All amounts of movement/exercise count towards the 150 weekly suggested amount

maureenkhilde

This was put out in the USA.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/11/12/666744493/new-physical-activity-guidelines-urge-americans In November 2018.

Why I think it is important. Is that the experts are saying yes how important it is to get some exercise/movement in everyday. But also because right here on MFP many times I have seen people make fairly snarky comments about people that include housework or shopping as a type of exercise.

Think about it, if someone went from no movement or hardly any at all, to starting to make an effort they should be cheered on not put down. Small example a woman in my weight loss group weekly session. For two years had all of her food delivered right to her house. One of her goals was to stop that. And commit to doing her own shopping. Which she is now doing except for I think getting cat litter delivered.

My point is getting some is better than none. And if more people start hopefully over time, they will do more.

middlehaitch

But wouldn’t upping daily activity, like in your example, mean that one changed ones activity level in MFP?

That is what I would do, not log it as exercise.

Cheers, h.

TeaBea

maureenkhilde wrote: »

This was put out in the USA.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/11/12/666744493/new-physical-activity-guidelines-urge-americans In November 2018.

Why I think it is important. Is that the experts are saying yes how important it is to get some exercise/movement in everyday. But also because right here on MFP many times I have seen people make fairly snarky comments about people that include housework or shopping as a type of exercise.

Think about it, if someone went from no movement or hardly any at all, to starting to make an effort they should be cheered on not put down. Small example a woman in my weight loss group weekly session. For two years had all of her food delivered right to her house. One of her goals was to stop that. And commit to doing her own shopping. Which she is now doing except for I think getting cat litter delivered.

My point is getting some is better than none. And if more people start hopefully over time, they will do more.

Getting in some exercise is always better than none.

However, many people here (especially new users) don't understand the fact that an activity level (even sedentary) includes cooking, basic cleaning, etc. Many new people aren't aware that exercise calorie burn estimates can be very generous.

Sure they can log cleaning, or shopping, but they do so at their own risk. Inflated calorie burns can wipe out a days deficit. Then the complaint will be "why aren't I losing weight."

AnnPT77

I agree that I've occasionally seen people criticized, when they should be applauded, for increasing daily movement in ways that others saw as trivial. If one has been obese and doing literally almost no movement, then walking to the end of the driveway to get the mail, or to the end of the block, is a good start.

(Sometimes people, perhaps especially some young, healthy, physically sound, relatively fit/mobile people haven't internalized what it might mean to be in very different circumstances. It's similar to the case where sometimes young men don't emphathize with the difficulty of fitting in certain foods when they have 2800 calories to work with, but someone else has 1400.)

That really is a separate issue, though, as others have said, from logging relatively small amounts of daily movement that are probably already envisioned in estimates of what counts as "sedentary". I think only someone who has consciously set calories below sedentary, or whose experience has validated a very low calorie/activity level as valid for them, should be even considering doing that. Six hours of deep cleaning the attic once a decade? Maybe log something. Fifteen minutes of dusting/vaccuming one does weekly? Probably not, even though it may be a good thing to do, and even if an improvement in daily activity for that person.

bluesheeponahill

I don’t think everyday tasks should be included as exercise. But everyone who tries to make a lifestyle change, no matter how small should be applauded. It’s a start and from there you build it up. Things that are outside the realms of everyday housework and chores shouldn’t be counted. Like for example, I do not count my walk to the kids bus stop or shops (2km round trip) because that’s part of my daily life. What I count is things like running on a treadmill, doing a workout video or something HIIT.

I’ll still disagree that all movement counts towards the 150. Often that stuff isn’t optional. Seriously, I’d love it if unloaded my dishwasher or putting clothes away was optional.

However, looking at what your eating. That I’ve learned is a massive part of why I’m fat. I’m actually quite active, but I was eating what I thought was healthy, just too much of it. And there’s so much hidden or misleading about how healthy it is.