my food journal

Question
I work part-time at a store where I am standing or walking for six to seven hours a day. I am beginning to keep a journal of my eating and exercise habits but I don't know what "counts" in terms of exercise.

Are those hours spent at work standing and walking around considered exercise, or should they be disregarded, since it is something I do regularly as part of my job???

Also, if running for an hour burns x number of calories, how does a whole day at work standing/walking compare??? I want to be true to my journal!

Answer
Dear Krystle,

That's a very good question!
The answer depends on what you're trying to accomplish. If you merely want to log how many calories you are burning a day, the movement of walking around certainly does count. However, if you are trying to see how many more calories you burn, you'll have to find a way to pick it up!

I would suggest wearing a pedometer to record an average number of steps you take each day. You can make a challenging game out of trying to find ways to increase your step numbers to beat the number you logged the day before.

And if running for an hour burns 500 calories (which is an approximation) then standing and taking steps for 6 hours compares with about 150 calories an hour or 900 calories total. You'll know more when you check your daily step numbers: we burn about 50 calories per 1000 steps.

Good luck!

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