Lets talk about Leisure and Rec. activities.

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I want to know how people handle leisure activities like sports, swimming, hiking, biking, that you do not view as that work out for the day.
For example Monday, I had my workout, which I did, and then I went to the pool and stayed in the water for about an hour. We also go to the beach A LOT, and lately I have been doing a lot of body surfing and boogie boarding. However these activities aren't accounted for in my regular calorie intake.
Do you count them? OR do they fall in the same category as cleaning...something thats part of your regular lifestyle and doesn't constitute being accounted?

Denise

Replies

  • Doreen_Murray
    Doreen_Murray Posts: 396 Member
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    I think this is when an HRM comes in handy because I would absolutely count most if not all of these activities. I don't count the beach when I go because I just don't want to wear my HRM and am not constantly swimming, but it's an active day so a win either way.
  • j77r68
    j77r68 Posts: 271 Member
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    Have you looked at the exercise database ? It has all regular day stuff like cleaning and what you do as everyday stuff like hiking etc... I figure why not include things like that, if it makes you work like you are working out- heart rate up, sweaty etc.. you are burning calories. So even though it's not "exercise" it gives you the same results. Even dancing !! I dance around the house with my daughter and I work up a sweat . People say that MFP exaggerates the calorie burn but I compensate for that. I put in for a lesser time so it will give me a lesser calorie burn.
    I hope you understand where I was going with this
  • DeniseB0711
    DeniseB0711 Posts: 294 Member
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    Have you looked at the exercise database ? It has all regular day stuff like cleaning and what you do as everyday stuff like hiking etc... I figure why not include things like that, if it makes you work like you are working out- heart rate up, sweaty etc.. you are burning calories. So even though it's not "exercise" it gives you the same results. Even dancing !! I dance around the house with my daughter and I work up a sweat . People say that MFP exaggerates the calorie burn but I compensate for that. I put in for a lesser time so it will give me a lesser calorie burn.
    I hope you understand where I was going with this

    Perhaps I should have worded this differently. Cleaning, going swimming were all things I did before I started "really" trying to lose weight. KWIM?
  • victoria4321
    victoria4321 Posts: 1,719 Member
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    I don't count them, but I might eat more on those days if I'm hungry. It also doesn't bother me when my calories are in the red
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
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    When you setup MFP (or whatever calorie estimator you used), you factored into the calculation some type of lifestyle/activity factor that takes into consideration how active you are on a day-to-day basis.

    If you factored these activities into that number/calculation, then they are already accounted for. If not, then you should be logging them separately and eating back most of those cals.