feet can give a false impression of being active.

Despite feeling busy for hours on end, how often do servers actually have to stop to catch their breath or are unable to speak steadily when taking orders? Rarely, if ever, I bet. Also, the better one gets at waiting tables, the more efficient they become with their movements. This isn't to say that the walking doesn't count as basic activity, but it does take a lot of non-aerobic walking to add up to a significant number of calories burned.

A pedometer is really the only way to know for sure. The Omron HJ-112 is less than 25 dollars, accurate, can be carried discretely in a pocket, and has many high reviews online. Perhaps most relevant to you, it tracks how many of your total steps qualify as aerobic. The pedometer defines aerobic steps as those occurring when walking at least 60 steps per minute for at least 10 minutes with no more than 1 minute rest. How often does a server walk for at least 10 minutes without stopping for more than one minute? (Yelling at the cooks for screwing up an order or at the dishwashers because you are out of silverware does not count as aerobic, unless you are walking in place while doing it.)

In my observation and experience, the biggest weight loss obstacle for many servers is the lifestyle: hours without eating a healthy meal, availability of high calorie food and drinks that are not nutrient dense, stress, and late night shifts that interfere with quality sleep.

There is a difference between "mobility" and "exercise".

The issue of occupational activity is a tricky one. You outline some of the issues in your comment. There is definitely an increase in energy expenditure when the job includes a lot of walking or moving around. However, I also think that because of stress, fatigue, odd shifts, etc, there is also a tendency to compensate for some of that extra energy by reducing activity the rest of the day, cutting down on exercise, eating more food, etc.

I think the differences are most notable when one is changing one's routine. In order words, if a person goes from a sedentary lifestyle to an active job, or goes from a situation where they had a lot of job activity or had to do a lot of walking around campus, for example, then starts a sedentary job, then one is more likely to see a difference. But if this is something you have been doing all along, I think there is a good chance you have incorporated that into your lifestyle and I would be cautious about counting it separately.

People have done it both ways -- logged the extra activity, or not counted it separately--and have seen success, so I think it really depends on how honest and consistent you are. Personally, I would just marginally increase avg daily uptake if you felt you weren't eating enough and not invest time and energy trying to track it.

When I lost my weight, I was out of work and doing a lot of exercise. Plus it was easier to control my diet. When I got my current job, I thought it would be very helpful, because my casual activity shot up. On any given day, I am walking all over the gym, climbing up and down 20-30 flights of stairs, picking up 400-800 lbs of weight plates and dumbbells that lazy, pampered yuppie larvae leave laying around, as well as demonstrating a lot of different exercises.

The net result was: zippo, nada, zilch, nothing. In fact it has been a struggle to maintain the losses. Two main reasons: One, the work hours led to a sharp reduction in my workout time and two, after a 12-hour shift, I am too tired and pressed for time to workout on top of that--and I tend to eat more as well.

So I don't want to devalue the activity and say it is insignificant, but I do think one should be vary wary about how much of it to put back into your eating plan.