What exercises should I log?

2me2themountain

Browsing the forums I saw you're supposed to "eat your exercise calories back". I've found several users sharing this info where it's said that MFP takes into account "... the calories you would burn without intentional exercise through the course of your regular working/school/home life."

But.... what is "intentional exercise"? For example, a quick search on the internet says that any less than 5000 steps are consider sedentary. Does that mean that I should only log whatever is above the 5000 steps? (so if I walk 8000, should I log 3000?) And if I only walk 1000 one day, should I eat less that day to compensate? Or if that day I walk 1000, but I also go for a run for 20 mins, should I not log the running because I walked too few steps?

And what about the "home life"? I suppose it takes into account some house chores, some gardening, some cooking? But how much? An hour a day? Two hours a day?

Cahgetsfit

easiest way to do this is to sync your tracker to MFP and it will update your exercise calories for you.

but, very valid questions! I'm sure someone on here will be able to answer better than me.

I, personally, only log stuff that I actually do intentionally - so if I go for a run, I will log "running, 20 minutes" (or whatever, I don't actually run). the walking around for daily life I don't count, the cleaning the house I don't count, cooking, no.

If I go for an INTENTIONAL walk - not just from home to bus stop, but like an actual walk wearing exrcise clothes, i'll log that.

sijomial

Remember the activity setting is a general average - it doesn't have to be managed day to day.
It's just a start point to get you going, you may want to adjust it after a period of time if results don't match expectations.

When I had an office job that would steer me towards sedentary but with my normal walking and activity during the working day, evenings and the weekend I was really Lightly Active.
I logged all my deliberate exercise (cycling, gym) but would only log additional activity if it was something truly exceptional with a significant calorie burn - 4hrs of heavy duty gardening for example. The rest just averages out with some low days, some higher days and a lot of average days.

Then I retired and sat down far less and moved more so I would be Active.

My son is a builder - he would be Very Active. But remember that's still an average - when he's painting his activity burns are low, when he's shovelling tons of cement it's extraordinarily high.

You don't have to micro manage steps or have a tracker. Trackers can also be awful ways to estimate exercise burns depending on what the exercise/activity is. Unless you find it motivational to move more you are just substituting one estimate with another which may or may not be any better.

2me2themountain

I'm still confused though, what does intention have to do with anything?

If I go for an intentional walk I should log the steps, but not log if it's part of my daily activities? So if a normal monday I walk 5000 steps I don't log it, but if I intentionally decide to go on a 5000 steps promenade on a sunday instead of being a couch potato, then I should log that?

sorry if I missed the point... I just don't understand.. How many calories is a significant burn? I see 4 hours of heavy gardening would be, but what about things that are in between?

thanks for the help

TeaBea

2me2themountain wrote: »

I'm still confused though, what does intention have to do with anything?

If I go for an intentional walk I should log the steps, but not log if it's part of my daily activities? So if a normal monday I walk 5000 steps I don't log it, but if I intentionally decide to go on a 5000 steps promenade on a sunday instead of being a couch potato, then I should log that?

sorry if I missed the point... I just don't understand.. How many calories is a significant burn? I see 4 hours of heavy gardening would be, but what about things that are in between?

thanks for the help

Intentional or deliberate for many users here is regarding exercise. We exercise to increase our fitness. Gardening, cleaning and cooking are activities. Perhaps "deliberate" is not the right word for activities. Maybe above and beyond your usual activity is a way to look at it.

4 hours of heavy gardening would be above and beyond for someone who put in lightly active as their activity level. Whether it's above and beyond for someone who listed very active depends upon what the rest of their day looked like. The point is adding too many things leads to problems. 1. Double dipping. Adding calories that were already included in your initial set up 2. Estimations - calorie burns can be generous for a good many activities.

Redordeadhead

Your starting point for your activity level is what you do on an average day, excluding workouts. Think about what represents most days for you: do you sit at a desk, spend a lot of time standing at a retail job, work a physical job etc.

Pick the corresponding activity level and add specific workouts on top. A long walk may be worth adding, but personally I wouldn't add cleaning unless I did it vigorously for a few hours - day to day chores are considered part of everyone's activity level.

Start by eating back 50-75% of your exercise calories as the burns can be overstated. Most importantly, get a food scale, weigh (in grams) all your food and record everything you eat and drink, every day (no unloggred cheats) as diet is by far the most important component for weight loss.

And, as all of this system is based on estimates, reassess after 6 weeks and see if you are losing as expected or need to adjust.

HeliumIsNoble

The intentional exercise distinction is drawn for ease of logging.

I will use myself as an example, but your mileage may vary. Literally.

I don't have a fitbit, but according to googlemaps, over the course of an average day I typically walk 4-5 miles (so 10,000-odd steps?) in the course of taking the kids to school, picking the kids up from school and going to the supermarket. (And on Sunday I do practically nothing!) I don't want to manually calculate how far I walked with each day's route, never mind at what speed every day, because it would be cumbersome and a huge hassle. Nor do I want to count up how many minutes I was on my feet doing the washing up, or how many steps I took vacuuming. So I bunch it all up by setting my activity level as lightly active for the whole week.

However, on three evenings a week I do deliberate exercise classes, each of varying predetermined lengths. Those are on top of mundane daily activity. Those I log individually, using MFP's exercise database to calculate the calorie burn.

jesspen91

I find that my tracker gives a good indication of when I have burned more calories than normal. I am set to sedentary because I work from home and on my laziest days I may not even reach 2000 steps. When I was working in an office I had my activity set to lightly active and would usually get about 8000 steps if I got less than that MFP would use negative adjustment to reduce my calories for the day if I did more I would get some added on. For things that are more vigorous like running or cycling I add on top as this is something extra that I've added into my day.

cmriverside

If you're concerned with number of steps it sounds like you are using a fitness tracker. In that case, use it as it is designed to be used in conjunction with Myfitnesspal (synched.)

I never used a device. I set myself as Sedentary because I thought I was. I got a calorie goal. It worked for a while. Then that amount was too low and I was fatigued and grumpy so I raised my calories by 300-400 per day and I was still losing. I just stayed at that level as a baseline. When I did any *purposeful* exercise I ate another 300 or so calories.

I got to my goal weight and I've maintained for years. It's really not rocket surgery. Just pick a number that seems reasonable and use it for a couple months. Step on the body-weight scale regularly. Adjust if things don't seem to be going in the direction you want or if you are having energy or fatigue problems.

jan110144

I log all intentional exercise. I don't do steps because my fitness tracker goes whacky with things like pool exercises (not swimming), horseback riding, and rowing. I do not track incidental exercise like cleaning house, shopping, etc. When I track, I also try to be very conservative (take lower numbers in both calories in and calories out, since it is easy to over-estimate the one and under-estimate the other). The approach has worked well for me. Started 7/30 at 183, CW is 135.

StephSuter2508

For me, I only log actual work outs or a tracked walk by distance and speed. So I will log bike rides, if I walk 2+ miles, running, swimming and gym work outs

I dont sync with my fitbit and I dont log any steps, housework, dancing or general walking around etc

I eat back a large portion of my exercise calories so for that reason I am strict on what I track as exercise