Logging little mini-exercises

sofrances

In addition to my "big" workouts, I have a system where I select little 1 minute exercises randomly from a list, and space them throughout the day to avoid long sedentary steps. These include press-ups, crunches, bicep curls, mountain climbers, and a whole lot of other exercises. I do about 12 of these in a day, each for one minute.

It's not clear to me how to log these. Many of the individual exercises aren't in the database, and I have no idea how to find the info to add them.

Does anyone have any advice on how to record these. Should I just add 12 minutes of callisthenics or something?

LKArgh

Don't. It is almost zero, so not worth the mental effort to keep track of this.

TeaBea

Yes, a generic log of calisthenics sounds good enough. Calorie count is not going to be significantly more accurate by having the exact names and logging 1 minute of each.

meowysmiling5779

I think it’s great what you are doing. I would bulk them into one time for fitness credit of 15 minutes per whether it’s Cardio or Strength training. Everything helps.

cmriverside

I wouldn't bother. It's a very tiny number, regardless.

lorrpb

Log them only if it helps keep you motivated. The calorie burn will be minor and is likely offset by other factors.

AnnPT77

I personally don't log those, though I do that same thing, sometimes. But yes, if you want to log it, 12 separate one-minute bouts of calisthenics-type exercise is going to burn about the same number of calories as if you did them in 12 continuous minutes.

(Some will think otherwise because the fatigue factor differs, or maybe because a fitness tracker/heart rate monitor estimates then differently, but I disagree. There might be a tiny difference in terms of cardiovascular benefits, miniscule IMO, but the calorie expenditure is more about the work in the physics sense of work, and should be plenty close enough between the two cases. HRM will probably estimate the continuous exercise slightly higher because of heart rate drift, but even that's probably pretty tiny in 12 minutes unless a very out of condition beginner.)

Once you see the numbers, I'm betting you can decide for yourself whether it's worthwhile to log it, or not.

sofrances

Thanks all. I'm less interested in the calories than in just keeping a record of what I'm doing all in one place. i do find it motivating. At the same time, I don't want the calories to be wildly misleading. So I guess I'll do the recording a block of callisthenics thing.

Machka9

I wouldn't log them for calorie purposes. Those are "bonus" movements which could counteract something you may have miscalculated on the food side of the equation. Also, they won't add up to much.

There's a lot I don't log ... household chores, walking back and forth to the photocopier or kitchen at work, walking around shops, etc. It's all just "bonus" movements.

sijomial

sofrances wrote: »

Thanks all. I'm less interested in the calories than in just keeping a record of what I'm doing all in one place. i do find it motivating. At the same time, I don't want the calories to be wildly misleading. So I guess I'll do the recording a block of callisthenics thing.

Or maybe just make a note in your exercise diary?

yirara

Maybe use a spreadsheet to just record how many reps of what exercise you did?

AnnPT77

Curious: If 12 minutes is so tiny a calorie expenditure that it isn't even worth recording, why are so many so passionate that OP shouldn't log it? (We have no sign from this post - or others I personally recall seeing from this OP - that she's one of those "log every twitch and step to the point of over-counting" people.)

For me, 12 minutes of "Calisthenics, home, light/moderate effort" would be 38 calories. I wouldn't log it, personally, but I don't see the harm, absent the "log every twitch" scenario.

Sometimes the cognitive bias toward "make the deficit bigger" gets pretty strong in here, IMO.

sofrances

70 calories for me! A whole apple! Worth it!

In all seriousness, I'm not currently varying my calorie intake according to exercise on a daily basis, so recording it is not likely to cause me issues with consuming too much.