Do you track everything?

Lou05

What i mean by this is house work, collecting kids from school, working if you have walking in it and so on. If so how you work out your calories burned?

amjmomma

I think that if it's something you do on a daily basis, it is figured into the lifestyle question they ask when you are figuring your daily calories. For me, cleaning isn't something I do on a regular (gross, I know) so I log it if I do it for more than 15 minutes at a time. Obviously I log all the extra exercise I do such as running or stuff at the gym. I guess it would be up to you. If it feels like exercise to you and not really part of your daily routine, then log it!

Still_Sossy

NO. I only track official workouts. I consider the rest of the stuff as daily life.

RunHardBeStrong

NO. I only track official workouts. I consider the rest of the stuff as daily life.

Same here.

sue26

my criteria is that if i did it before mfp then I dont log it. I only log extra excercise like scrubbing the kitchen floor, going for a walk just for the sake of it etc. My theory being that it didnt get me slim before mfp so why would it now.

Cilenia

I track my cycling to work and if i go for a walk longer then 20 mins. Like going shopping with the girls or something.

Celo24

NO. I only track official workouts. I consider the rest of the stuff as daily life.

Same here.

Agree.

tarazena

I agree- the intential exercises are what I track...if you are tracking cleaning, picking up kids... that's normal stuff..and not really building muscles or pushing yourself physically (and kind of cheating yourself into improving).

elliecolorado

Those things are figured into the 'lifestyle' question when you first start. Unless your lifestyle has drastically changed since you signed up don't track them. And if it has changed I would just update my activity level. I never count anything that isn't out of the ordinary for my daily life. That being said, I did add it when I spent a whole afternoon re-arranging my living room, moving furniture around, because that isn't something I do regularly.

lindalee0315

I agree--I only track what I consider to be a "formal" workout. Once the weather warms up I'll track bike riding to/from work and on the trails, but I will track them as lighter exercise. Cannot wait to get the bike out!

crystaltrejo

right...anything you wouldn't normally do....so if you go out of your way to do fast cleaning to burn calories and it's something you weren't going to do at all then sure count it, but if you are walking the dog and you walk the dog at that same speed every day then no. Anything out of the ordinary that you can classify as exercise.

I have a new HRM and I made a deal with myself similar to this, I only turn it on to count the calories burnt when I plan to log it as exercise, again anything out of the ordinary. Hope this helps.

stanvoodoo

According to my Nutritionist only excerise is logged as exercise everything else is normal activity that your body is used to and if you set up your profile correctly to reflect your active level then that is already counted so if you logged it again and ate back any of those calories then you would be over eating.

sweetheart_wi

No, I only track excercise that is up and beyond my "normal" rounting.. however I did track cleaning since I don't do that every day

neelia

If I put on my "gym clothes" and make an extra effort to burn calories, I track it. If it is just a part of daily life, I don't track it.

fotofreak01

I only track things that I don't do on a daily basis. All the cleaing and laundry and stuff, I leave out. If I go on a bike ride with my son or go rock climbing, I log it.

Lou05

thanks girls i only log stuff when i go to the gym, and was intrested on others take on burning calories. think ill stick to what i'm doing.x

Tzavush

I erred on the side of caution and selected "sedentary lifestyle" although with five kids to follow I don't know how very sedentary I can be.
I log some things especially if I am sweating after doing them or notice that my heart rate has increased or if they are different from the daily grind.

bizco

No way. Those activities are part of normal life and are included in your activity/lifestyle setting, even if you selected sedentary. I only count dedicated exercise.

Panda_Jack

NO. I only track official workouts. I consider the rest of the stuff as daily life.

Same here.

Agree.

Me too. I actually don't even count my strength work outs because of so many variables I would hate to over estimate it.

taletreader

Well, there just was another thread where feelings ended up flying high. I think the OP was a little more judgemental about tracking everything than you are with your neutral question, but you may be getting people who respond here whose feelings got bruised in the other thread.

The upshot from that discussion is that it's easy to be dismissive of people who track "everyday life" activities, but giving it some thought it turns out it really depends on the individual. A reasonably healthy individual who is say 10-50 lbs overweight and uses MFP as intended will rarely have a reason to do that. However, consider:

- Someone who has a lot to lose, say a BMI of 50 or over, and for whom *any* activity beyond moving from a chair to another room to fetch something is exercise. They may want to keep track of what they are actually doing and simply walking around a grocery store for 30 min may be a significant exertion.
- Also, someone who tracks these things doesn't necessarily eat the calories back.
- Some may track extraordinary efforts -- they may not have time one day to do their regular weekend walk of 4 miles because the yard needs work, but the 4h spent ripping out weeds makes up for it. I found myself doing that when I was days from a trans-Atlantic move and just didn't have time to go to the gym: I added some (small) amount of exercise calories after a day of repeatedly walking to the recycling center with crates of paper and cleaning the old place from top to bottom. The "sedentary" lifestyle setting just didn't apply during that time.

ToniAnn411

Ditto