calorie burning question!

i am confused about burning calories.

last summer, (ie. last time i did the weight loss thing) i worked at a bakery. CC said I burned something like 250 cals an hour doing bakery work, and I did find that I was running around a lot and lifting things and I did lose some weight simply eating less and working. (of course I also excercised in between)

Right now I am painting houses and CC says it burns like 300 or 350 cals an hour. It is hard work, but I find I am totally not getting the same effects. Even on a hard day, when I apparently burn a lot of calories, I am noticing no changes or weight loss.

My only theory is that maybe because the bakery job involved more physical running around/lfiting things and "cardio" it helped me burn, whereas painting is more being still and just improving your muscles/endurance. Of course I do climb up and down ladders, carry ladders, etc., but I guess there still is not as much cardio throughout the day... which is what I think really burns off the pounds.

Is my theory right? Any ideas? :)

I think I would put my base activity level to very active and then only add in "true purposeful exercise"  I find when I up my activity level to very active it allots me an additional 500 calories a day.  I think adding 350 an hour is a little much.  Try doing this for a few weeks to a month and see what happens if you still aren't losing try upping the calories a tad for a week then drop again.  Play around with it for awhile.

I will say congrats on being able to lose weight while working in a bakery -- OMG I would be a blimp  I love rolls bread and oh frosting YMMMM

it's weird though.. i've taken into account the extra burnage and i am eating more but like i said i'm not getting the same results as last summer.

is it because i am burning less than i thought at work? (less cardio?) more than i thought? lol, i don't know if i should increase or decrease calories

I would cut your calories if you aren't losing.  Maybe put your activity rate down more and once again only add exercise calories - don't even count your lifestyle calories.  If you are not gaining and not losing then your current calorie intake is for maintenece and you need to subtract 500 from what you are eating.

350 cals an hour is too high unless you are a very large male working very hard all day. 350 x 8 = 2800. What about the cals for the rest of the day?

Just keep crunching the numbers, its probably a  combination of overestimating cals burned, and under-estimating cals eaten. What I do is round DOWN cals burned, and round UP cals eaten, and that seems to work out pretty accurately.

If you would post your weight, height, gender, etc here, I can run that through the equations to see what your BMR is, and then add that to a correct estimate for working.

or, here are some equations you can do yourself. Please update us on this if you can.

http://health.howstuffworks.com/calorie.htm

thanks guys... but nobody seems to specifically be answering my question.

i understand how cals work, and i also understand that 350 is really high. i am not using that number. i'm just wondering why working in a bakery full time seemed to have me lose a lot more weight than painting full time.

like i said, i beleive it's because the bakery work involved more cardio where the painting involved more muscle strength, which is why i burned more in the bakery.

so... does that sound reasonable?

lol, it's frustrating... i was hoping painting would help me to burn some cals at work, but instead i just come home really tired and have to work out in addition to that. lol

yes, running around on your feet all day and moving your legs, is going to burn way more calories than standing and moving your arms.

This is why jogging can burn so many calories, you are moving the entire weight of your body.

PS: here is a little calorie trick you might try, instead of exercising more.

I am a large male, used to making 2 sandwiches for lunch, etc. Instead, I trick myself by using 1 less slice of bread, and 1 less tsp of peanut butter. If I have beans, instead of 1/2 cup, I'll have a 1/3 cup.

I then have extra Greens, and a little less pasta, etc. This way, you "cheat" yourself out of maybe 100 cals per meal,  and you don't even notice it. That saves a few hundred cals a day, and you're never hungry.

Since I don't like exercising that much, I prefer this. Its working. Eating the same good foods, just a bit less, and losing weight every week like a machine.