Ok I'll bite - is "cooking and food prep" really exercise?

kiela64
kiela64 Posts: 1,447 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I see it all over my feed, people burning hundreds of calories by cooking! I wear a step counter, and I spent 2h cooking today, and my step counter told me I have burned no calories. Is this real?
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Replies

  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
    Not for me. It's part of "lifestyle".
  • shrinkingletters
    shrinkingletters Posts: 1,008 Member
    Yeaaah.....no.
  • EzRemake
    EzRemake Posts: 128 Member
    Unless they are cooking with some seriously heavy foods, while preparing them via sets and reps, no.
  • shadowfax_c11
    shadowfax_c11 Posts: 1,942 Member
    Nope, not in my world. Neither is house cleaning. I do let my fitbit track those things though and tend to earn some calories for the movement but it's not a lot and my activity level is set to sedentary.

    I think people of those things because they are trying to justify eating more. They are likely just fooling themselves and not getting much weight loss. But that is pretty much their battle to fight and I try not to judge.
  • lorib642
    lorib642 Posts: 1,942 Member
    Nah, I tend to nibble during prep so if anything it is added calories
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,611 Member
    Maybe ... if you're preparing a banquet for a large crowd.

    Or ...

    Back a few years ago, I lived for a year "off the grid" in a little cabin in the middle of nowhere with no electricity (except for a generator we ran occasionally), no running water (except for the rain), none of the things we usually take for granted.

    In order to cook, I had to gather firewood (or at the very least bring in a bunch of logs from the wood pile), build the fire and get it just right. I made the food from scratch (no electric mixers or anything) and then cooked it over the fire in a heavy cast iron dutch oven. Unfortunately our fireplace was not particularly efficient, so I had to keep the fire up through the whole process which meant trips out to the wood pile bringing in logs. I also had to keep turning and adjusting the heavy cast iron dutch oven to make sure that what I was cooking was cooking evenly.

    I probably burned a few more calories doing that than now when I just pop something in the microwave. :grin:
  • summerkissed
    summerkissed Posts: 730 Member
    kae612 wrote: »
    I see it all over my feed, people burning hundreds of calories by cooking! I wear a step counter, and I spent 2h cooking today, and my step counter told me I have burned no calories. Is this real?

    Haha I think you will find its a bit of a joke.....I logged 3hr of sunbaking the other day just being silly :sunglasses:
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    summerkissed wrote: »
    kae612 wrote: »
    I see it all over my feed, people burning hundreds of calories by cooking! I wear a step counter, and I spent 2h cooking today, and my step counter told me I have burned no calories. Is this real?

    Haha I think you will find its a bit of a joke.....I logged 3hr of sunbaking the other day just being silly :sunglasses:

    I think they are deadly serious and seriously grasping at straws... I often wonder if they do jazzercise or cartwheel back and forth in their kitchen when they're cooking :huh:
  • Caitoriri
    Caitoriri Posts: 87 Member
    I.... guess it counts loosely as "activity", if your daily calories are set to your RMR and you're logging absolutely everything you do..........????? I mean, you're burning more calories than if you were sitting on your butt. Though it's still kind of a stretch.
    Or maybe the people on your feed are doing squats with 20lb turkeys. You never know.
  • angelamichelle_xo
    angelamichelle_xo Posts: 646 Member
    pathetic
  • disasterman
    disasterman Posts: 746 Member
    People log all kinds of stuff. My rule for myself is I don't log it unless I'm primarily doing it for the exercise. So walking through the parking lot to my car, mowing the lawn, and housework don't get counted. That's what works for me but other people do what they want.
  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
    UUuuuuummmmmm NO!
  • Ready2Rock206
    Ready2Rock206 Posts: 9,487 Member
    edited January 2016
    These are usually the same people who then post wondering why they aren't losing weight even though they're doing everything perfectly. You will never convince them the problem is they're logging every single movement they do as extra calories even though these are factored in already when MFP sets up your goal.
  • vczK2t
    vczK2t Posts: 309 Member
    disasterman wrote: »
    People log all kinds of stuff. My rule for myself is I don't log it unless I'm primarily doing it for the exercise. So walking through the parking lot to my car, mowing the lawn, and housework don't get counted. That's what works for me but other people do what they want.

    that's what i am supposed to be doing. LOL
  • snickerscharlie
    snickerscharlie Posts: 8,578 Member
    Maybe if you're a teppanyaki chef doing all the knife/food throwing stuff cooking might be a bit of a workout. But otherwise? It's deluded to think you're burning anything significant, so logging it is silly. :)

  • star1407
    star1407 Posts: 588 Member
    a lot of these people are disabled or chronically ill. I'm often bed bound so if I manage a small walk, I do log it, even if it is 5 minutes. Some of my friends on here have similar illnesses or physical challenges, a bit of cleaning or whatever is movement or activity that they can't usually manage
    It might seem " pathetic" to you, but if that is a small achievement for someone who is normally too unwell to manage it, then yes they'll log it
  • earlnabby
    earlnabby Posts: 8,171 Member
    kae612 wrote: »
    I see it all over my feed, people burning hundreds of calories by cooking!

    It may be for someone who is severely obese or disabled where any movement is extra but for the general population . . . NO
  • Colorscheme
    Colorscheme Posts: 1,179 Member
    I don't know, when I cook I take steps so I do end up exercising a little, lol. Thanks, Fitbit.
  • star1407
    star1407 Posts: 588 Member
    earlnabby wrote: »
    kae612 wrote: »
    I see it all over my feed, people burning hundreds of calories by cooking!

    It may be for someone who is severely obese or disabled where any movement is extra but for the general population . . . NO

    To this I must agree. If I had no health problems and was back in my fit and healthy days, trust me I'd be logging marathons not a gentle stretch or stroll lol
    But we don't always know people's situation
  • CassidyScaglione
    CassidyScaglione Posts: 673 Member
    I guess it depends if i'm cooking from scratch or not... I mean... If i have to go tromping through the forest after some damn boar, harvest an apple to stick in its mouth, reap some wheat, grind it to flour, etc... totally, that's alot of damn work!
  • CassidyScaglione
    CassidyScaglione Posts: 673 Member
    Or, you know... if this is your kitchen: 12-e-69-st-kitchen-2-nyc.jpg

    Or if you are this guy:
    tcnljghdmnyu.jpg

  • try2again
    try2again Posts: 3,562 Member
    star1407 wrote: »
    a lot of these people are disabled or chronically ill. I'm often bed bound so if I manage a small walk, I do log it, even if it is 5 minutes. Some of my friends on here have similar illnesses or physical challenges, a bit of cleaning or whatever is movement or activity that they can't usually manage
    It might seem " pathetic" to you, but if that is a small achievement for someone who is normally too unwell to manage it, then yes they'll log it

    I thought it always came down to, is it something you do everyday as part of life, or is it out of the ordinary? For these kinds of people, it may very well be above and beyond what they're able to do on a regular basis. But I imagine their calorie recommendation, even at sedentary, is based on the assumption they are doing these things already, so I wouldn't think it would be wise to count on a calorie boost from it. They may want to log it as a means of tracking their own personal activity/improvement however.
  • earlnabby
    earlnabby Posts: 8,171 Member
    star1407 wrote: »
    a lot of these people are disabled or chronically ill. I'm often bed bound so if I manage a small walk, I do log it, even if it is 5 minutes. Some of my friends on here have similar illnesses or physical challenges, a bit of cleaning or whatever is movement or activity that they can't usually manage
    It might seem " pathetic" to you, but if that is a small achievement for someone who is normally too unwell to manage it, then yes they'll log it

    It really is a matter of individual circumstances. I am a reasonable healthy adult so I only log purposeful exercise. I do have an activity tracker and get extra calories for steps so my cooking and house cleaning will fall into that scenario but log them, no. It is part of my daily activity.
  • kiela64
    kiela64 Posts: 1,447 Member
    star1407 wrote: »
    a lot of these people are disabled or chronically ill. I'm often bed bound so if I manage a small walk, I do log it, even if it is 5 minutes. Some of my friends on here have similar illnesses or physical challenges, a bit of cleaning or whatever is movement or activity that they can't usually manage
    It might seem " pathetic" to you, but if that is a small achievement for someone who is normally too unwell to manage it, then yes they'll log it

    I did not use the word "pathetic"! I think every person on my feed is fantastic, and I would never criticize someone who had difficulty with "ordinary" things like cooking and cleaning. I myself rarely do it, as I live with my family and just don't have those responsibilities too often.

    This is totally a valid point that I didn't think of. I've seen people log it daily. If it was say 10 calories burned for 20 minutes of cooking/cleaning, it would seem reasonable and I'd think nothing of it, I might have done it myself. But I see hundreds of calories logged, something like 200 for an hour, and it seemed off to me. I wondered what people's perception of it was, so I posted to the forum here.

    I suppose, from people's responses, either it takes an extraordinary amount of energy for a person to cook/clean (as in the situation you describe), or they live in a setting where it would be difficult to cook/clean (eg. w/o electricity), or they are simply searching for some extra calories (as other people posted).
  • summerkissed
    summerkissed Posts: 730 Member
    star1407 wrote: »
    a lot of these people are disabled or chronically ill. I'm often bed bound so if I manage a small walk, I do log it, even if it is 5 minutes. Some of my friends on here have similar illnesses or physical challenges, a bit of cleaning or whatever is movement or activity that they can't usually manage
    It might seem " pathetic" to you, but if that is a small achievement for someone who is normally too unwell to manage it, then yes they'll log it

    I think the issue is with the calories burned! If it is a disabled or chronically ill person you wouldn't be logging it for the burn but more for the fact that you were actually able to do it and so you can see that you achieved it. Others do it to try and manipulate calories or make excuses to eat more then complain they aren't losing weight!
  • summerkissed
    summerkissed Posts: 730 Member
    Christine_72 wrote: »
    summerkissed wrote: »
    kae612 wrote: »
    I see it all over my feed, people burning hundreds of calories by cooking! I wear a step counter, and I spent 2h cooking today, and my step counter told me I have burned no calories. Is this real?

    Haha I think you will find its a bit of a joke.....I logged 3hr of sunbaking the other day just being silly :sunglasses:

    I think they are deadly serious and seriously grasping at straws... I often wonder if they do jazzercise or cartwheel back and forth in their kitchen when they're cooking :huh:

    Hehe I seen a girl log dog washing lol because she had to hold the dog with her legs so she must have been able to burn cals through that!!
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    kae612 wrote: »
    I see it all over my feed, people burning hundreds of calories by cooking! I wear a step counter, and I spent 2h cooking today, and my step counter told me I have burned no calories. Is this real?

    It's not exercise, it is general activity...even a sedentary activity level is going to include up to 5,000 steps, so I'd think it would cover most cooking and general cleaning and other daily type activities.

  • summerkissed
    summerkissed Posts: 730 Member
    I also seen one when a girl missed the bus and window shopped till the next bus so she wanted to know how to log 30min of window shopping
  • pie_eyes
    pie_eyes Posts: 12,964 Member
    I don't count any calories I burned that I don't "exert."
  • zoeysasha37
    zoeysasha37 Posts: 7,088 Member
    I saw people log " pushing a grocery cart for 10 mins " as exercise.

    For me, cooking and shopping is not a workout. Its part of my daily life.

    I've also seen people log sex. That's tmi and doesn't burn as much as one might think anyway.

    For someone who is basically bed ridden then maybe it counts as a workout for them. But it doesn't for me. I only log what I do at the gym.

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