Activity Level and Cleaning Calories

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JulieBoBoo
JulieBoBoo Posts: 642
in Fitness and Exercise
I'm going to first off say that if I'm doing a big cleaning I log the calories. If I build up a good sweat, feel my heart rate go up and generally am "working it" then yeah, I claim it. I've been claiming them all along and I'm losing so it works for me.

I was initially set at sedentary because quite frankly I was, but a few months ago I changed myself to lightly active. I still claimed cleaning and it still worked for me and I'm thinking (though not 100% positive) that the reason for this is that when you are lightly active your metabolism is working faster so you are burning more calories in a day even when you're just sitting around so long as you're not just sitting around all day.

So it makes sense to me that I would continue to claim the exercises I claimed before even though my activity level has changed. Changing from sedentary to lightly active doesn't mean that I've already included those little burns, it means that I'm burning more overall.

Hopefully this makes sense, and hopefully it's correct. It's what makes sense to me anyhow.

Replies

  • mlemonroe2
    mlemonroe2 Posts: 603
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    i log when i do an overall clean to my house or my parents house. generaly, i will spend one day a week sweeping, dusting, mopping, cleaning bathrooms, ect. i log that. every day stuff like dishes, laundry, cooking, picking up after my kid, running errends, i include that in my "lightly active" lifestyle. I know people poo-poo that but, like you said, i've been doing it since day one (1/2/11) and lost a total of 60 pounds before I became pregnant! (on top of other exercise) so i don't see anything wrong with it! get it girl!
  • darlalu00
    darlalu00 Posts: 187 Member
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    With 97lbs lost you are apparently doing it right...you do what works for you! Congratulation on the 97lbs. I can't until I can say that. Can I ask how long did it take you to lose your weight?
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
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    You can count any way you want--these little "accounting" games we play with ourselves are just mental organization. We try to track what we think is going on--but it is often just a general estimate. And if it matches what is going on in our bodies, it can be more coincidence than anything else.

    The body keeps track of your calories burned--24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days per year. In general, if you maintain a deficit you will lose, if you don't you won't.

    When people say "I log (this activity) or I don't log activity--and it 'works for me'" that has no direct effect on weight loss. If you log a lot of activity calories, and eat back those calories, and continue to lose weight, it's not because of the logging and the eating back calories--it's because even with all the logging and eating, you sill maintained a deficit. The same for people who are more conservative about their "counting".

    So do whatever makes sense or helps keep you motivation. Just remember that these are all hypothetical numbers.
  • JulieBoBoo
    JulieBoBoo Posts: 642
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    I've been at this for 11 months.

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