Logging Everything or only Intentional Workouts?

cwolfman13

Notreadytoquit wrote: »

I log everything from digging ditches to cooking and cleaning. Opening a yogurt is not equal in energy expenditure to cleaning the kitchen, gathering food from garden, cooking for 3 & cleaning up again. Since I no longer engage in hard core "intentional workouts" my intent is to make every effort count. Must be working as I've finally hit goal weight with only 1 "intentional workout". Real life activity burns just as many calories as "intentional" activity.

Are you logging those and "eating back" those calories though? Yes, daily living burns calories...in fact it burns far more calories than deliberate exercise...but those calories are accounted for in your allotment.

I burn around 2400 calories per day without intentional exercise...that's my basal rate plus being lightly active in general...but if I were to log and eat back the calories I burn from cooking meals for my family and cleaning my house, I would be double counting.

Notreadytoquit

It is a mistake to presume that everyone is the same and one set of protocols is effective for all. While I don't understand what you just posted I do know I reached goal doing real life exercise. Intentional workouts burn calories, real life work burns calories. It's very discouraging to new members who are not savvy exercisers to tell them only intentional workouts are going to lead to success. It's not true either.

zipa78

La5Vega5Girl wrote: »

my cousin used to log cooking a meal, cleaning her bathroom, walking her dog, walking upstairs (at home) and she could never lose weight. she would eat-back all those "exercise" calories, and she was never ahead.

No wonder, especially since MFP seems to overestimate the calories by a factor of three or so.

jennifer_417

Only when it's above and beyond my normal activity (like spring/deep cleaning) AND I'm desperate for a few extra calories.

zoeysasha37

I only log intentional workouts. Mfp already accounts for regular daily activities like cleaning your home, walking to the kitchen or around work. There's no need to log that stuff.

cwolfman13

Notreadytoquit wrote: »

It is a mistake to presume that everyone is the same and one set of protocols is effective for all. While I don't understand what you just posted I do know I reached goal doing real life exercise. Intentional workouts burn calories, real life work burns calories. It's very discouraging to new members who are not savvy exercisers to tell them only intentional workouts are going to lead to success. It's not true either.

at what point did I say only intentional workouts are going to lead to success. I was merely explaining how this tool works (reading comprehension skills are off the charts here). When you select an activity level, your day to day stuff is accounted for in your calorie goal...then you log exercise (if you do it) after the fact. You then get more calories to eat. I'm not presuming anything...that is the way this tool is designed.

Like I asked before, were you just logging that activity or were you logging that activity and eating back those calories?

Nottafattie

I can't say that I haven't logged a daily activity, but I do not log anything that doesn't require an effort on my part. Before I started making an effort, I would take around 3,000 steps a day. Anything over that on a typical day would be logged as walking, but not the first 3,000. Likewise cleaning. Base was around an hour a day, spread out without real effort. When I put on my iPod and dance around the house while busting it out all day, the effort got logged minus the base (and usually divided in half to ensure I didn't over-calculate).

The important thing to remember is that diet is for nutrition. If you are keeping the calories down but not meeting your nutritional goals, your body will keep telling you that you're missing something, making you more likely to fall off the wagon or potentially causing your body to try to reserve nutrients and the weight that goes with it.

Exercise is for fitness. Fitness alone will not cause weight loss, no matter if it's intentional or typical daily activities.

Weight loss happens when Nutrition and Fitness are a balanced marriage and together create a weight loss baby named Deficit. As long as you are not using that deficit as a free pass to consume whatever junk lies hidden in your sock drawer, you will find yourself losing weight.

ktrn0312

I log intentional & purposeful workouts only.

EDollah

My #1 point for advocating a Fitbit is that I find it takes care of the routine activities so I just log exercise, or "intentional workouts" as you're calling it. If I have a sedentary day, the device will deduct calories and if I happen to do more walking than normal (say, shopping) then it adds appropriately for that.

yourpalsoap

I actually don't take off any calories for exercise. I log the time I spent doing it to record the workout but turn the estimated burn down to 1 (it doesn't let you put zero).

I do yoga for 15-45 minutes every morning and weights 2 times a week for 45 minutes, neither of which burn that many calories compared to, say, cardio. I just worked out my TDEE based on being lightly active and eat the same amount every day.

ETA: I, personally, don't really like the idea of exercising more to allow myself more food. I do exercise to increase my fitness, if it means I burn an extra few hundred calories overall then ok. I'm in maintenance and have been at the same weight for a while, so I guess I'm eating the right amount anyway.

earlnabby

I have a Fitbit so I get credit for the steps I take when I do things like grocery shopping, cleaning house, etc. I do not log these or any intentional walking workouts. Three times a week I go to the pool and swim laps for an hour, then take a water aerobics class for another hour. These I do log.

I eat back about 1/2 of my Fitbit calories earned and about 1/4 of my logged exercises.

SUSIQ25679

For me, purposeful exercise only tracked with a heart rate monitor. I feel the baseline for my activity level covers things like basic daily tasks.

Mariachicat

I went roller skating for about 2 hrs yesterday and I logged it. I'm a teacher and on my feet all day, so I feel that that's just my baseline BMR, I don't (usually) log for things like walking my dog or walking around my work building or classroom. I always log gym classes/at home workouts and treadmill/outdoor runs. When I was actively trying to lose weight, I logged less and always gave conservative estimates of calorie burns.

Timorous_Beastie

When I first started, many years ago, I logged everything. It was motivation to make me be more active, plus I was only at 1200 calories because I listed myself as sedentary and foolishly aimed for two pounds a week (which only happened when I had a stomach flu that week). After a short time, I changed my setting to "lightly active" and only logged actual exercise, or anything above and beyond normal activity. So walking the dog around the block, no. Going for a 4 mile hike with the dog, yes. Cleaning, no. Rearranging furniture, yes. Planting tulip bulbs, no. Digging up the yard and laying patio pavers, yes.

I had good results with a TDEE approach, too, but right now I'm rehabbing from an injury and it's easier for me to go with a base + exercise calories approach.

Khukhullatus

I don't think it matters so long as you don't end up logging things twice. I have a waitress friend who logs herself as very active at work (which she is), but then also logs her miles walked at work as exercise. I'm male and a head taller than her, and my calorie allotment is often less than hers. Needless to say, she's having trouble losing.

lovematthewchristopher

I log my workouts, but i will usually only log my cooking if i am (cooking up a storm). Which means i spend 2 hours or more standing cutting up vegetables and running around the kitchen cooking up soup for the week, etc. I will log extra walking if it is more time then i would usually spend doing it. For example , if i go shopping, and spend hours and hours going around the store or from one store to another, because this is not normal for me.