what activities are included in "sedentary" setting?

backinthenines

I notice a small number of people logging non-exercise activities... and I don't mean digging in the garden or such like, I mean stuff like "food preparation".

Surely if you give yourself extra calories for a bit of vegetable chopping would that not lead to double accounting, assuming that preparing meals would be part of normal life activities??

Confused.

mlemonroe2

I am a stay-at-home mom so cleaning, food prep, things like that are in my daily activity, but if I clean anything extra than what is normal or make a bigger meal than I usualy do, I will add the calories. Say I clean my floor boards or wash my windows or something, I will add that. And sometimes I will clean my moms for extra $$ and I will add those calories too.

Healthyby30

I personally don't add anything in except things I do to purposely workout. The number of calories burned doing normal activities is so minuscule I don't bother. Especially if I normally burn around 100 calories per hour anyway, I don't think many people subtract what they would burn even if they didn't do anything to get the actual calories burnt from that specific activity, so they may be over estimating their burn as well.

Nataliethin81

I don't log ANYTHING except for actual exercise. Unless it get's my heart rate up like working out does, it doesn't count. That's just my opinion though.

MelissaL582

I'm a stay at home mom and I have mine set to sedentary. I've notice some people logging in food preparation or light cleaning as well. I've actually logged in light cleaning one time and to me, it felt like I was just giving myself extra calories to eat. So to me now, if I'm not breaking a sweat..I'm not logging it in. I do all the cleaning, cooking and everything else a mother/wife does and I still got fat before my weight loss.

backinthenines

I don't log ANYTHING except for actual exercise. Unless it get's my heart rate up like working out does, it doesn't count. That's just my opinion though.

I'm the same. I mean if I had dug my whole garden over I might consider it but not things like shopping, cooking... I mean that's just LIFE isn't it??

Robyn1733

I am a SAHM and I dont log anything but actual exercise (ie what I do at the YMCA). The only extra thing I add is the "walking" i do when grocery shopping or mall shopping. I count everything else as normal activities. and if I burn a few extra calories doing it, then i guess its my gain (or should I say weight loss).

karenjoy

I never add anything like cleaning, even floor washing, there are reasons they don't have housework classes at the gym. It seems to me that if you are going to be logging food preperation and things like that then those people must be so desperate for extra calories that maybe they might want to reasses how serious they are about this journey. If we start to see people chopping carrots and peeling potatoes as a work out on Biggest Loser then I might start thinking again. :happy:

I would say that is you spend a day digging your garden or cutting down trees and you usually soend it pushing a vacuum round and a duster, with a bit of washing up and a spot of ironong, then that will burn ore calories than you would normally burn, so might be worth logging, although I personally don't count things like that. :flowerforyou:

CharlieJuliette

I only log specific exercise. And I do think that those are probably overstated because you don't deduct the number of calories that you would have burnt anyway just by being alive.

plainjoe81

Work twice a week in the kitchen of a restaurant, other wise my work is sedentary in an office, thus I have entered a sedentary lifestyle, but when on my feet I'm recording it as light cleaning or food prep depending on what the restaurant shift throws at me.

Nataliethin81

I don't log ANYTHING except for actual exercise. Unless it get's my heart rate up like working out does, it doesn't count. That's just my opinion though.

I'm the same. I mean if I had dug my whole garden over I might consider it but not things like shopping, cooking... I mean that's just LIFE isn't it??

It is! I completely agree!

pandafoo

i don't log daily activities like that either, but for those who are curious about calories burned, they would subtract from their HRM number the number of calories they would have burned at rest (divide daily maintenance calories by 1440 to get calories burned per minute, then multiply by number of minutes of daily activity). i calculated that i burn 70 calories/hr at rest, and i can't imagine my daily activities burning considerably much more than that.

on a related note, i guess to be really accurate with number of calories burned during purposeful workouts, we should also subtract from that the number of calories we would have burned at rest? or easier that that, maybe we shouldn't eat back all our exercise calories, just half or something. thoughts?

mlemonroe2

I'm surprised how many people are saying house cleaning dosn't burn calories!! I often sweat when I am cleaning!! The new weight watchers points plus program gives you extra points for doing things like cleaning a bathtub. It's hard work people!!! If it only counts when you sweat, then everyone would be in the same category instead of having to choose if you are sedentary, moderately active, or very active.

bizco

I notice a small number of people logging non-exercise activities... and I don't mean digging in the garden or such like, I mean stuff like "food preparation".

Surely if you give yourself extra calories for a bit of vegetable chopping would that not lead to double accounting, assuming that preparing meals would be part of normal life activities??

I agree with you. Any calories burned by such activities are included in normal daily activity and those people who log them as exercise are just messing up their true calorie deficit.

appleshells

I am on my feet literally 12 hours a day at work. It is not unusual for me to walk 5-10 miles in a day (we all wore pedometers to see who walked the most once). I do not log any of that. I have considered logging CPR because that is a CRAZY workout, but it's morbid so I wouldn't. LOL

I will however log when I mop my floors because it gets my heart rate elevated.

Then again, I won't even log the wii fit calories because I think they are so small. LOL I am a mess.

mlemonroe2

Then again, I won't even log the wii fit calories because I think they are so small. LOL I am a mess.

I have lost 28 pounds only doing wii fit!! You should count them!!

backinthenines

, there are reasons they don't have housework classes at the gym.

LOL Karen that made me laugh. :laugh:

Perhaps a circuit at the gym... an extra filthy bathtub... a mop & bucket station.... two dusters.... a hoover... and iron & board & pile of crinkly clothes...

GO!!!

2 minutes at each station circuit style!! :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

backinthenines

I have considered logging CPR because that is a CRAZY workout, but it's morbid so I wouldn't.

:laugh:

tammyquinnlmt

There is also the consideration that some people may truly be sedentary. I've known people who were too out of shape to do things like cooking or cleaning...so for them it might be actual excercise.

forestdancers

I have my calories set as sedentary however I happen to do janitorial work four to five days a week.
Since I have done my job for over 16 years it is not much of a challenge so all I usually do is mark down maybe 30 minutes of sweeping when I really do two hours of it. Or 20 min burnishing/ mopping ect. when I did ten times the amount.

The only time I mark down all the work I did as exercise is when I have did a strip and wax job and spent hours and hours of sweating and hefting.

I seldom eat any of the calories I gain from exercise and most of the time don't even make it to my calorie goal. Not sure on the validity of eating all of ones calories when I am allowed over 1900 a day. Not like I can starve on that and I think that the calorie count is messed up for people who are obese since the calorie calculation is made for mostly those that are into sports. It makes sense that a person who is 300l bs of muscle needs the calories but a person who is 300 lbs of mostly fat I don't thinks needs the same requirements.

UpToAnyCool

reminds me of a time that one of my pals here on MPF was given a hard time about logging hours and hours of food prep and it turned out she was a line cook in a restautant! :laugh: :laugh:

2bFitNTrim

There is also the consideration that some people may truly be sedentary. I've known people who were too out of shape to do things like cooking or cleaning...so for them it might be actual excercise.

I think most of us think of housework & cooking as just a part of normal everyday living, and as such, would not need to log in these activities. But for someone who is obese or morbidly obese, these activites may indeed be a challenge for them. I may very well log in my housework when I get to my Spring cleaning. It's hard work!

Hoosier16

I only log specific exercise. And I do think that those are probably overstated because you don't deduct the number of calories that you would have burnt anyway just by being alive.

Agree completely. I deduct 120 / hour from any exercise I do to account for this.

karenjoy

I don't think anyone here is saying that housework does not burn calories, sleeping burns calories, breathing burns calories, your heart beating burns calories, but I don't log it. I think that people need to look at this realistically. OK so it might make you sweat to vacuum your house, but that is not a work out, it is something that you are doing as part of normal everyday life. If you start to walk 5 miles a day then THAT is exercise, but if you log your weekly 'wander' round the supermarket as a 'walk' it really isn't...I could log going up and down stairs (my office is up two flights of stairs and has no lift, I live in a town house and have a lot of stairs, but I don't count any of it as 'exercise'.
This site is about being accountable to ourselves, if you REALLY REALLY think that you are going to get fit and healthy doing housework then great, I actually think that I need to do something that is usually regarded as exercise to do that. It's my choice to feel like that, and at the end of the day I could log that I did 10 hours of running, ate 1200 calories made up of only organic home grown fair trade wholesome food and then did 10 hours of weights and who is going to know what I really did other than me? We are not going to be tracked down by the fat police if we put washing up as a work out, but we might be kidding ourselves. In the end we are the only people who lose out if we are.

mlemonroe2

I have lost 28 pounds so far so I don't think I am kidding myself. If it is something I do above and beyond my normal "chores" I add it. I don't think I am cheating myself.

jmwolffyy

Perhaps a circuit at the gym... an extra filthy bathtub... a mop & bucket station.... two dusters.... a hoover... and iron & board & pile of crinkly clothes...

GO!!!

2 minutes at each station circuit style!! :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

Even better, lets do this at my house!!! I could use the help getting it all the way clean. LOL!

I don't log anything extra EXCEPT the day I had to work on the car to get it to run... Auto repair is in the list of exercises, and I jumped at the chance because between the actual work and the stress of doing it myself I know my heart rate was up!

qtrhrsewoman

I agree with this statement in full. I started logging my household chores, etc and realized that I do this stuff every day. It's part of my normal calorie burn. I will log an unusual chore that is strenuous like when I clean my barn stalls. It is not something I do every day, and really is a huge calorie burn, so I think that can count as exercise, but folding laundry or cooking dinner is something I do on a daily basis anyway.

Tiggermummy

I have my activity setting as sedentary as although i am generally on my feet all day, the pace I could be working at varies greatly, but I do record my daily movements and when heading to and from work, I usually if I can get out the house early eneough will walk to the station.
i've gone from 20 minute stroll to 10-12min power walk, I got my pace up to 6 miles an hour whilst dodging tourists in central london, that is pretty good going, and I've got little legs!
I also log when I do the stairs at work - its five floors, I never used to do it, when i started I couldn't do it without stopping twice, then i got to stopping once. now I can do it without a stop, but I am out of breath at the top.
some days I'll do it once, others twice - record is 3 times in a day. looking forward to not being out of breath at the top, but I think I get back to normal breathing quicker than I used to, had to go and collect a delivery with a work collegue as the lifts were out, he is really skinny, but he had to stop and catch his breath and I didn't!

And I log the wii-fit work outs too, but its down to you to be honest with yourself as to how much effort you've put in.
I do build up a sweat, I now have dumbells that turn the controller & nunchuck into 2kg weights, and I have the raiser on order to make the wii board higher up. hubby works late so I can't always go out in the evenings so the wii becomes my stable exercise boost and anything else is extras.
I will often add only half the calories I get from my recordings as walking with the children isn't at a fast pace!
But for 5 hours of pushing a double buggy around london (at least 5miles) I added 1hour of calories, as it isn't something I normally do.

You can only be accountable to yourself, no matter what we might think as outsiders looking in, a person can only be totally honest with themselves, and if they aren't all we can do is try and encourage gently, without beating them over the head with a virtual baseball bat as it isn't going to help.

TM

stormieweather

Everything you do should already be included in your 'activity level'. The only "exercise" calories should be activities done specifically for fitness (such as biking, running, gym workouts or classes). If you think you are doing more than what your activity level allows you, then change it and increase it.

And yes, a lot of people forget to deduct the normal calories they burn doing nothing - ie: I burn 300 calories on the treadmill for an hour, but if I'd done nothing at all, I'd have burned 70, so I need to subtract that 70 from the 300 to get the actual EXTRA calories.

This is part of the reason some people don't lose weight when eating back their exercise calories.

rebeccaS85

I'm surprised how many people are saying house cleaning dosn't burn calories!! I often sweat when I am cleaning!! The new weight watchers points plus program gives you extra points for doing things like cleaning a bathtub. It's hard work people!!! If it only counts when you sweat, then everyone would be in the same category instead of having to choose if you are sedentary, moderately active, or very active.

I absolutely agree!! I am also a SAHM and I don't usually add my normal cleaning however about once every week or so I do a deep clean of my house and I end up SWEATING so I add that. I don't tend to us all my extra calories earned from exercise. I also add walking if I have spent a day out running errands because I have usually done A LOT of walking.

AJDistel

I'm a SAHM and from what I was told, that your normal every day activities should not be logged because even though your body is burning calories, your not going "above" what your body is use to. My friend is a waitress and she was told not to log her hours on her feet cause her body is use to it. But she would be considered "active". If you are constantly cleaning and moving, then just bump up your activity level. But normal every day activities should not be added.

Ultimately I do think everyone is different so we really don't know each persons case.