What would you log playing with children as?

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svandever101585
svandever101585 Posts: 188 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I spent 30 mins outside today running around chasing my kids and playing hopscotch. On the WW website I log it as playing with children but what do I log it as here?
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Replies

  • nomeejerome
    nomeejerome Posts: 2,616 Member
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    You don't
  • wilsoje74
    wilsoje74 Posts: 1,720 Member
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    I would not log that as exercise.
  • mag131
    mag131 Posts: 542 Member
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    I wouldn't log it either, as long as your daily activity level is set at light or moderate.
  • Iron_Lotus
    Iron_Lotus Posts: 2,295 Member
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    I don't log playing with my kids.
  • LoraF83
    LoraF83 Posts: 15,694 Member
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    You don't log it.

    Instead, you plan on doing that more often and you change your lifestyle setting to at least "lightly active" instead of sedentary to give yourself credit for the activity you incorporate into your daily routine.
  • ldugganbos
    ldugganbos Posts: 17
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    That is life...not exercise
  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
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    I'd chalk it up to a few bonus calories burned and not log it. It evens out on the days you do a little less than normal.
  • BeachIron
    BeachIron Posts: 6,490 Member
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    I'd say "sedentary" to "moderately active" for your NEAT setting but, unless you're doing other things, most likely the former.

    I wouldn't log it.
  • snookumss
    snookumss Posts: 1,451 Member
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    If you felt your heart rate was up... or you were out of breath while doing it at all then definitely log this. I wouldn't know how... just go for a few hundred extra calories and make a note in your diary what a random exercise totaling to 200 calories was truly that day.
  • DawnieB1977
    DawnieB1977 Posts: 4,248 Member
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    I looked up calories burned for looking after kids, lowered it a bit, and added it to my database as 'playing with my kids'. I only log it though if I've been somewhere like soft play and spent a good hour climbing and running round, or if I've spent a couple of hours chasing them on their scooters on the seafront. I have to sprint after them sometimes, they're so fast!

    People might say that this is part of everyday life, but how many adults without kids expend this kind of energy in day to day life, unless they're actually properly exercising? Before kids, my seafront walks were much calmer! And I definitely didn't go to soft play. It's amazing how tiring it is there!
  • GemmaRowlands
    GemmaRowlands Posts: 360 Member
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    Nothing. You should only add things that are extra, like if you do exercise where the only purpose of it is to move.. if that makes sense. Play with your kids because you want to play with them - don't be counting calories as you do it. Enjoy the good times with no other motive. It's much more fun, and if it equals extra exercise then enjoy the surprise loss at the end of the week.
  • whierd
    whierd Posts: 14,026 Member
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    I would log it as "being alive".
  • RunnerElizabeth
    RunnerElizabeth Posts: 1,091 Member
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    Part of my daily activity and built into my lightly active activity setting.
  • Siege_Tank
    Siege_Tank Posts: 781 Member
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    I wouldn't.
  • hookilau
    hookilau Posts: 3,134 Member
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    :laugh:
    I didn't log stuff like that when I was counting calories.
    It was just a bonus.
  • doriharvey
    doriharvey Posts: 89 Member
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    I found in the beginning that when I did things like cleaning and some of the other activities that did make me active, but not really at the level a fitness plan would have me do i did log something because I got to hungry at the end of a day... sometimes and a small snack 100 calories or so extra was needed to avoid my tummy waking me up growling in the middle of the night.

    If you sat most of the day and called yourself moderate, the extra calories are already allowed within MFP allowance, if you say you are sedentary then the activity could be logged to earn more calories eaten.

    If I added it I would add it as a slow pace walk or light cleaning or something similar to what the physical exertion would be.
  • _firecracker_
    _firecracker_ Posts: 185 Member
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    I would log it as "being alive".

    So....would breathing qualify for that? Digestion?
  • aj445
    aj445 Posts: 183 Member
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    definitely wouldn't log it. I did my run this morning then came back and got my son for an additional mile. Then my younger son for a nice walk. The morning run is all I count towards exercise. Anything else is just a bonus.
  • lithezebra
    lithezebra Posts: 3,670 Member
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    That sounds like something that you do most days. I'd roll it into activity level and not count it separately.
  • pspetralia
    pspetralia Posts: 963 Member
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    I looked up calories burned for looking after kids, lowered it a bit, and added it to my database as 'playing with my kids'. I only log it though if I've been somewhere like soft play and spent a good hour climbing and running round, or if I've spent a couple of hours chasing them on their scooters on the seafront. I have to sprint after them sometimes, they're so fast!

    People might say that this is part of everyday life, but how many adults without kids expend this kind of energy in day to day life, unless they're actually properly exercising? Before kids, my seafront walks were much calmer! And I definitely didn't go to soft play. It's amazing how tiring it is there!

    People aren't saying it is part of life...they are saying you incorporate YOUR OWN activity level into your settings. If you sit most of the day (even if you have children) you set your activity level to sedentary. If you spend most of the day on the go or moving your activity level would be different. It doesn't matter if you have kids. I have kids, but at different times in my life my activity levels shift.

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