Does grocery shopping count as exercise?

mamagooskie

If you want to count grocery shopping as exercise, try doing it in say, Afghanistan. Under fire. That will get your heart rate up and a sweat going. Just a thought.

LOL!!

npatel160

i agree!

tmvaz

I know I am two years late to this discussion, but if you use a pedometer to count the number of steps you take in a day (I use the Striiv app on my iPhone) it counts the NUMBER OF STEPS you take each day and can automatically log them as exercise into MyFitness Pal... It doesn't differentiate between where you are walking...as long as you are moving. So, I WOULD consider shopping as a form of walking exercise. Besides, I end up sweating like a pig within 30 mins. at Walmart in Arizona!

El_Cunado

No, I don't count it as exercise.

missmegan831

Did you break a sweat?? IMO if you aint sweating than it aint exercise.... just like washing dishes, taking a shower or cooking/preparing meals, cleaning house... I would be careful how much of those 'everyday life things' you log especially if you eat your calories back.

When I first started here back in November I weighed 251 pounds and a I was logging housework/shopping as exercise, and a fellow MFP friend made a valid point..... If you were grocery shopping and cleaning your house when you were 'fat' what makes you think that counting it as exercise now is gonna make you 'skinny'.. but thats just my 2 cents worth...

Different strokes for different folks......

manhn1

Whenever people say "it's okay to log anything as exercise if you describe your lifestyle as sedentary." I mean, what kind of world is it when a lifestyle described as "sedentary" involves never moving one muscle ever? Who actually fits this? And don't say "Lots of people!" because that is just not true.

paintlisapurple

Probably not unless you're going huge bulk shopping for cases of items that you're loading yourself.

Mr_Bad_Example

I added 30 minutes of slow walking (2.0 mph) to my exercise today, but I was grocery shopping. I was pushing the cart and walking, do you think this is accurate?

It's only accurate if you're playing "Supermarket Sweep."

onyxgirl17

Have you ever tried HIIGS (High Intensity Interval Grocery Shopping). I did once. Never again. The bill was like $500 and my cabinets are still full of weird foods I can't even pronounce.

yesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss I did it today. I do it while couponing at the same time though so I end up with a bunch of stuff but don't pay as much.


Love this post btw!!

benol1

It all depends on how high you got your heart rate over a period of time.
For accurate results, wear a heart rate monitor and track your results.

kar328

Have you ever tried HIIGS (High Intensity Interval Grocery Shopping). I did once. Never again. The bill was like $500 and my cabinets are still full of weird foods I can't even pronounce.

Thank you for making me laugh at 0130 AM when I'm stuck at work.

It's only accurate if you're playing "Supermarket Sweep."

I loved that show! I always wanted to try it and that would definitely be a good calorie burn.

JUDDDing

I don't log mine.

But if you're set as sedentary and you're walking at 2 mph for 30 minutes, you should log it as walking at 2 mph for 30 minutes just like if you walked around your neighborhood for 30 minutes at 2 mph.

Walking is exercise = it burns more calories than sitting.

JUDDDing

Whenever people say "it's okay to log anything as exercise if you describe your lifestyle as sedentary." I mean, what kind of world is it when a lifestyle described as "sedentary" involves never moving one muscle ever? Who actually fits this? And don't say "Lots of people!" because that is just not true.

That was me in January of this year.

I work from home. My main exercise over the winter was getting up to walk to the bathroom and going upstairs to prepare meals.

My first "being more active" step was to start going shopping with my wife every weekend.

petkova

no... If you want to be counting those you should exclude everything that MFP add as normal daily activity and get a fitbit or something similar and account for your daily total on your own.

Think about it this way - if it is something you would do anyhow don't add it .. if you go out of your way to do it then add it

AwkwardPumpkin

As stated above, I indirectly track it because I have a fit bit. What I have noticed is I actually walk around the grocery store quite a bit so, it depends on how you shop. I am a run and grab things, forget something, run back and grab it again kind of person so I spend a lot of time going from one side of the store to the other. :P

bushidowoman

My reasons for not logging things like grocery shopping, house cleaning, or my work (12-hr shifts as a nurse)...I did all those things for years and gained weight anyway.

silverlining84

I don't count it as exercise because it's a normal activity... not something that's out of the normal for me.

Oh_Allie

Because I only grocery shop once a month, I log it. I'm in the grocery store for well over an hour, I go through self-checkout so that I have to unload my cart, bag and re-load my cart on my own. I also carry in 2 bags into my apartment at a time so I have to climb 2 flights of stairs 10 times rather than carrying more and making fewer trips.

I only grocery shop on my off/rest days and I don't eat my exercise calories back, so I figure there's no harm in adding it.

If you're just logging it so you can eat more, then it's probably a bad plan that's just going to hurt you in the long run.

coolraul07

I used to count in only under extreme circumstances, e.g. sedentary ALL day and doing a month's worth in one time. I also used to log holiday shopping cuz that WAS cardio by any stretch.
I now have a FitBit One and an HRM. Since it's more step-based versus real cardio, I just let the FitBit One do the logging for me. I shop WalMart and Sam's Club and can easily does 2-3 miles of walking in each one.

taidasrictar

i do log my grocery shopping because in the course of my day it is out of my normal routine since i only shop once a week and usually spend an an hour and a half and log about 30-45(i keep track of how long i am in each store)i do High intensity grocery shopping with a very brisk walk i am a surgical strike male grocery shopper :laugh:

shannashannabobana

I never think of non exercise activities as exercise. If you're gonna do that, you may as well log every single non-sleep activity you do, and hey, you even burn calories when you sleep, so log that too.

This is how I feel about it. Grocery shopping is just...grocery shopping. I only log things I did specifically for exercise, or if I did something really intense like hours of yardwork. But grocery shopping, dishes, regular shopping, cooking, etc...that's just life.

For some people, a 15 min walk around the block (or the mall) is a big deal.

See, I might count a 15 min walk around the block if I did it for exercise. I may burn way more shopping for 3 hours but that was shopping, not exercise. I don't think you have to be sweating buckets to count something, but I just like to put things in the exercise or daily life buckets.

charliebrown1962

Now nearly an empty nester I find I do not grocery shop as often as I did. One, I hate grocery shopping, and two, I just don't seem to have the time to fit it in. So, for me, grocery shopping, pushing the cart through the packed HEB store, fighting to get around stockers and people who don't want to move, is not only physical, but mental excercise! As a librarian I stay active during the day but not as active as those who may stand on their feet all day or who are blue collar workers that work a sweat up.
So for me, grocery shopping is outside of the norm. If you think lifting bags that are grossly over packed and heavy, that are nearly tearing apart because they are too heavy, and lifting them from the cart to the car, from the car to the house is easy, than by all means, don't count it!
But I figure if I have worked up a sweat because of it, it is excercise! I have turned into a health conscious nut and I don't eat back the calories I burned, even after my daily 3 mile walk in this hot and humid Texas heat. Those are calories that don't need to be added back into my diet, no matter how tempting they may be.

explosivedonut

As others have said, unless you are logging it indirectly (via fitbit), or going grocery shopping is a rare occurrence with actual work involved (like walking up and down 2 flights of stairs several times) don't log it. There isn't really a legitimate reason to log it, except to trick yourself into thinking you are actually working out. But you aren't. You are doing a normal activity.

Oh wait, that reminds me, I need to log 10 minutes of "finger exercises" for typing out forum posts.