What do you log as exercise?

valeriebpdx

For me, better safe than sorry--I am at a "normal" weight (just not an attractive one, IMO) and am a student and an editor, so I sit a lot. My lifestyle is entered as sedentary for that reason. I have kids and a three-story house--laundry in the basement--so I am up and down stairs all the time. I don't include cooking, cleaning, grooming, shopping, marital activities, or walking between classes. I might give myself a five-minute walking credit for walking from my car to class, and I do count walking my kids to school (also 20 min RT). My thought is, I was doing all these things for years and still sitting at a weight I hated, so clearly these activities are not enough exercise to get me to my goal. But logging and eating the walking calories helps get me from "Jesus, I might actually starve to death today" at 1200 to "Perhaps I can actually do this" at 1400 calories.

Rikkijean

My lifestyle is marked as lightly active. I am a student on a large campus (probably half an hour of vigorous walking from class to class, usually an hour of wandering around), and I keep a tidy apartment (generally on my feet for an hour or so a day with that). Those are my lifestyle calories, and are already counted in my net calories. If I had myself marked as sedentary, I'd definitely include those calories.

exactly my point! well done :happy: cheers to that :drinker:

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Atlantique

My lifestyle is marked as lightly active. I am a student on a large campus (probably half an hour of vigorous walking from class to class, usually an hour of wandering around), and I keep a tidy apartment (generally on my feet for an hour or so a day with that). Those are my lifestyle calories, and are already counted in my net calories. If I had myself marked as sedentary, I'd definitely include those calories.

Maybe I should have put mine as 'lightly active' too. I put sedentary, because my work is sedentary. But I do, at the very least, get a half hour of walking the dog in a day, and usually more like an hour. To me, that isn't an efffort, it's just what I do every day.

But to many others, that's a lot of walking.

If you live or work in a city (as I do) you also get in a lot of incidental walking even with a desk job as you walk from your commuter transportation to your office and back. To ME, that's not a big deal. To someone larger or more sedentary, it would truly be 'exercise'.

So this is why I am confused. MFP doesn't really have a way to advise any member what is 'exercise' vs. 'daily life activity'. Yes, 'daily life activity' is different for me, who is somewhat active, owns a dog and walks to and from commuter transportation and only needs to lose 30 pounds, than it is for someone with many more pounds to lose or who has truly been inactive for many years or lives in a suburb and drives everywhere. But we're all supposedly using the same calculations to get us to our goals.

I find this confusing, hence the question.

Are some realtively light and healthy people overestimating 'exercise'? Assuming that the calories recommended are for staying in bed all day? And conversely, are some larger and inactive people UNDERestimating calories, based on their larger efforts for any sort of activity?

I don't see MFP differentiating here, or advising. So I asked the question. My goal was NOT to upset or wound anyone. It was only to get a clearer understanding.

Nigel99

I would absolutely not count cleaning/cooking/etc. as exercise for me, but everybody has their own thing. Different workouts, different schedules, activity loads, etc. So while logging that sort of stuff isn't anything I would do, if it really is exercise for somebody else, then good for them. It will either work and be helpful or it will be a facade - eventually they will figure out if it is working or not.

suzooz

I agree. I don't typically include normal housekeeping, but I did include painting as an "exercise." I figured after painting for 8 hours, doing countless lunges, stretches squats, and modified sit-ups (painting trim!) It must be worth something. I had just started exercising, and didn't want to miss a day. However, the Wii Fit program did call me on it!

I'm going to be painting soon...how did you count the calories for this?

There are a few sites out there that have "painting" as an exercise. Here's one: http://www.healthstatus.com/cgi-bin/calc/calculator.cgi

Rikkijean

My lifestyle is marked as lightly active. I am a student on a large campus (probably half an hour of vigorous walking from class to class, usually an hour of wandering around), and I keep a tidy apartment (generally on my feet for an hour or so a day with that). Those are my lifestyle calories, and are already counted in my net calories. If I had myself marked as sedentary, I'd definitely include those calories.

Maybe I should have put mine as 'lightly active' too. I put sedentary, because my work is sedentary. But I do, at the very least, get a half hour of walking the dog in a day, and usually more like an hour. To me, that isn't an efffort, it's just what I do every day.

But to many others, that's a lot of walking.

If you live or work in a city (as I do) you also get in a lot of incidental walking even with a desk job as you walk from your commuter transportation to your office and back. To ME, that's not a big deal. To someone larger or more sedentary, it would truly be 'exercise'.

So this is why I am confused. MFP doesn't really have a way to advise any member what is 'exercise' vs. 'daily life activity'. Yes, 'daily life activity' is different for me, who is somewhat active, owns a dog and walks to and from commuter transportation and only needs to lose 30 pounds, than it is for someone with many more pounds to lose or who has truly been inactive for many years or lives in a suburb and drives everywhere. But we're all supposedly using the same calculations to get us to our goals.

I find this confusing, hence the question.

Are some realtively light and healthy people overestimating 'exercise'? Assuming that the calories recommended are for staying in bed all day? And conversely, are some larger and inactive people UNDERestimating calories, based on their larger efforts for any sort of activity?

I don't see MFP differentiating here, or advising. So I asked the question. My goal was NOT to upset or wound anyone. It was only to get a clearer understanding.

ok now i have to say i really like this question, and the calories burned for cardio exercises are based on your weight and hight. me and my 2 girlfriends do the exact same workout 3 times a week circuit training, and we all log our workouts on here...so for example i'm 141Lbs and 5'7" i burn 386 calories. one of my friends is 129Lbs and 5'4" she burns 374 calories, my other friend is 174Lbs and 5'5" she burns 489 calories........we all do the same workout so it defenitely is different for every individual.



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naebear99

I put myself down as sedentary, and decided to log my cleaning and yardwork, with caveats and modifications that I adjust as time goes on, and I figure out what works for me. Fundamentally, I log this stuff to encourage myself to get off my couch, put down the computer, and catch up on my housekeeping in the evening, rather than my LOLcats. My general rules are these: nightly routine, such as cooking dinner, washing dishes after, or a quick load of laundry don't count. If I've done significant other exercise, I'll skip it (like tonight - did a good solid hour of house and yard work, but logged none). For housework, I usually cut the number of minutes at least in half - two hours gets an hour logged, and so forth. Yardwork varies, depending whether I'm doing really light yardwork, or heavy-duty stuff. The heavier the workout, the less I modify my estimate.

It works for me - I'm doing real workouts at the gym to challenge myself and try to exceed my prior limits. I'm taking walks on my lunches to move my body more often. I'm cleaning the house a bit more, keeping the yard up better, and ending each day with a significant deficit.

Bottom line, if it works for you, do it. If it doesn't, change it.

mfpchris

i have seen people say they are logging sex as cardio...i mean really come on now

That's for the Catholics who try to think of it as anything but pleasurable.
KIDDING, KIDDING, <duck outta the way>

-mfpchris (who attended Catholic school)

FearAnLoathing

Ha you should see what I put for my exercise muth3rluvx2 knows what im talking about:laugh:

FearAnLoathing

:grumble: stupid double post

zoibas

I log my daily walk to lunch. Its usually 20 minutes and i walk fast. 35 cals is 35 cals. I also underestimate calorie intake. I do not log taking a shower.

zoibas

what I wish I could log is my 3 sets of stomach crunches I do throughout the day but they are strength and I do not have any idea how many cals that is.

ChassityGetsFit

I'm a SAHM and I've set my lifestyle activity to light activity instead of sedentary because I do some housework on a daily basis and take care of my kids. By doing this, MFP takes that into consideration and gives me extra calories per day to make up for that so no, I don't add anything like that into my log. I only add actual exercise that I do, like cardio, fitness classes, going for walks (since that isn't part of my normal day)! I figure if I do burn additional calories doing housework that might be out of the ordinary then that is bonus and will help me to that much more toward my goal!

morningmom

For me, better safe than sorry--I am at a "normal" weight (just not an attractive one, IMO) and am a student and an editor, so I sit a lot. My lifestyle is entered as sedentary for that reason. I have kids and a three-story house--laundry in the basement--so I am up and down stairs all the time. I don't include cooking, cleaning, grooming, shopping, marital activities, or walking between classes. I might give myself a five-minute walking credit for walking from my car to class, and I do count walking my kids to school (also 20 min RT). My thought is, I was doing all these things for years and still sitting at a weight I hated, so clearly these activities are not enough exercise to get me to my goal. But logging and eating the walking calories helps get me from "Jesus, I might actually starve to death today" at 1200 to "Perhaps I can actually do this" at 1400 calories.

I agree! I am also at 1200 a day and my job is fairly active. I am moving/on my feet all day. I don't exercise 7 days a week. I aim for 5. So...I want some credit for things that I am doing outside of my "activity level" (my job). I figure there has to be a reason MFP put it in under cardio... People appear to be very successful using this site and if we aren't supposed to use it, why is it there?? But, really....let's all support and encourage each other rather than argue over "cooking and housekeeping". If it helps and encourages me, rather than make me feel discouraged....I am all for it! :flowerforyou:

lacroyx

movement for at least 15 or more mins I log. especially if I break a sweat.

julie4760

If you use your bmr as a guide it is the amount of calories you need to survive for your weight if you were in a coma so for some folks any activity is to be counted to ensure you intake the correct amount of calories, essential if you are a diabetic.

appleofmyeye

This is an interesting question/issue, and I can see two different ways of approaching it. 

First, as an example, my own lifestyle: As far as I can tell, I'm what MFP would consider "lightly active." My career as an elementary school librarian has me sitting sometimes, but I spend a lot of time up on my feet teaching classes, helping students find books, straightening shelves, visiting classrooms, etc. At home, my evenings and weekends are a mixture of cooking, cleaning, shopping, walking, sometimes dancing, and some couch potato time--this varies from day to day.

I don't run or work out at a gym because I am not looking to be muscular or crazy toned--just healthy and fit. I'm also what some people might call old-fashioned in that I very often sacrifice convenience for quality. I'd much rather spend time with my husband walking the 1.8-mile round trip to the store, taking two hours to cook a delicious meal together from scratch, and then cleaning the kitchen afterwards than, say, working out for two hours while listening to my iPod, mixing up a protein shake in the blender, and throwing my two dirty dishes in the dishwasher. 

I could enter my lifestyle as "lightly active" on MFP and not log my cooking and cleaning, and that would probably work just fine. 

Instead, I have entered my lifestyle as sedentary (which it most definitely is not), and I do log things like cooking, cleaning, long shopping trips, etc. I do it this way for several reasons. 

First off, most days this still keeps me at a lower number of calories than I would consume if my activity level were set for lightly active--and I'd rather slightly underestimate how much I need to eat than eat too much. 

Second, this sometimes keeps me motivated to be more active when I get home, because I know that if I work up a sweat in the kitchen, I'll get to log it. I am held more accountable for being "lightly active" because the activity calories haven't just been given to me in my daily allowance--I have to earn them every time!

Third, for me, it's sustainable. I have known so many people, myself included, who have lost weight by working out 5-7 days a week, basked in the glow of their success, and then gained the weight back a year later because their gym time gradually got phased out. When exercise is just a means to lose excess weight/inches, it's easier to forget about it once a goal is reached. But if I can change my entire lifestyle to be more active, then it'll be sustainable because it's fully integrated into my way of life. I liked how the Men's Health article (linked above) said it:

In a 2007 report, University of Missouri scientists said that people with the highest levels of nonexercise activity (but little to no actual "exercise") burned significantly more calories a week than those who ran 35 miles a week but accumulated only a moderate amount of nonexercise activity. 

Finally, logging my daily activities is kind of fun for me because I can go back through my diaries and see exactly what I did each day. 

I am not saying my way of logging would work for everyone, but It definitely seems to be working for me! I've lost 7lbs in the last month and am very close to my goal of fitting back into my favorite jeans. Now that I'm spending so much time in the kitchen, I'm also eating a lot of delicious food!

Rikkijean

If you use your bmr as a guide it is the amount of calories you need to survive for your weight if you were in a coma so for some folks any activity is to be counted to ensure you intake the correct amount of calories, essential if you are a diabetic.

ok now you make a seriously valid point there! MFP doent ask questions about your health......so no matter what your doing physically can depend on those kinds of factors. before you do anything you should always consult your doctor, ok so i'm not a diabetic but i am a smoker (working on that) so always remember that MFP is only giving you guidlines and can not be 100% accurate for each individual.........but you know what? we're all here to better ourselves :flowerforyou: so good for you & good for me :drinker: Cheers pals

mfpchris

I think "coma" is the sedentary category, There is also active, very active etc.
The BMR calculation does not uniformly calculate your numbers as
if you were in a coma. AFAIK

morningmom

Well said!!

morningmom

This is an interesting question/issue, and I can see two different ways of approaching it. 

First, as an example, my own lifestyle: As far as I can tell, I'm what MFP would consider "lightly active." My career as an elementary school librarian has me sitting sometimes, but I spend a lot of time up on my feet teaching classes, helping students find books, straightening shelves, visiting classrooms, etc. At home, my evenings and weekends are a mixture of cooking, cleaning, shopping, walking, sometimes dancing, and some couch potato time--this varies from day to day.

I don't run or work out at a gym because I am not looking to be muscular or crazy toned--just healthy and fit. I'm also what some people might call old-fashioned in that I very often sacrifice convenience for quality. I'd much rather spend time with my husband walking the 1.8-mile round trip to the store, taking two hours to cook a delicious meal together from scratch, and then cleaning the kitchen afterwards than, say, working out for two hours while listening to my iPod, mixing up a protein shake in the
blender, and throwing my two dirty dishes in the dishwasher. 

I could enter my lifestyle as "lightly active" on MFP and not log my cooking and cleaning, and that would probably work just fine. 

Instead, I have entered my lifestyle as sedentary (which it most definitely is not), and I do log things like cooking, cleaning, long shopping trips, etc. I do it this way for several reasons. 

First off, most days this still keeps me at a lower number of calories than I would consume if my activity level were set for lightly active--and I'd rather slightly underestimate how much I need to eat than eat too much. 

Second, this sometimes keeps me motivated to be more active when I get home, because I know that if I work up a sweat in the kitchen, I'll get to log it. I am held more accountable for being "lightly active" because the activity calories haven't just been given to me in my daily allowance--I have to earn them every time!

Third, for me, it's sustainable. I have known so many people, myself included, who have lost weight by working out 5-7 days a week, basked in the glow of their success, and then gained the weight back a year later because their gym time gradually got phased out. When exercise is just a means to lose excess weight/inches, it's easier to forget about it once a goal is reached. But if I can change my entire lifestyle to be more active, then it'll be sustainable because it's fully integrated into my way of life. I liked how the Men's Health article (linked above) said it:

In a 2007 report, University of Missouri scientists said that people with the highest levels of nonexercise activity (but little to no actual "exercise") burned significantly more calories a week than those who ran 35 miles a week but accumulated only a moderate amount of nonexercise activity. 

Finally, logging my daily activities is kind of fun for me because I can go back through my diaries and see exactly what I did each day. 

I am not saying my way of logging would work for everyone, but It definitely seems to be working for me! I've lost 7lbs in the last month and am very close to my goal of fitting back into my favorite jeans. Now that I'm spending so much time in the kitchen, I'm also eating a lot of delicious food!

I was referring to this...Well said!

Delicate

I wasnt sure how to put myself as, so i've put myself down to 1200 cals and i add on all the exercise i do, as I have somedays off through being unable to do it.#

Basically do what works for you

fteale

I log intentional exercise like running and circuits, obviously, but for normal day to day stuff I only log gardening when I have been doing a lot of heavy lifting, and walks of more than 2k at a brisk pace. I don't log things like the school run or shopping, even though it adds up to about 2k-5k a day, because they are just everyday stuff. I have never included housework.

deeharley

I include an hour of light housekeeping in my workouts because AFTER I entered myself as sedentary on MFP, I accepted a part-time job where I spend about 2 1/2 hours vacuuming, moving tables and chairs, sweeping, mopping, scrubbing showers, cleaning out huge dryer vents, etc. But I do agree for the most part, that housework is not usually a workout.

Oh, and sometimes, I set my timer for twenty minutes and clean as fast as I can - I do work up a sweat then, and I count that.

rachelleahsmom

I get to count housekeeping because for me it IS an unusual activity! LOL:laugh:

Rubie81

This is an interesting question/issue, and I can see two different ways of approaching it. 

First, as an example, my own lifestyle: As far as I can tell, I'm what MFP would consider "lightly active." My career as an elementary school librarian has me sitting sometimes, but I spend a lot of time up on my feet teaching classes, helping students find books, straightening shelves, visiting classrooms, etc. At home, my evenings and weekends are a mixture of cooking, cleaning, shopping, walking, sometimes dancing, and some couch potato time--this varies from day to day.

I don't run or work out at a gym because I am not looking to be muscular or crazy toned--just healthy and fit. I'm also what some people might call old-fashioned in that I very often sacrifice convenience for quality. I'd much rather spend time with my husband walking the 1.8-mile round trip to the store, taking two hours to cook a delicious meal together from scratch, and then cleaning the kitchen afterwards than, say, working out for two hours while listening to my iPod, mixing up a protein shake in the
blender, and throwing my two dirty dishes in the dishwasher. 

I could enter my lifestyle as "lightly active" on MFP and not log my cooking and cleaning, and that would probably work just fine. 

Instead, I have entered my lifestyle as sedentary (which it most definitely is not), and I do log things like cooking, cleaning, long shopping trips, etc. I do it this way for several reasons. 

First off, most days this still keeps me at a lower number of calories than I would consume if my activity level were set for lightly active--and I'd rather slightly underestimate how much I need to eat than eat too much. 

Second, this sometimes keeps me motivated to be more active when I get home, because I know that if I work up a sweat in the kitchen, I'll get to log it. I am held more accountable for being "lightly active" because the activity calories haven't just been given to me in my daily allowance--I have to earn them every time!

Third, for me, it's sustainable. I have known so many people, myself included, who have lost weight by working out 5-7 days a week, basked in the glow of their success, and then gained the weight back a year later because their gym time gradually got phased out. When exercise is just a means to lose excess weight/inches, it's easier to forget about it once a goal is reached. But if I can change my entire lifestyle to be more active, then it'll be sustainable because it's fully integrated into my way of life. I liked how the Men's Health article (linked above) said it:

In a 2007 report, University of Missouri scientists said that people with the highest levels of nonexercise activity (but little to no actual "exercise") burned significantly more calories a week than those who ran 35 miles a week but accumulated only a moderate amount of nonexercise activity. 

Finally, logging my daily activities is kind of fun for me because I can go back through my diaries and see exactly what I did each day. 

I am not saying my way of logging would work for everyone, but It definitely seems to be working for me! I've lost 7lbs in the last month and am very close to my goal of fitting back into my favorite jeans. Now that I'm spending so much time in the kitchen, I'm also eating a lot of delicious food!

I was referring to this...Well said!

VERY well said. Spending crazy amounts of time at the gym is not for everyone. My lifestyle change has involved very small changes and it has worked very well for me. It's whatever works for the individual, I am not here to criticize anyone but myself.

deeharley

I get to count housekeeping because for me it IS an unusual activity! LOL:laugh:

Love it!:bigsmile: