really? logging "standing" as a calorie burn?

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24

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  • sheilarosella
    sheilarosella Posts: 101 Member
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    if it motivates it counts for that person. personally i only do a vigorous cleaning once a week and many times skip the gym to do it so i count it..
    and question why does strength training have no calories burn counter?
  • sevfam
    sevfam Posts: 76 Member
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    They are only hurting themselves...Just do the right thing for you!
  • sunkisses
    sunkisses Posts: 2,365 Member
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    As others have said, they're only cheating themselves. I don't care what other people are doing.
  • Pangea250
    Pangea250 Posts: 965 Member
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    I hear ya! I've seen someone who logs no exercise whatsoever except for cleaning. I also saw someone who logged doing the dishes and folding laundry. Amusing. Edited to add: I also have seen someone log walking at 3.5 mph and said it was food shopping. That's not food shopping, that's speed shopping!

    I don't log cleaning, except for heavy duty cleaning...the kind I only do 2 or 3 times a year. I figure I got fat while doing all that daily cleaning. Where will I get myself if I claim it as calories burned?
  • hikeout470
    hikeout470 Posts: 628 Member
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    I don't consider it cheating. I wear an arm band that track my calories and the burn if I am sick in bed all day is around 1400 while a busy day of work including a lot of standing and walking (normal right?) with a 30 minute run at lunch was about 3200 calories. So to each their own. All movement counts.
  • hikeout470
    hikeout470 Posts: 628 Member
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    It might have been code for something else? Like ya know...something cheeky?


    word
  • mmuzzatti
    mmuzzatti Posts: 706 Member
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    To each their own I guess.....

    I personally don't log anything I consider my "regular" routine like cleaning and walking the dog.

    Maybe they get really into it and are getting their heartrate up?!

    I agree with you, if it's not part of my workout then it does not get logged.
  • Pangea250
    Pangea250 Posts: 965 Member
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    However, when I first started losing weight, I thought it was hard to walk a few blocks. I work in a lab and on the 'busy' days in the lab where I was actually standing... guess what? I was exhausted on those days. And here's the kicker, according to my arm-band, I WAS burning a fairly substantial amount of calories just by moving my bulk around the lab a little.

    The band had a rather interesting effect on me- once I realized that I could burn calories just by getting out of my chair and walking down the hall to the bathroom and back, guess what? I started doing that a lot more frequently.
    Just an FYI - monitors are *not* accurate for low heart rate activities. They are only accurate for cardio activities.
  • Beastette
    Beastette Posts: 1,497 Member
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    I have a few friends that do this. "Burned 758 calories walking with a 5-10 pound child. Includes shopping for groceries and running errands." I'm always like where the hell did you even get that number? Also isn't this stuff included in your activity level? O_o

    To give a different POV, my oldest son is HUGE. He isn't fat, but he is a 4 year old who is the height and weight of a 7 year old. We are tall. I had my second son when the first was only 1 year old, and at times I carried one in a sling and the other on my hip. Grocery shopping/errands were some of those times. That isn't bull****...that is really a workout. I've run a marathon. I STILL say that was a workout. Oh, and my second kid was BORN 13 lbs. Cut them some slack. When they ask, "why am I not losing?", that's the time to suggest they may be over logging.
  • Beastette
    Beastette Posts: 1,497 Member
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    [/quote]
    Just an FYI - monitors are *not* accurate for low heart rate activities. They are only accurate for cardio activities.
    [/quote]

    Please elaborate as to how a monitor only accurately monitors your heart rate for cardio? How does it become more accurate as you work harder?
  • agthorn
    agthorn Posts: 1,844 Member
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    However, when I first started losing weight, I thought it was hard to walk a few blocks. I work in a lab and on the 'busy' days in the lab where I was actually standing... guess what? I was exhausted on those days. And here's the kicker, according to my arm-band, I WAS burning a fairly substantial amount of calories just by moving my bulk around the lab a little.

    The band had a rather interesting effect on me- once I realized that I could burn calories just by getting out of my chair and walking down the hall to the bathroom and back, guess what? I started doing that a lot more frequently.
    Just an FYI - monitors are *not* accurate for low heart rate activities. They are only accurate for cardio activities.

    She's not talking about a heart rate monitor. She's talking about a bodymedia band that you wear on your arm, which is intended to calculate a calorie burn around the clock.
  • rainbowbow
    rainbowbow Posts: 7,490 Member
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    I just don't understand why that is not included in their activity level. I'm not discrediting that it may be hard to hold a child while shopping Its just not additional excersize from daily activities. If you hold a child and walk around all day then youre activity level should not be sedentary. And if because of these factors this is NOT your activity level in MyFitnessPal then these calories burned will be allotted in your caloric intake.



    I have a few friends that do this. "Burned 758 calories walking with a 5-10 pound child. Includes shopping for groceries and running errands." I'm always like where the hell did you even get that number? Also isn't this stuff included in your activity level? O_o

    To give a different POV, my oldest son is HUGE. He isn't fat, but he is a 4 year old who is the height and weight of a 7 year old. We are tall. I had my second son when the first was only 1 year old, and at times I carried one in a sling and the other on my hip. Grocery shopping/errands were some of those times. That isn't bull****...that is really a workout. I've run a marathon. I STILL say that was a workout. Oh, and my second kid was BORN 13 lbs. Cut them some slack. When they ask, "why am I not losing?", that's the time to suggest they may be over logging.
  • AmeChops
    AmeChops Posts: 744 Member
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    I have personally logged 'standing' as an exercise...I got the formula from another website which took in to account my weight/height etc.

    I work with an animal rescue and we attend dog activity/fun days as stall holders and I am literally on my feet standing, talking about dogs for 5+ hours, with the odd bit of walking...well more like ambling...around looking other stalls and giving the dogs a bit of a break. As this is something out of the normal for me and I'm pretty sure it would count as exercise then why not log it??
  • jaeone
    jaeone Posts: 649 Member
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    As others have said, they're only cheating themselves. I don't care what other people are doing.
    ^This! SOME not all log these calories just to eat them back. Then post a topic titled "What am I doing wrong?"
  • docdevore
    docdevore Posts: 39 Member
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    :smile:
    You burn more calories standing and moving around (even if it's light) than you do sitting down at a desk all day. I was told by a dietician (granted she could have been lying to me) that you burn about 100 extra calories an hour standing. So it's not completely ridiculous to bump up the activity a little bit to not sedentary. Standing for 8 hours isn't part of life if you live a sedentary lifestyle.
    I only log standing when I represent my company at trade shows. My job is normally behind a desk on a keyboard.
  • Beastette
    Beastette Posts: 1,497 Member
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    I just don't understand why that is not included in their activity level. I'm not discrediting that it may be hard to hold a child while shopping Its just not additional excersize from daily activities. If you hold a child and walk around all day then youre activity level should not be sedentary. And if because of these factors this is NOT your activity level in MyFitnessPal then these calories burned will be allotted in your caloric intake.



    I have a few friends that do this. "Burned 758 calories walking with a 5-10 pound child. Includes shopping for groceries and running errands." I'm always like where the hell did you even get that number? Also isn't this stuff included in your activity level? O_o

    To give a different POV, my oldest son is HUGE. He isn't fat, but he is a 4 year old who is the height and weight of a 7 year old. We are tall. I had my second son when the first was only 1 year old, and at times I carried one in a sling and the other on my hip. Grocery shopping/errands were some of those times. That isn't bull****...that is really a workout. I've run a marathon. I STILL say that was a workout. Oh, and my second kid was BORN 13 lbs. Cut them some slack. When they ask, "why am I not losing?", that's the time to suggest they may be over logging.

    Perhaps since they don't do it every day, they don't want to include it in their activity level. The scale doesn't lie. If they are fudging, they won't lose. If they aren't, then they will. I get why this may be annoying, but some people who run 10 miles a day might find another's Pilates DVD scoffable. (Yes, I just made that up). Ya dig? Different levels of fitness.
  • catwrangler
    catwrangler Posts: 918 Member
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    http://mashable.com/2011/04/22/standup-desks/
  • yaddayaddayadda
    yaddayaddayadda Posts: 430 Member
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    I don't worry about what other people log... I log my exercise and go on with life... to each his or her own:-)
  • MrsJax11
    MrsJax11 Posts: 354 Member
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    i think it depends on where your base level is set. I know for me, I have a sitdown desk job M-F 8 hrs, etc. So when I stand all day or go the store after work or do out of the ordinary cleaning, i might log it. If my job switched to a mostly standing moving around job, I would change my base level and go from there.

    Base level= ordinary activity
    Logging= out of the ordinary activity

    This is valid --
    I teach, so half of my day from 7-2:30 I am on my feet walking around. I have my activity level at lightly active. Yesterday I spent hours walking around the mall, so I logged one hour of walking at a slow pace since it was above and beyond normal activity. Another example would be when I am cleaning the yard or something -- above and beyond normal activity, so it gets logged.
    Today I kayaked for about 1 hour and 45 minutes...the MFP calculator seemed high, so I logged it as 1.5 hours. It seemed like a high burn at 600 cals, but walking would have burned about 400 and it was harder than walking....

    If someone constantly logs something inaccurately it will show up eventually, or rather, not show up on the scale! Think of all of the people who eyeball their foods and then complain about not losing!
  • Pangea250
    Pangea250 Posts: 965 Member
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    Please elaborate as to how a monitor only accurately monitors your heart rate for cardio? How does it become more accurate as you work harder?
    Because the relationship between heart rate and calories burned is *very* different at low and high heart rates. The readout of calories burned at low heart rates is vastly overstated.

    http://www.sparkpeople.com/community/ask_the_experts.asp?q=75
    http://www.heartratemonitor.co.uk/heart_rate_monitor_faq.html

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