playing with child does it count as exercise

gottolosethisweight

I was out this afternoon playing tag, hide n seek, going on the swings and slide with my 3 year old. As well as I was pushing my 8 month old in the stroller. Not sure if people count that as exercise or not. I was not going to...what should I do...

mariacolumbus

I only count exercise when it is "purposeful exercise" Before you were doing this, you were cleaning house, playing with the kids, pushing a stroller....but it didn't help you lose weight, get fit.....count purposeful and its easy to track...no questions. if you burn a few calories by doing the other things in life...then you're ahead of the game...but if you count it, you might eat more and therefore not lose weight like you want to. Just my opinion though..this is what works for me
good luck

qtiekiki

I only count exercise when it is "purposeful exercise" Before you were doing this, you were cleaning house, playing with the kids, pushing a stroller....but it didn't help you lose weight, get fit.....count purposeful and its easy to track...no questions. if you burn a few calories by doing the other things in life...then you're ahead of the game...but if you count it, you might eat more and therefore not lose weight like you want to. Just my opinion though..this is what works for me
good luck

Was about to type the same thing.

k8blujay2

Depends on what you have your activity level set at.... Because I chase my toddler all over creation, stand at my desk, clean the house, cook... I have it set at lightly active.... so I don't count these things. But if it were set to sedentary I might.

k8blujay2

I only count exercise when it is "purposeful exercise" Before you were doing this, you were cleaning house, playing with the kids, pushing a stroller....but it didn't help you lose weight, get fit.....count purposeful and its easy to track...no questions. if you burn a few calories by doing the other things in life...then you're ahead of the game...but if you count it, you might eat more and therefore not lose weight like you want to. Just my opinion though..this is what works for me
good luck

Except one was also eating more calories than they were expending as well... so just because one got fat while doing specific activities doesn't mean much if they weren't watching what they were eating.


Eta: one could get fat while jogging as well.... but we still can log that when we start logging our food/activities.

callmeBAM

My daughter weighs 40 pounds. I pick her up, carry her around, wrestle with her. I don't see how this is any different than working with a 40lb weight. Purposeful exercise? that has to be the most ridiculous phrase I have ever read.

If a dog chases me and I run from it, 2 miles, I can't log that? It must be at a gym on a treadmill in air conditioning? I fail to see the criteria for exercise here.

MrsR0SE

I would agree that you should make sure your activity level is at least set at lightly active, if not more than that, and then you can feel confident that all those daily playtimes and the rest of your busy life is covered

iplayoutside19

I don't count horsing around with my kids as exercise because it's hard to track. However, it is still burning energy (calories).

If I'm up against my calorie goal and I'm still hungry I'm probably going to eat something to account for my horsing around, especially if it was soccer or sparing.