Do you account for daily tasks that burn calories?

lmyers132625

While browsing the exercise database I noticed things like house cleaning, gardening, fishing, etc. The only thing I log is the actual work I do at the gym and I eat back most of those calories and feel great. Just curious if anyone else logs other activities other than your intentional exercise.

editorgrrl

I do it your way. All those activities are part of one's activity level. Exercise = workouts.

Sabine_Stroehm

Only if it's something like splitting logs, shoveling snow, or some other very heavy activity. Otherwise, no that's just life.

Phrick

Sometimes. For example I count "gardening" if I'm preparing garden beds, because it's a frick of a lot of hard manual labor and it's outside what I would normally do. But I don't count "gardening" if I'm weeding or planting or watering.

edit to add: And I will count cleaning if I'm doing a deep, heavy clean and moving appliances and furniture, but not if i'm squirting Fantistik on the stove and wiping it up.

thegilly6

I let the FitBit figure all that out for me.

mrphilinmaine

The lower the variable the better the results in my opinion. Exercise is fairly quantifiable but is working in the garden? Of course in just starting a diet I realize there is some rough justice in determining numbers (counting calories) anyway.

Perhaps you can think of it this way - if you don't include it but still meet your daily goals you are ahead of the game perhaps. Myfitnesspal also starts by asking what your lifestyle is like to begin with which takes into consideration moderate activity throughout the day.

paniolo5

I don't count normal daily tasks, only workouts. I have always thought that was taken into account by MFP when they calculate your daily calories allowed. Good luck!

redchevy54

Under Settings and then fitness profile I have selected sedentary with the thought that I can add things that I do that are above and beyond that level of activity. I still do not count things like cleaning the house or cooking, as I feel that these are what I have done all along without results. I would advise against counting this type of everyday activity if you have selected a higher level of activity on your fitness profile.

karlschaeffer

I only log daily activivity on MFP if I'm not weating my fitbit.

lavaughan69

Sometimes. For example I count "gardening" if I'm preparing garden beds, because it's a frick of a lot of hard manual labor and it's outside what I would normally do. But I don't count "gardening" if I'm weeding or planting or watering.

edit to add: And I will count cleaning if I'm doing a deep, heavy clean and moving appliances and furniture, but not if i'm squirting Fantistik on the stove and wiping it up.

Same. I only log my gardening when I've spent hours in the hot sun turning the beds and planting. I also log push mowing, we have a pretty big yard. I don't bother with house cleaning as my heart rate doesn't really elevate that much from it.

ccrdragon

I consider things like cleaning and laundry to be part of life and don't count any calorie burn for those activities - the only exercise that I count is on the elliptical at home, riding the bike path on the weekends and what I do at the gym.

I suppose if I were to dig up the yard to make a garden or some other such heavy yard work I might be tempted to count that but I haven;t done any of that lately so I don't know...

MissKim78

I don't have a gym membership so any exercise that I can "feel", I log.
I don't count tidying up but on the weekend I spent over 3 hours cleaning & scrubbing. My body ached like I had went to the gym so I logged it.
I think its a personal thing. If you are fairly active, I would say logging cooking and cleaning isn't necessary. But for someone less active, like myself, I log whatever is outside my normal daily activity.

linkirving

I don't log anything that I've been doing my whole life. I got fat and stayed fat doing those things. They don't count in my book.

huneydrop

I don't log anything that I've been doing my whole life. I got fat and stayed fat doing those things. They don't count in my book.

LOL This!!

SezxyStef

Sometimes. For example I count "gardening" if I'm preparing garden beds, because it's a frick of a lot of hard manual labor and it's outside what I would normally do. But I don't count "gardening" if I'm weeding or planting or watering.

edit to add: And I will count cleaning if I'm doing a deep, heavy clean and moving appliances and furniture, but not if i'm squirting Fantistik on the stove and wiping it up.

Same. I only log my gardening when I've spent hours in the hot sun turning the beds and planting. I also log push mowing, we have a pretty big yard. I don't bother with house cleaning as my heart rate doesn't really elevate that much from it.

This...in the spring when I am getting my flower beds and garden ready I count it.

This is not part of my normal routine and takes days to complete. From tilling, to turning soil manually to shovelling mulch into a wheel barrel to shovelling it out raises my heart rate and gives me a better sweat than most cardio I do.

As well in the fall when I am cleaning up my beds and moving lawn furniture back into the garage etc I count that as well...shovelling not so much...throwing wood in friggen right.

What I don't log is cleaning of any sort...even spring/fall cleaning where I am washing walls etc (I use a swifer so it's not that hard) even if I do break a sweat...

jlynnm70

I don't count normal daily chores - cleaning, laundry, etc. However I do log it if it is out of normal. Scooping snow, raking leaves for hours, (not a typical day mowing every week tho) Major yard clean up - yes, normal stuff no. Same with household stuff. wiping counters and running a vaccuum - no - moving furniture and climbing the ladder to clean ceiling fans, and extensive spring cleaning - I log a portion of it. Other stuff - like painting, or remodel stuff - I log depending on how much work it was.

I guess I look at it this way - If it took EXTRA effort than a normal day - it's worth logging (not necessarily eating it all back tho)

bizco

No. I log only dedicated workouts. Everything else is normal daily activity.

BoxerBrawler

I only track those if it's something like heavy gardening or yard work or shoveling snow. If I am out and about all day long doing a lot of walking around I track my steps / calories burned. Otherwise I only track my dedicated work outs for calories burned. I have my setting on highly active because I work out twice a day seven days a week and although I have an office job, I am on my feet moving around about 70 % of my day vs. sitting at a desk. I have tracked very small amounts at times like sometimes in the morning I'll do a quick three minutes of sit ups or a quick three to five minutes of jump rope, that's about 20 to 30 calories and not something I do every morning so I figured it's small but counts toward something.

ninerbuff

While browsing the exercise database I noticed things like house cleaning, gardening, fishing, etc. The only thing I log is the actual work I do at the gym and I eat back most of those calories and feel great. Just curious if anyone else logs other activities other than your intentional exercise.

All physical tasks burn calories. It's just that some are very insignificant when it comes to calorie burning effort. If washing dishes was significant enough to offset a candy bar, then count it. But burning 8.16 calories for 10 minutes of dish washing isn't something I'd call significant. It's about the same burn as sitting on the couch flipping the remote.

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Chillyfrog

Sometimes. For example I count "gardening" if I'm preparing garden beds, because it's a frick of a lot of hard manual labor and it's outside what I would normally do. But I don't count "gardening" if I'm weeding or planting or watering.

edit to add: And I will count cleaning if I'm doing a deep, heavy clean and moving appliances and furniture, but not if i'm squirting Fantistik on the stove and wiping it up.

^^This^^

If it's outside my normal daily activity, I count it.

bradXdale

I just log workouts...now if I help someone move or do some other strenuous activity for an hour or more I maybe budget an extra 100 calories or so for that day.

RobsGirl_lds

I logged Christmas shopping last year because it was 6 hours walking with a 30# 2 yearold on my hip/sholders/back the entire time. Lol we chose not to bring the stroller and I felt it for days after!

MstngSammy

My "normal daily" activities are already figured in to my daily calorie goal.

This is why when you set up on MFP it asks you your activity level. So it can "guesstimate" how many calories you will need to do your "day to day" stuff.

ETA....if it's outside of what I would normally do (extra walking, running, gym, etc)...yep I log it.

jkwolly

Only if it's something like splitting logs, shoveling snow, or some other very heavy activity. Otherwise, no that's just life.

This!

This winter has been so long I am like married to my shovel :sad:

ALNoog

I don't... But to each their own whatever works for you.
I bought a Jawbone Up and it tells me my active calorie burn and my resting calorie burn but I only count the active ones I get from actual workouts.

Swiftdogs

My days vary a lot and tend to be fairly active without extra exercise. I'm set at sedentary and let my Fitbit track most things.

zagbee

I was just thinking about this because I am getting ready to deep clean my house today. I think I'm going to log a part of it because in reality it is going to be 3-4 hours of moving furniture, scrubbing the tub on my hands and knees, etc. which is out of the norm of what I do in a regular day and can be fairly physical work. Daily I wipe counters, do laundry, dishes, etc. and I wouldn't count that.

bookworm_847

I don't count my usual daily activities. However, I will count moving furniture/heavy stuff around the house and the heavy duty yard work I do. Other than that, I just count my actual exercise.

jaxbeck

No. The only time I log cleaning is when I do very deep, active cleaning. IE: This weekend I cleaned everything in my house for over 3 hours. A lot of physical activity & it's outside of my normal daily activity. I would never log daily dishes or daily clean up & I fond it funny

Morgaath

Attempting to add some science to the mix
https://sites.google.com/site/compendiumofphysicalactivities/Activity-Categories/home-activity

Also be sure to check out the "Corrected METs" page to get a better idea of what a MET is [because (VO2 ml.kg-1.min-1)/(3.5 ml.kg-1.min-1) doesn't mean much to most of us], and activity category 14, just because it gets asked about.

GiveMeCoffee

When I first started and was restricted from doing basically everything, I counted some daily tasks because they weren't something I had been doing. I hadn't been grocery shopping, so when I was able to start doing my own yes I counted it. Now that I can do that normally and do exercise regularly I only count intentional exercise.