So you exercise to eat?

myfitnessnmhoy

It's one thing to know you are going to your brother's B-day party and are probably going to eat more so you do an extra workout that morning...but when you live every day of your life based on whether or not you can track the calories for your workout or what you are eating then you're not living.

I'm learning the calorie value of a food and the calorie value of my exercise (including "casual exercise", things that are not part of my normal daily life but still burn calories), which are both important lessons I have spend my last 43 years on this planet blindly ignoring and such ignorance caused me to become morbidly obese for a very long time. I respect your opinion about obsessive tracking, but it's how I'm learning not to get fat again.

When I reach my goal, I intend to continue obsessively tracking my activity and food for a month or so to make sure I learned the lesson correctly, but I'll switch to logging my food and exercise after the fact rather than beforehand so I can validate that my ability to assess daily caloric intake and burn are intact.

If approximations are working for you, then great! You're further along in the learning curve than I am. Congratulations on that.

jamiem1102

Just to let you know, I do freak out when I run and realize I forgot my best friend, my HRM.

Me too.

sel254

My absolute favorite though is when people track obnoxious calories and I see things like " xxxx burned 987 calories, cleaning"

WTF?! what kinda of CRAZZZZY cleaning sessions are you doing?

I actually wore my HRM once while cleaning. Mostly because of those people. After 4 hours of cleaning (the entire house...up and down stairs), I barely burned 200 calories!

That's quite surprising because I wear an HRM when I do a proper top to bottom clean and mine says at least 150 an hour! More when I'm brushing carpets and on my hands and knees scrubbing the floors or climbing up the ladder to reach the windows?

rychma

My absolute favorite though is when people track obnoxious calories and I see things like " xxxx burned 987 calories, cleaning"

WTF?! what kinda of CRAZZZZY cleaning sessions are you doing?

I actually wore my HRM once while cleaning. Mostly because of those people. After 4 hours of cleaning (the entire house...up and down stairs), I barely burned 200 calories!

Do you mean 200 extra? Because your BMR should be higher than that. I'd burn at least 312 calories just from existing for 4 hours.

200 calories burned...total. I wish I burned 300 for just existing. I have to work a little harder for it.

beachlover317

I'm starting to find all these domineering//passive aggressive posts really irritating. It seems like there are more and more of them on lately. MFP is becoming a high school.

LOL - I totally agree. Oh, and step away from this lunch table - all the seats are taken. LOL

luvinmefirst

.

I don't judge people though. No point. I don't burn any calories doing that.

I love this! So true :laugh:

mommyhof3

LMAO - thank you for posting what I was thinking.

I think as a human you're bound to move throughout the day - it's not necessary to track "shopping" as an activity. Do you really work up a sweat strolling through the mall????

I was at West Edmonton Mall and I walked that sucker for 4 hours one night and 5 the next night. That was exercise for me. I was exhausted when I got back to my hotel and yes I think I was sweating On a side note: I don't log general shopping, cleaning etc. I log when I exercise

katejkelley

My absolute favorite though is when people track obnoxious calories and I see things like " xxxx burned 987 calories, cleaning"

WTF?! what kinda of CRAZZZZY cleaning sessions are you doing?

Come and clean my house, then tell me you didn't get a workout.

UpEarly

And lastly...please stop getting mad at me when I tell you I've lost more weight when you ask me how I'm doing.

Hmmm... I promise I won't get jealous or mad that you've lost two pounds. ;-) Sorry to be snarky, but your rant is rubbing me the wrong way. Maybe I'm not reading your intentions correctly?

Personally, I set my activity on MFP as sedentary, so I DO log ALL my activities that go beyond sitting on my rear end. Everything counts: shopping, walking around at work, cleaning the house and my 'real' workouts. They all get logged under the umbrella entry of 'Activities according to my Body Media Fit'. Yes... I wear a device all day every day so I have a pretty good idea about my TDEE.

You may think of it as logging everything so that I can eat more. Maybe that's true in a sense, because I do eat more when I do more activities. But, it's also ACCURATE. I hit my goal weight back in February, but found myself continuing to lose without really trying. I learned that NOT logging the cleaning, the shopping and the walking around during the day was shorting me by about 500 calories and I was losing weight that I wasn't really wanting/trying to lose.

Different things work for different people. You do things your way, I'll do things my way, okay? :flowerforyou:

rychma

My absolute favorite though is when people track obnoxious calories and I see things like " xxxx burned 987 calories, cleaning"

WTF?! what kinda of CRAZZZZY cleaning sessions are you doing?

I actually wore my HRM once while cleaning. Mostly because of those people. After 4 hours of cleaning (the entire house...up and down stairs), I barely burned 200 calories!

That's quite surprising because I wear an HRM when I do a proper top to bottom clean and mine says at least 150 an hour! More when I'm brushing carpets and on my hands and knees scrubbing the floors or climbing up the ladder to reach the windows?

Nope, no luck for me. House cleaning is definitely not a high calorie burning exercise for me. When I walk, I burn about 100 calories/mile. Most are from fat, but 100 calories/mile isn't going to earn me much extra foos.

to_the_surface

Got it, Now, tell us what you really feel


;-)

amyram

I exercise to eat too. MFP says I can have 1710 calories for the day and depending on the day I will be hungry at the end, so I do 30 min on the elliptical and can have 400 more calories and feel like I'm not starving by the end of the day. Actually I normally only eat part of them back, but knowing I can if I'm still hungry really helps.

belgerian

I've never run a 5K race where donuts were handed out at the finish......where do sign up for one??

Hell If I want a donut that bad I will just buy one and ejoy every bite.

lindsayforlife

I'm with you on the people who log everything they did like it's some big accomplishment that they washed dishes or spent 8 minutes doing zumba. Every time I see something like that in my news feed I have to do a face palm.

I think you need to take into account that for some of us, 8 minutes of zumba is a BIG DEAL! Just as walking up and down two flights of stairs or going for a 10 minute walk. Some of us need to log these small accomplishments, not only as motivation, but also to be accountable and acknowledge that we are worthy of a healthy lifestyle. Please don't judge.

rychma

Just to let you know, I do freak out when I run and realize I forgot my best friend, my HRM.

Me too!

mateo57505

I've never seen one where they serve donuts at the end, however I am participating in a 5K on July 6 called hoof it to happy hour. And yes with that name it starts at a bar and ends at the same bar with drink specials!!!

katejkelley

This sort of topic seems to be posted often - general ranting about what different people count as exercise. I wonder why anyone cares what other people post as exercise? I figure everyone should be able to figure out for themselves if something is worth counting or not. If it really is, they'll see the benefit. If it isn't, the results will let them know. Let's all take a chill pill (no calories!) and be supportive instead of critical.

Katanthus

I'm starting to find all these domineering//passive aggressive posts really irritating. It seems like there are more and more of them on lately. MFP is becoming a high school.

If there is an issue with someone in particular, and reading this post, there IS, deal with it, speak to that one person. Be an adult, and tell the person, that what they are doing is... whatever you feel they are doing.. cheating themselves? making fun of what you do? or whatever other imagining you have. Suggest to the person, that they would probably have better results if they ignored their "activities of daily living" as exercise. In short, vent to THEM, because otherwise, you come off as a passive aggressive, and only stress yourself...and THAT is not good for your health

sabracadabra

It's all about motivation. I see your point, and agree with a lot of it. That being said, I am a foodie. I LOVE FOOD. And when I started this thing out, the only thing that got me to that gym every day was the thought that I could eat those calories. It is still a large motivating factor for me, I'm not going to lie!

Now that I've more or less reached my goal weight, I've slackened considerably on my logging. But I still use the tool a lot to keep me honest and prevent crazy weight regain, because I can't be trusted around food anymore than an alcoholic can be trusted around a liquor cabinet. But there are some weekend days when my general activity level is not the "sedentary" on my profile (I am currently rennovating my giant house) and I know I am burning more calories than usual, so I'll eat a little more. Usually on those days, I slack with logging because there is no way to really accurately capture that spike in activity without changing my profile settings, which I don't want to do. So I can see someone on the straight and narrow an dstill trying to actively lose weight logging things like 10 minute walks and cleaning - I did it back then, and I still lost what I needed to lose.

I am very easily annoyed so I can understand your frustration with your unnamed friend, but try to cut her a break! Everyone goes about it differently, and some people truly aren't ready for the life-changing that must occur when you embark on this path to a healthier lifestyle. If she's not losing weight, she isn't ready for the sacrifices that come along with, and she has to be ready for them. She'll realize that in her own time, as I did after many years of bellyaching 'why can't I lose weight?' (The reason was because I overate waaay too much and I never exercised!)

neverstray

This sort of topic seems to be posted often - general ranting about what different people count as exercise. I wonder why anyone cares what other people post as exercise? I figure everyone should be able to figure out for themselves if something is worth counting or not. If it really is, they'll see the benefit. If it isn't, the results will let them know. Let's all take a chill pill (no calories!) and be supportive instead of critical.

I think this post is funny. It's because many people can't figure out why they aren't losing weight. But, yet they are counting walking across a parking lot so they can have 6 more cheetos.

lindsayforlife

. Do you really work up a sweat strolling through the mall????

Some people do, yes. If you have 150 pounds to lose any amount of walking is a benefit and I for one would log it.

DavPul

Ohhhhhhh boy! Based on the reaming people are getting for posting on the "How many calories do I get for standing" thread, I really think you're sticking your head in the hornets nest here. Best of luck, but you're on your own. I barely have any *kitten* left after getting it chewed off for posting in that other thread.

DavPul burned 45 calories doing 20 minutes of internet trolling, including "*kitten* Chewed".

mrmanmeat

I've never run a 5K race where donuts were handed out at the finish......where do sign up for one??

There is a 5k around here that you have to run half, eat 4 doughnuts, run the next half and then eat 4 more.

hell to the NO.

mrmanmeat

Ohhhhhhh boy! Based on the reaming people are getting for posting on the "How many calories do I get for standing" thread, I really think you're sticking your head in the hornets nest here. Best of luck, but you're on your own. I barely have any *kitten* left after getting it chewed off for posting in that other thread.

DavPul burned 45 calories doing 20 minutes of internet trolling, including "*kitten* Chewed".

lmao, if you got 45 calories I should have about 300 by now!

ItsCasey

If people ask for opinions or advice, I'm not going to give them some candy-filled nonsense about how great they're doing when they're doing something stupid, like logging that they drove for a few hours and justifying it by saying they don't normally drive for more than 20 minutes a day. Sure, I get that it's their diary, and they're allowed to do what they want. And if they're going to post a question about how reasonable it is, I'm allowed to tell them what I think. Imagine if the only commentary we ever got when we asked people for advice was of the postive, you're-on-the-right-path variety. We'd all be doing a lot of really stupid things and wondering why we never get anywhere. I understand the need for tact and civility, but this is, after all, the Internet.

FrugalMomsRock75

OK. Here's what's REALLY comical to me. Check out the OP's food notes!!!!

I spent the night at Joe's which means I skipped breakfast. I tried so hard to look at the other menu options and pick something better...but I was craving a burger. Now to go workout and burn at least 620 calories!

I expected my carrabba's left overs to be about 500-600 calories...I need to learn to find out before I eat it! Guess I have a lot of working out to do!

Looks like you've done your share of it too, Little Miss Judgealot.

ShrinkingShawna

As I didn't walk for 3 years, I log my 5 minute walks. It's a big freakin deal to me to be able to walk at all. I personally don't eat back exercise calories, and I certainly don't log for anyone else. WHEN I get strong enough to clean my house again, you bet your *kitten* I'm going to log it. I really don't care what the calories burned say, I care that I'm actually moving on my own. It must be nice to have such a perfect log, and brag about your weight loss. I wish I was losing weight....

wild_wild_life

I'm confused why this upsets you. To me, the WHOLE POINT of tracking calories eaten and burned is to learn to see the relationship between them and figure out a healthy amount to be eating. When I was starting, it became clear to me in a way it never was before what that run or walk or hike or whatever meant in terms of fueling my body properly. Let people use it like they want to in a way that feels right for them without making them feel bad or lazy. Geez.

tiamaria3

:noway: :drinker:

paint_it_black

My absolute favorite though is when people track obnoxious calories and I see things like " xxxx burned 987 calories, cleaning"

WTF?! what kinda of CRAZZZZY cleaning sessions are you doing?

RIGHT?! I had a friend (past tense, she eventually got deleted for pulling those shenanigans) who claimed she burned 1,100 from FOOD PREPARATION! Unless she was doing cartwheels and running around the house while the water boiled, I highly doubt the burn was that high.

It depends what she's making and how long for, i regularly use a heavy pestle and mortar in the kitchen and end up with sore upper arms as a result, ditto with whisking eggs or any sort of heavy butchery work. Real cooking has a bit more to it than boiling water.