A newbie. How do I….?

GrampahPete

I’m Grampah Pete, new today and stuck logging in my ‘exercises’. I swept my deck, sidewalk and whole roof - took about an hour, then I mowed my lawn - another hour+. Any tips on how to grab all those calories so I look like a fitness hero?

ridiculous59

Welcome! There are categories in the exercise database for "gardening" and "lawnmowing" and "house cleaning". I used to itemize my different activities but now I let my fitness tracker (I have a Fitbit) count it all as steps. Much easier and really, it's all just a very broad estimation anyway. Depending on my day, sometimes I look like a fitness hero (20,000 steps) but other days when commitments intrude , I look like a sloth (6000 steps). I like the hero days better 😉

JDavidPugh

ridiculous59 wrote: »

I look like a sloth (6000 steps). I like the hero days better 😉

Hey now I resemble that remark!
LOL

JDavidPugh

Grampah Pete, personally I am hooked on the Garmin systems....... I am heavier into the navigation side of things with my boats but the health tracking aspects of the watches are pretty incredible.
If you are a gadget guy at all check them out........alot of info if you are into it and it ties in well with Myfitnesspal! I actually have it log exercise profiles for yardwork etc......

Jacki916W

My husband is a HUGE proponent of Garmin. He never takes it off, except when charging. And the charge lasts forever! As for myself, I’ll stick with my Apple Watch.

JDavidPugh

Jacki916W wrote: »

He never takes it off, except when charging. And the charge lasts forever!

Jacki, tell him there is a trick for that......... Wear the HRM chest strap and start an exercise routine... I have one called "Charge". The HRM will log for you while the watch is on the cord! LOL

David

Jacki916W

Thanks for that info, David! I’ll let him know!

AnnPT77

I like sijomial's comment on your other thread asking this question: For daily life chores, set your activity level in your MFP profile to take those into account, save the explicit logging for actual intentional exercise, or rare really-big chores that aren't day to day or weekly things.

Maybe sweeping the roof is one of those special/unusual things, but I'm guessing that sweeping deck/sidewalk and mowing are probably more routine. It's surprisingly easy to over-count calorie burn, logging things like that explicitly for calories. Even the "sedentary"/"not very active" settings on MFP assume you're doing some routine home chores.

I've been around here for over 7 years now, a year of loss and 6 of maintenance, in round numbers. I can't (won't) synch my Garmin because good personal reasons, though that can be a great approach for people without those reasons. (Don't need to get into them here.) If I were needing to log every time I do some routine yard work or cleaning things, I wouldn't be a fitness hero, I'd be burned out and exhausted. YMMV on that, I'm sure.

I'm not a fan of trying to look like a fitness hero to others, TBH. I don't much care what other people think. (Again, YMMV.) However, I think if that's the goal, it would probably go over better to work up to really improving fitness and logging some more explicit fitness-oriented workout stuff, y'know? As a plus, those things contribute to health and vitality, besides.

I'm going to assume from your user name that you may be a guy of more mature years, so if that last paragraph seems to be youth-centric . . . I'll point out that I'm 66, legit a li'l ol' lady, not some perky 20-something fitness fanatic. 😉

GrampahPete

Thanks all… sorry to repost - ima old guy who’s not too up on all this electronic stuff… ;-)