burning 2,000 cal a day without working out

Hey, it's not often you get paid to exercise :P

if by 2000 you mean actually a lot closer to ~600-700 then you would be correct. the act of walking from waitressing only burns about 1-2 cal/min above BMR.

Heck yeah! It's a tough job (tougher than I thought! We do A LOT of work behind the scenes.) But when you're trying to get fit and shed pounds, you can't get a better deal than a moderate labor job with decent pay.

Remember everyone, always tip your waitress. : ) We work very hard to make your meal a delightful one (most of us, anyway.) Your tips pay our rent! We make far less than minimum wage from the company.

....I do not understand why people tip waitresses. We all work, and have jobs...a lot working with customers. Why doesn't everyone tip everyone?

But you'll be paid at least minimum wage for your job, while waitresses get paid less due to the tips they receive. I think waitresses here get paid less than $4/hour, while normal minimum wage for my state is $7.85. They need those tips to make up the discrepancy.

I get $25 an hour on fridays
$27 an hour on saturdays
and $29 an hour on sundays
I feel sorry about the lack of money you get
but I guess things in Australia are a lot more expensive, that's why we get so much.

Are you constantly walking and carrying dishes for 6 hours straight?

Walking one hour at 3 mph burns maybe 300 calories. Walking for 6 hours would burn 1800 calories. Then you also carried dishes the entire time. Yes, I can see how you burned 2000 calories. But this is still only considered your regular day. I go to the gym for 90 minutes, then I walk to my sons school there and back, walk to store. I walk pretty much every where. I am moving all day long. I don't consider that exercise. I don't log it.

I was going to say, those figures include your BMR.

I feel your pain! I waitressed for 9 months and Monday-Thursday I was the only server from 7AM-3PM. I had to open the front end of the restaurant, cashier, barista, wait tables, bus tables, and do dishes. I lost 10 pounds in a month through a combination of moving around and being too poor to afford food. I was much thinner back then too.

Now I am always sure to tip as follows

Horrendous service-10%
Decent service-15%
Good service-20%
Excellent service 25%+

Also, I hate when people blame you for the kitchen messing up their food. If the server is nice (as most are as they are trying to save and hope for a minimum tip) and they go above and beyond to make it up to me, I tip higher.

Oh and remember, you tip on the total bill, not the bill after comps and coupons. And if you split the check don't expect someone else to "make up for your tip" I had a table of 12 ladies age 50+ who were very wealthy women and they all left 1$, and had separate checks. It was not worth the effort I had to put into it by myself.

Anyway, I would still work out when you can because your body will eventually get used to the work and since you do it every day, it is more how your lifestyle should be set (moderately active as opposed to light or sedentary) than counted as a workout.

Yes, we are walking at a quick pace and carrying dishes the entire 6 hours, with momentary pauses to take orders (less than 3 mins). There are no breaks, and we have a "full hands in and out of the kitchen, you should always be looping the restaurant or kitchen" policy. Where I work we don't have have just one section of tables; we have one section to greet and take care of checks but we bring food, drinks, and bus tables through the entire restaurant.

Hehe, I believe you. I worked at an extremely popular Italian restaurant in high school. I lost 13 pounds in less than 2 months and I ate the same foods as I did before getting hired -- if anything I was eating more.

Horrendous service-10%
Decent service-15%
Good service-20%
Excellent service 25%+

Also, I hate when people blame you for the kitchen messing up their food. If the server is nice (as most are as they are trying to save and hope for a minimum tip) and they go above and beyond to make it up to me, I tip higher.

I gotta admit, if the waitress/waiter is awful (and I mean as in, being a real ***** or a real jerk) I tip them a face-down penny. This has only happened 2 times in my life.
People don't understand there is a difference between slow/poor service and the server being bad. Sometimes they are really busy, and I can understand that. So even when I get service most people would say gets 15, I tip 20. If you're really good, you can usually expect a 50% tip. Decent ones get 20 to 25%.

ETA: One of the times I tipped a penny, was when I went out to an Applebees for a going away party with a few friends. We were one of three tables there. The restaurant was very open, so you could see them walking out of the kitchen, etc. They went by these little service buzzers where it would send them a page if we pressed a button. We pressed it three times the entire meal. The first was when she took our drink orders and never came back. For twenty minutes. We were literally looking right at her, she was just sitting at the bar. When we pressed it, we all watched her roll her eyes. The second was after she set down our drinks and left without taking our order, and my friend found a bug in his drink. She rolled her eyes again. When he asked for a new drink she glared at him and said "There's no bug in there." He literally picked it up and showed it to her and she said, "That's not a bug." ...it doesn't ****ing matter, there should be anything in his drink! So she replaced it after more eye rolling. The third was after we finally got our meals, and we were done eating and drinking (she not once refilled anyone's drinks) and then we waited another 30 minutes before we rang to get the check (mind you, the whole time she is sitting at the bar, flirting with the bartender.) More eye rolling. We decided as a group that she wasn't getting a tip, and as we were leaving I decided if she wanted to a *****, I would too, so I left her a penny in the middle of the table, face down. lol

2.13 when i first started, of course, doing my high school job, that was 20 years ago, but my friend has a teenager and it hasnt gone up from there. i even tip the waiters and waitresses at buffets that only bring me drinks. the chefs that fix my food at this mongolian restaurant fix it right in front of you. im vegan so they went out of their way. that deserves a tip in itself.

Heck yeah! It's a tough job (tougher than I thought! We do A LOT of work behind the scenes.) But when you're trying to get fit and shed pounds, you can't get a better deal than a moderate labor job with decent pay.

Remember everyone, always tip your waitress. : ) We work very hard to make your meal a delightful one (most of us, anyway.) Your tips pay our rent! We make far less than minimum wage from the company.

....I do not understand why people tip waitresses. We all work, and have jobs...a lot working with customers. Why doesn't everyone tip everyone?

At least in my state, waitresses can be paid as little as something like 4 dollars an hour. Their tips go toward their paycheck, and if they don't have enough the company has to make up the difference only up to minimum wage. Waitresses should be paid a lot more than minimum wage.

I tip LOTS of people aside from waitresses/waiters: aestheticians, maids, doormen, gas attendants, drivers... if somebody is SERVING you, you should probably acknowledge that is worth the something. These people are frequently underpaid and over worked. It's not just a matter of dealing with the public, it's a matter of not making enough to live on unless you NEVER have an off moment and forgot a straw. If you don't like to tip, stay home and make your own food, cut your own hair, clean your own house, and run your own errands.

My husband is a server in a fine dining steakhouse, and can be on his feet for up to 12 hours a day, not including walking to and from the train (a mile each way). He lost 30 lbs in less than a year, and lets just say there's a reason *I* am on the site and not him... we eat the same food (I even eat much smaller portions) but I work a desk job. He says he has to keep working there or he's going to have to join MFP too! I believe you, trust me!!

Get some Epsom salts and wash your feet every night, you'll feel AMAZING. It just feels so good to soak and massage your feet after a long day, even if you don't take a full shower. Its super rejuvenating.

Whoa where do you people live? Waitresses make that little an hour? :sick: That's crazy, here waitresses make 9.80$ + tips an hour.

That just seems so ridiculously low., guess we do it differently in Canada.