How much exercise do you get on your job? Do you walk anywhere near 10,000 steps a day, which weight-loss experts say is ideal for your general overall health?

If you're a secretary, teacher, lawyer or police officer, then you may want to think about picking up the pace. For the custodians and letter carriers out there, you're doing great, so keep up the good work.

"Many people have misconceptions about how much they move over the course of a normal day," said Dr. Cedric Bryant, chief science officer for the American Council on Exercise which surveyed how  many steps workers in 10 common professions take. "We wanted to raise the awareness level of how much individuals actually move and provide them with feedback that might encourage them to move more.

"Americans out there who aren't in very active jobs, like the typical office worker, need to get some kind of supplemental physical activity. They need to be more mindful and thoughtful of how to add movement to their daily lives."

10,000 steps

To complete the survey, which is based on the 10,000 daily step recommendation from the Shape Up America! fitness program, researchers at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, recruited 98 volunteers local secretaries, waiters, waitresses,  construction and factory workers, mail carriers, custodians, lawyers, police officers, nurses and teachers.

For three straight days, each volunteer wore a pedometer, a device that measures the number of steps a person takes, and went about their business like they normally do. 

At the end of the days, they recorded the number of steps they took, the total distance they covered and descriptions of the duties they performed.

Their results showed:

•  Secretaries walked only an average of 4,327 steps, or 1.7 total miles, a day;

•  Teachers, 4,726 steps, or 1.9 miles;

•  Lawyers,  5,062 steps, or 2 miles;

•  Police officers, 5,336 steps, or 2.1 miles;

•  Nurses, 8,648 steps, or 3.4 miles

•  Construction workers, 9,464 steps, or 3.8 miles;

•  Factory workers, 9,892 steps, or 3.9 miles;

•  Restaurant servers, 10,087 steps, or 4.0 miles

•  Custodians, 12,991 steps, or 5.2 miles;

•  Mail carriers, 18,904 steps, or 7.5 miles.

In an interesting finding, another survey by the American Council on Exercise showed people burn more calories during casual-dress days than when they wore more traditional business attire. When allowed to wear jeans and comfortable shoes, people increased their physical activity by 8 percent and burned an extra 25 calories.

•  taking the stairs rather than the elevator;

•  going for a walk at lunch;

•  walking the course rather using a golf cart when you and your clients play;

•  delivering documents or messages to colleagues in person rather than by e-mail or phone.

Other health experts recommend:

•  Using the rest room on another floor, which requires you to walk up and down steps;

•  Parking far off in the parking lot and walking to the building;

•  Walking to a restaurant for lunch rather than taking a car;

•  Taking "walking breaks" rather than smoking breaks;

•  Getting coworkers to go walking with you rather than hang around the water cooler.

“What you do in the workplace really can have an impact on your physical activity levels and your overall health,” said Dr. John Porcari, one of the researchers at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse. “A lot of the research done on mail carriers and people that are active in the workplace shows that they tend to have lower body weight, higher HDL blood cholesterol (the good kind) and lower blood pressure.”

Stepping now the rage 

The 10,000-step recommendation is spreading through the weight-loss world with release of the new The Step Diet Book by noted researcher Dr. James O. Hill, a professor of pediatrics and medicine at the University of Colorado in Denver.

Rather than focus on counting calories and eating particular foods, the Step Diet revolves around increasing the number of steps you walk during the day to burn energy necessary to maintain weight loss over the long haul. You'll also learn about "un-supersizing" your food portions.

Hill's recommendations to start stepping are based on his findings with the National Weight Control Registry, which help start to investigate the long-term successes of more than 5,000 people who lost weight and kept it off. Most of them log about 11,000 to 13,000 steps each day.

Lack of knowledge? 

Meanwhile, Cooking Light magazine, in its own survey of 1,072 adults, shows that nearly half of Americans feel better on the days when they exercise, but just as many say they have trouble finding time for fitness.

Seventy-six percent of people polled recognize that making small, healthy improvements today add up to big benefits later, but  only 6 percent get 30 minutes of physical activity a day, as recommended by the federal government's 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

The survey shows that less than half of the Americans know that to lose one pound, you've got to burn at least 3,500 more calories than you eat. Nearly 9 in 10 were aware of the government's activity recommendation.

Other findings include:

•  22 percent exercise three to four times per week;

•  19 percent walk or bike instead of taking transportation;

•  41 percent take the stairs whenever possible;

•  33 percent regularly park their cars farther from their destination to get in extra walking.