Walking as exercise

fteale

First off, I am not knocking walking as a form of exercise, especially for those who are new to much activity, but a few observations:

1) I wore a HRM while I walked around this morning, reasonable pace, probably 2.5 or 3 mph, just getting children to and from nursery - and my HR didn't get above 93 BPM. I am not burning any notable calories at 93 BPM. In fact I burn more calories standing and singing. Hell, my HR gets higher than that when a hot man speaks to me.

2) Why are people so scathing of those who log housework or shopping when I know for a fact my HR gets higher doing those things than it does just walking around. What is special about going for a dedicated "walk" that means it is ok to log that, but not an hour around town shopping? Or an hour of heavy housework? Or even 5 hours of heavy housework?