Adding exercise

Ang8178

Do you add stuff like cleaning the house, laundry, shopping... ect to your exercise at the end of the day? I'm at 1200 calories, on day 5 and I think I need to up it. I'll admit, I haven't been eatting that much of my exercise calories if at all :blushing:

PJilly

The only thing I add is exercise, but I definitely eat my exercise calories. I'd suggest trying that first and see if it helps. I bet it will! :happy:

Mindful_Trent

It depends on what you set as your lifestyle/activity level when you set your goals. If you picked sedentary, it'd be reasonable to add moderate to vigorous houscleaning, etc. I use a device like a bodybugg and I'm always amazed at how much I burn doing dishes or cleaning compared to when I'm just sitting. However, if set your activity level as something higher than sedentary, then those kind of activities should already be factored in. The only things I might add regardless of the activity level used would be things that really get my heart rate up like exercise - like shoveling snow.

KaeChelle

I only add it if it is really beyond my normal activity. As in the previous post, my activity is sedentary. I wouldn't add doing a few dishes or taking out a bag of trash, but if I'm cleaning for an extended amount of time or doing more than just one small task, I'd put it. Last weekend I was doing a lot of cleaning and sorting through junk throughout my apartment to get ready for a future move, so I logged that for a 2-3 hours. It was longer than that, but I'd occasionally slow down, so I didn't put in the whole time.

pattitricia85

My activity level is sedentary so i only add actual exercise, the other stuff i just chalk up as getting my blood flowing

Mindful_Trent

My activity level is sedentary so i only add actual exercise, the other stuff i just chalk up as getting my blood flowing

If your activity level is set as sedentary, then you would actually want to consider adding more things than just exercise - the sedentary setting assumes you are doing very little activity all day, so if you spend a couple hours walking around the mall or do some serious cleaning that works up a sweat, those would be above and beyond what MFP factors into your expected calories burned for the day.

Obviously it's a personal choice on what to log - if you end up not logging stuff then you'll just burn more calories than is shown and have a bigger deficit than is calculated - not necessarily a bad thing unless you're burning a TON more and not eating extra to compensate.

Ang8178

I have my goals set at sedentary and I spent the whole day up around the house cleaning, of course stopping sometimes to get on the computer for a few mins. I also exercised. I was just going to eat half of my exercise calories, but I think since I was walking around all day, but didn't log it, I'm going to eat all my exercise calories

I'll get the hang of this sooner or later :laugh:

kiffypooh

I only add it if it is really beyond my normal activity. As in the previous post, my activity is sedentary. I wouldn't add doing a few dishes or taking out a bag of trash, but if I'm cleaning for an extended amount of time or doing more than just one small task, I'd put it. Last weekend I was doing a lot of cleaning and sorting through junk throughout my apartment to get ready for a future move, so I logged that for a 2-3 hours. It was longer than that, but I'd occasionally slow down, so I didn't put in the whole time.

I do something similar. If I'm moving the furniture cleaning under it, cleaning my ceiling fans, wiping every surface, I may add some, but if I'm just keeping up my house doing laundry or dishes then I don't.

cashmandue

I agree with accountant_boi. It depends on what you have as your activity level. I sit all day long, 5 days a week, on the job (systems analyst). So my level is set as sedentary. Any physicial activity I do for at least like 20 minutes, I log as exercise. I got a HRM for Christmas and I wore it when I cleaned the house after Christmas - and I mean, I cleaned hard. In one hour, I burned 400 calories (age = 42, weight = 173). I was sweating and my HR average was 130 for the hour. So, I took the calories as my exercise for that day.