Can I really count "cooking or food prep" as exercise??

311Phil

I use the "have I always done this" thought process.. I don't log cooking, cleaning, shopping unless the activity itself is beyond the norm. I gained weight while cooking, cleaning, shopping so logging it as exercise - to me - doesn't make sense. However, on a day when I climb up and down the stairs 20 times carrying boxes so I can decorate - that I will log. It's a periodic activity. If you have always had your job cooking, than your weight gain happened in spite it. Using it as an exercise now will only slow down your efforts.

and Yes, I wish it paid better too. I LOVE COOKING..

thats a good point. I just don't know to accurately set my activity level, as the majority of me week is spent sitting at a desk, but the 3 nights a week im on my feet for 4-6 hours cooking. Maybe Lightly active?

myofibril

thats a good point. I just don't know to accurately set my activity level

Join the club. On other online calculators activity levels seem to factor in exercise as well. For example if you had a desk job but you worked out at a reasonable level 3 times a week you choose say "active." They then generate a single calorie level which aim for everyday without any of this "eating back your exercise calories" business as it has been averaged out over the week.

I have left a message in the technical support forum asking what activity level multipliers they use for the various activity levels they have on MFP. I want to get a clear understanding of how maintenance calorie levels are estimated here in my own mind. Hopefully once I get an answer I will be able to tweak the MFP settings to work best for my indvidual situation.

ps: nice job on the weight loss. Are you in the 200s yet?

311Phil

ps: nice job on the weight loss. Are you in the 200s yet?

ALMOST! I am at 300.2. By next weigh in, I will be there!! (at least i hope!) Going to go for a walk after work today around the neighborhood (as long as it isn't raining!)

Azdak

I use the "have I always done this" thought process.. I don't log cooking, cleaning, shopping unless the activity itself is beyond the norm. I gained weight while cooking, cleaning, shopping so logging it as exercise - to me - doesn't make sense. However, on a day when I climb up and down the stairs 20 times carrying boxes so I can decorate - that I will log. It's a periodic activity. If you have always had your job cooking, than your weight gain happened in spite it. Using it as an exercise now will only slow down your efforts.

and Yes, I wish it paid better too. I LOVE COOKING..

This is just a general comment--I'm just using your quote for a reference--because everyone can come up with their own system and it's all "artificial" anyway. The "activity factor" is meant to be an average--so those days in which you are unusually active are usually balanced out by days in which you were more sedentary. Plus, research shows that when people start doing more strenuous work or casual activity, they decrease it somewhere else. Either they decrease their activity the rest of the day to compensate or cut back on exercise because they are fatigued.

We tend to think in the short term and focus on unusual occurrences, but our bodies "keep track" all the time, so it 's the long term relationship between total activity vs total intake that counts.

As a rule I avoid a lot of personal anecdotes because they really don't mean that much, but my experience is one example of what can happen. I was unemployed for a long time and was working out quite a bit -- probably averaging at least 6000 calories a week in aerobic exercise + strength training. When I started my new job I went from "mostly sedentary + workouts" to "fairly active" in my daily activity. I work in a large, hospital-based fitness/wellness center. Most days I walk at least a couple of miles around the gym, climb 20-30 flights of stairs, pick up anywhere from 500 to 1000lbs of weight plates and dumbbells that lazy people leave lying around, and demonstrate a number of exercises, strength machines, etc.

But even with that radical change in activity, I didn't lose an ounce. Primarily because the increased work hours and the long commute (34 miles each way) have significantly cut into my workout time. My total daily energy expenditure did not increase--I just redistributed it.

Everyone can have a different system that can work for them, so I have stopped making specific recommendations on this topic. I just advise people to consider the bigger picture and, whatever the plan is, keep analyzing your results and make adjustments if things aren't going as expected.