Cals burned shopping?

Geordie_Girl

I've spent the last 4 hours out shopping, my shopping was really heavy (for me), 30lb. I definitely broke a sweat and my heart rate was up, so I decided to log it as exercise.
The only walking with any weight I could find in the MFP lists was walking with an infant/15lb load, which is half the weight I was carrying, but I went with that as I don't mind it showing a little less than I actually burned, best be on the safe side eh? Since I don't actually have a HRM. I also logged 3 hours, rather than 4, as I did a bit of browsing and queueing, so standing still.

OK, so to my issue, I logged my exercise, and MFP says I burned 899cals in 3 hours :noway: . Can that be right?

frugalmomsrock

When I do a long shopping trip (like IKEA), I just log it as walking, leisurely. I don't ever count my normal shopping that is part of my everyday life-not even when it takes me four or five trips to carry it all in the house from the van. It's part of my normal life to do that... I don't always go to IKEA, though, and when I do, it's a day I'd normally be doing nothing much. I think that's a lot of calories to put stock in, so I'd log it as the lowest possible count... that's just me.

CrystalFlury

899 calories burned sounds a bit much. I really don't know what to suggest to you. If it were me, I wouldn't worry about the 'carrying' bit. If anything it was the walking around that made you sweat more than the 'weight-lifting'. If you were power walking through the mall or where ever you were shopping I'd say it might be possible to burn that many calories but there's a good chance your HR was around 120 or so during your shopping (when walking) otherwise it was probably in the low 100s or a little below depending on the 'idle' time.

evelyngrice

I always log my shopping as walking at a leisurely pace, no matter how many bags I am carrying etc, because I alays think that MFP over estimates how many cals you burn whilst shopping

I went shopping today and logged my walking for 100 minutes and it says I burnt just over 40 cals, which makes sense to me

Geordie_Girl

It was definitely not the walking that had me sweating, I regularly walk and don't get into that state. I also don't normally log my shopping, or general walking (walking my son to school every day for example, I don't bother to log), just because this was a mammoth trip, with a lot of weight, and I don't drive, so I had to carry it all around.

cal1973

Shopping and burning shed loads of calories.... Sounds like my kind of day :laugh:

XFitMojoMom

you log shopping as exercise? How long were you actually carrying the load - I'd only count that, not the browsing or standing in queue

Choclat_Pearl

You might want to invest in a HRM (Heart Rate Monitor) or you can Google it which will take you to a calorie counter.
Did you know we burn 66 Calories an hour sleeping? :noway:

fairygirl716

personally...I wouldn't even bother logging it. I only log intentional exercise. All the other moving is just living my life. But, if you were going to utilize that as a calorie burner...I wouldn't take more than 100 calories for it.

Geordie_Girl

you log shopping as exercise? How long were you actually carrying the load - I'd only count that, not the browsing or standing in queue

As I said, I was actually out for about 4 hours, but logged only 3 because I wasn't carry the weight and/or moving the entire time, so I only logged the time that counted, plus the weight I logged as carrying is only actually half of what I really carried. And as said in my previous post, no, I don't normally count shopping as exercise.

boston6

Hmmm...at that rate my wife must burn about 3000 calories a day shopping!! No wonder she's so skinny. LOL

Geordie_Girl

You might want to invest in a HRM (Heart Rate Monitor) or you can Google it which will take you to a calorie counter.
Did you know we burn 66 Calories an hour sleeping? :noway:

Hehe, a HRM is on my xmas list.

suemar74

I get logging it as exercise. I'm set as sedentary, because 80% of my life is spent at a desk. If I had a shopping excursion that took up a big chunk of my day where I was on my feet, walking and carrying a heavy load, I'd consider it extra activity. I don't think my body can tell the difference between the sweat of a shopping trip and the sweat of intentional exercise, but I could be wrong.

What I did recently, when I had a weekend of intense cleaning, is look up what MFP said I would burn for the next higher activity level after sedentary, and went with that for the two days, because I thought that the calories burned for cleaning all day was too high.

You could see what the difference was between the two levels, and create your own workout with that calorie count, if that makes sense.

Geordie_Girl

Thanks, that's a good idea.

Geordie_Girl

Nah, I just tried that, it's still giving me the same burn.

I've changed my log down to 2 hours instead of 3, so it's logging 599 instead of 899.

My reason for posting was to ask people's opinion on whether they thought the MFP calculation was correct as I didn't think it could be.