should I be logging waitressing as excercise ?

jessVanL
jessVanL Posts: 20 Member
edited November 16 in Health and Weight Loss
So I'm a student and a full time waitress and I work between 3 and 12 hours 5/6 days per week. I've put myself as lightly active but that's mostly because I don't have a car and do loads of walking everyday. When I work I am on my feet walking constantly ( very busy restaurant) we don't sit down at all. I'm also lifting and carrying multiple heavy plates etc. All day so I log it as leasurely walking for normal an hour short of the amount of time I was actually there to account for standing still and going to the bathroom etc.
Do you think I should be logging it or not ?
Thank you in advance

Replies

  • CattOfTheGarage
    CattOfTheGarage Posts: 2,745 Member
    I think it would be better to up your activity level rather than logging it as exercise. As @subcounter says, get a Fitbit (or a plain old pedometer) and track your steps; personally I would then use the step count to pick a more appropriate activity level, as it sounds to me like you are more than "lightly active".
  • LisaMoxon155
    LisaMoxon155 Posts: 264 Member
    Im a manageress in a bakery/cafe. I spend all day on my feet but as ive been doing for 11 years now i consider it as part of my every day life.
    I put my actuvity level as lightly active. Any additional exercises(ie not at work) is then considered as extra exercises.
  • tinkerbellang83
    tinkerbellang83 Posts: 9,129 Member
    I used to wear a pedometer when I was bartending/waitressing and would be walking around 10 miles per day - definitely need to count yourself as the very least "lightly active" but more likely "active"
  • TimothyFish
    TimothyFish Posts: 4,925 Member
    It's kind of up to you. As MFP is intended to work you would include that in you activity level rather than logging it. The days you work less would balance out with those where you work more and you would have one calorie goal. But if you are going to log your work as exercise then you should set your activity level lower.
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
    Change your activity level on MFP for that rather than logging it as exercise - either lightly active or active - depends on how many steps you clock up while you're a work really.
  • tar2323
    tar2323 Posts: 141 Member
    My daughter wore her Fitbit when she did some waitressing. Including the walking she did during her lunchbreak, she'd regularly clock up over 20,000 steps.
  • lbaxandall
    lbaxandall Posts: 62 Member
    I keep my activity as "lightly active" and include my daily house puttering/running around the gym/training in that. If I do something above and beyond my normal daily moving (workout, heavy mopping/floor to ceiling cleaning), then I log that separate. I'd just up your activity level, then log anything additional (jogging, workout, whatever).
  • Hello_its_Dan
    Hello_its_Dan Posts: 406 Member
    That's called NEAT

    For instance I log 10k-20k steps a day at work but it's not exercise.
  • Unknown
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  • annacole94
    annacole94 Posts: 994 Member
    You can also use a phone app as a pedometer if you want. It's not 100% accurate, but it gets me close enough for my purposes.
  • rileysowner
    rileysowner Posts: 8,329 Member
    jessVanL wrote: »
    So I'm a student and a full time waitress and I work between 3 and 12 hours 5/6 days per week. I've put myself as lightly active but that's mostly because I don't have a car and do loads of walking everyday. When I work I am on my feet walking constantly ( very busy restaurant) we don't sit down at all. I'm also lifting and carrying multiple heavy plates etc. All day so I log it as leasurely walking for normal an hour short of the amount of time I was actually there to account for standing still and going to the bathroom etc.
    Do you think I should be logging it or not ?
    Thank you in advance

    No, it should be included in your activity level. You may need to increase your activity level, but maybe not.
  • Ready2Rock206
    Ready2Rock206 Posts: 9,487 Member
    Your job is part of your activity level - not exercise. If you're losing too rapidly you can always up your activity level to reflect your active job.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,254 Member
    Activity settings are an attempt to guess the base calories that you spend every day.

    They are estimated by multiplying your estimated BMR (in the case of MFP http://www.myfitnesspal.com/tools/bmr-calculator) by a number called an "activity factor", or "physical activity factor", or "physical activity level"

    Different estimations use different activity factors and include, or exclude, different things, while giving them different labels. MFP's very active does not mean the same thing as anybody else's very active!

    MFP expects you to log deliberate exercise separately. As such the activity factors are set conservatively (since they don't include exercise) and the highest setting is "very active" which is set at BMR x 1.8.

    Levels of daily activity that exceed the 15/16K steps a day range tend to reliably exceed MFP's "very active" level.

    In other words there does not exist an activity setting in MFP that can capture a job that requires you to take 20,000 steps in a day without logging some of that daily living activity as a separate exercise activity.

    Note that the above analysis does not address the accuracy of your food logging, nor does it address whether you are in the middle of the curve, or an outlier when it comes to estimating how many calories you burn. It may, indeed, be the case if you and I are outliers that for YOU 20,000 steps burns as many calories as 10,000 steps burns for me, or the other way around.

    But, if you're in the middle of the pack, by the time you hit the 15/16K step range you've covered the caloric expenditure that is accounted for in BMR x 1.8, i.e. you've fully covered MFP's very active setting.
  • SusanMFindlay
    SusanMFindlay Posts: 1,804 Member
    jessVanL wrote: »
    So I'm a student and a full time waitress and I work between 3 and 12 hours 5/6 days per week. I've put myself as lightly active but that's mostly because I don't have a car and do loads of walking everyday. When I work I am on my feet walking constantly ( very busy restaurant) we don't sit down at all. I'm also lifting and carrying multiple heavy plates etc. All day so I log it as leasurely walking for normal an hour short of the amount of time I was actually there to account for standing still and going to the bathroom etc.
    Do you think I should be logging it or not ?
    Thank you in advance

    See Pav's post above. With your life, I would set myself to "very active" and choose a conservative weight loss goal. That's the best you'll be able to do without getting an activity tracker. An easy way to check if that's reasonable is to get a cheap pedometer and wear it for a week or two. If you're getting at least 15,000 steps/day, "very active" is the right choice for you.

    I average between 15,000 and 20,000 steps/day. I've set myself to "active" but I have a FitBit synced so that controls my calorie allowance no matter what level I'd chosen. I usually get between 300 and 600 "extra" calories over and above the "active". Which makes me at or above "very active" pretty much every day. And I bet you get more steps than I do.
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