Fake Activity Calories?

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  • Faye_Anderson
    Faye_Anderson Posts: 1,495 Member
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    I wonder how many calories are burned by worrying about what other people are doing?


    Haha! love this answer

    Because I came on this site for support as well and for people who may have tips or results that I haven't had. Also by friending someone and making their diaries public, it is pretty much opening it for people to view for that reason.

    As I said in my first post, I was wondering how many people it has worked for, because I'd like to claw back more calories if possible!

    I was trying to help, you might have gained a few more calories :smokin:
  • kimcalica
    kimcalica Posts: 525 Member
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    I see a lot of people are NOT logging housework and cooking. I do. Why? Until recently, I didn't do those things...AT ALL. Now that I have some weight off...I do them often. And since cleaning hasn't been done in so long when I do clean...I attack a room. My downstairs is now done and I am tackling the upstairs. But now that I have the downstairs done..unless I am vaccuming or sweeping and mopping, I don't count it. It all depends on what I am cooking as wether or not I count it. If I am mixing muffin batter by hand..yea I log it.

    BUT I never eat those calories!!

    Proud of you!!! I believe the motivation to do more and more is key! And that's what I think the idea is. Weather it's real or not, it's inspiring and it makes you want to push and do things at all when before, you might have done nothing but watch tv! I totally get it! Some of these jerks just don't get psychology!
  • mamamia05
    mamamia05 Posts: 82 Member
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    I don't consider any activity "fake". :angry: If you do, then let me tell you that I have lost 25 lbs. doing "fake" exercises. :drinker:

    Some of us are handicapped or have other physical limitations or have had surgery, and we can't lift or do strenuous workouts. "Food preparation" means you are standing for a long period of time, which is isometric. Cleaning means you are bending, stretching arms, lifting laundry baskets and furniture to vacuum under, etc. That's a workout! Grocery shopping or going ot the mall counts as walking at a slow pace, and I can spend hours doing both.

    As well, I have two very damaged knees, so Ido a "workout in a chair" that I follow on youtube.

    Let's not judge one another or compare someone else's exercise to your own. The light activities that work for many of us may not be your cup of tea, but at least it's working.

    Nicely put!!! Botched spinal surgery last march has me in this situation...do I wish I could run on the treadmill for 60 min? He** yea...but these days just standing and hobbling is a major defeat. So cooking, cleaning & grocery shopping I log. Honestly its for the mind. I wish pain could be calculated...
  • spm2010
    spm2010 Posts: 197 Member
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    Yea,I see the "food Preparation" as exercise on here and I'm just thinking WTH? But,to each his own...If it works for them,then cool.

    Funny they have that as an option to log, but not sex...LOL I hate cooking, but love sex. Pretty sure most everyone burns more calories in the bedroom than in the kitchen (unless you're a real freak and get it on in the kitchen too!) :D

    TMI!!!!!!!!! WTH
  • chubbygirl253
    chubbygirl253 Posts: 1,309 Member
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    I wonder how many calories are burned by worrying about what other people are doing?

    I should be SO thin.

    I know, right?
  • FluroFaye
    FluroFaye Posts: 130
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    On christmas eve, I baked for about 4-5 hours and burnt around 2000 cals...

    But I agreee if it's normla day stuff, not worth it...you're just kidding yourself. If you really want to know that kind of stuff then invest in something like a Bodymedia. I have one and if I'm a bit more active with cleaning or something, it really puts it into perspective for you.
  • Natihilator
    Natihilator Posts: 1,778 Member
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    When I was working as a catering assistant and actually DOING strenuous food prep, I didn't log it as such. Because I didn't even know it was in the database :laugh:

    When someone logs that stuff, I don't really give a crap to be honest. It's their progress (or lack of), not mine! :drinker:
  • thegeordielass
    thegeordielass Posts: 208 Member
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    If I've been going at cleaning the house hard enough to build up a major sweat (maybe every few months lol) then I'll log maybe half the time. I'm unemployed at the moment so the only things I do most days are walking about the house, sitting at my computer or near the TV and some cooking - I'd say pretty sedentary apart from my workouts. If I do much more then that I log it.
    I don't log things like a stroll around the supermarket or anything I do with my Guide unit though because those are normal for me.
    If I walk to the other supermarket (about 15 mins brisk walk with a lovely hill in the way) I sweat - especially since that 1 thing I go for tends to turn into more and feel like I'm carrying a dead horse home with me in each hand. That might get logged as 20 mins of moderate walking as it's abnormal for me to do it.

    I don't log my cooking/baking at home but if I was away with my Guides and was the cook for the weekend or week I'd log it!!! It feels like a right workout trying to cook for 25-30 people 3 or 4 times a day.

    As far as I'm concerned, if people are happy with what they're logging, what right have you got to tell them they're doing it wrong? It's their journey, not yours. You do what you like and leave them to do what they like.
  • Candi_land
    Candi_land Posts: 1,311 Member
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    I think it depends on your size. I started my "journey" at about 500lbs where just walking from my couch to the bathroom was excruciating and caused me to break out into a sweat. I know this is gross to some of you but these are the grim facts in a bigger person's world. I started exercising just by clapping along to music while sitting and I logged that silly as it may sound, but it was all I could manage at the time. The point is to move as much as you can based on your limitations. Now while I still have a long way to go, I'm able to walk for at least 30-40 minutes a day (longer if I take a break) and I recently started doing some light strength training and cardio at the gym (before I wasn't able to physically and I was also worried about the weight limit on the machines). I only log my cleaning if it's a long strenuous cleaning session. I can't wait for the day I can start lifting comfortably and maybe even start running.

    Some people are limited to just being able to do those things ya know? The end result being if it gets your heart rate going it counts. At least IMO.
  • theskinnyonme
    theskinnyonme Posts: 443 Member
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    Can anyone tell me how many calories I burn from knitting?

    I knit a lot.
    I dont know bout knitting but I know I burn 100 calories a hour crocheting. I also dont count it in my workout either.
  • Violetta86
    Violetta86 Posts: 150 Member
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    My policy is to only log true workout sessions - outdoor runs/gym sessions/workout dvds. I think I would be doing myself a disservice by adding back the other calories from regular activity. In my opinion, those are just life activities that everyone does and I have always been doing them - even when overweight and guess what - I obvously wasn't burning enough cleaning! LOL
  • mmenuey27
    mmenuey27 Posts: 51 Member
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    I personally wouldn't add daily activities. I have only logged one activity like that, and it was packing up and moving which took me some time once I was loading the uhaul. I don't think that cleaning the house counts as a workout.:smile:
  • MsDover
    MsDover Posts: 395 Member
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    I don't consider any activity "fake". :angry: If you do, then let me tell you that I have lost 25 lbs. doing "fake" exercises. :drinker:

    Some of us are handicapped or have other physical limitations or have had surgery, and we can't lift or do strenuous workouts. "Food preparation" means you are standing for a long period of time, which is isometric. Cleaning means you are bending, stretching arms, lifting laundry baskets and furniture to vacuum under, etc. That's a workout! Grocery shopping or going ot the mall counts as walking at a slow pace, and I can spend hours doing both.

    As well, I have two very damaged knees, so Ido a "workout in a chair" that I follow on youtube.

    Let's not judge one another or compare someone else's exercise to your own. The light activities that work for many of us may not be your cup of tea, but at least it's working.

    Nicely put!!! Botched spinal surgery last march has me in this situation...do I wish I could run on the treadmill for 60 min? He** yea...but these days just standing and hobbling is a major defeat. So cooking, cleaning & grocery shopping I log. Honestly its for the mind. I wish pain could be calculated...

    THIS! And once again, I don't understand why anyone should care what anyone else is doing on MFP UNLESS they have asked for opinions. When I log exercise it's for MY benefit, to see what I'm able to do over and above my daily routine because a health issue makes many routine activities very difficult for me.... I NEVER eat back those calories! It's for my own information, not for some exercise Nazi to tell me the calories I'm burning are from a "fake" activity!
  • JanaCanada
    JanaCanada Posts: 917 Member
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    Personally the only things I log are gym visits and actual bouts of exercise. Every day things I do like cleaning I did when I was a chubber and I still do now so they aren't really anything new that gets my heart rate up. IMO your only cheating yourself in the long run if your eating back all those logged calories for things like housework, sewing etc. But if people are putting it down as activity and still eating at a deficit and losing then it's all good I suppose. Each to their own and all that! :smile:

    ^^^ agreed! I don't get why people really try to let those simple every day tasks become "activities" for calories burned, if you ask me they're just LAZY.
    :huh:


    Maybe you need to work out on your sensitivity. Your empathy muscle is weak.
  • JanaCanada
    JanaCanada Posts: 917 Member
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    I don't consider any activity "fake". :angry: If you do, then let me tell you that I have lost 25 lbs. doing "fake" exercises. :drinker:

    Some of us are handicapped or have other physical limitations or have had surgery, and we can't lift or do strenuous workouts. "Food preparation" means you are standing for a long period of time, which is isometric. Cleaning means you are bending, stretching arms, lifting laundry baskets and furniture to vacuum under, etc. That's a workout! Grocery shopping or going ot the mall counts as walking at a slow pace, and I can spend hours doing both.

    As well, I have two very damaged knees, so Ido a "workout in a chair" that I follow on youtube.

    Let's not judge one another or compare someone else's exercise to your own. The light activities that work for many of us may not be your cup of tea, but at least it's working.

    Nicely put!!! Botched spinal surgery last march has me in this situation...do I wish I could run on the treadmill for 60 min? He** yea...but these days just standing and hobbling is a major defeat. So cooking, cleaning & grocery shopping I log. Honestly its for the mind. I wish pain could be calculated...

    THIS! And once again, I don't understand why anyone should care what anyone else is doing on MFP UNLESS they have asked for opinions. When I log exercise it's for MY benefit, to see what I'm able to do over and above my daily routine because a health issue makes many routine activities very difficult for me.... I NEVER eat back those calories! It's for my own information, not for some exercise Nazi to tell me the calories I'm burning are from a "fake" activity!


    :drinker: Excellent.:flowerforyou:
  • sleibo87
    sleibo87 Posts: 403 Member
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    I don't usually log calories burned from cleaning but it does burn. I wore my HRM once after a workout to clean the house and scrub the floors. It burned probably 200 calories or so and thats great but its just extra I wouldn't think of it as a workout unless you get your heart rate up. Like if I go for a walk and walk fast I count it , but if I'm strolling the mall I don't. It's what works or you. I count the things I do on top of my regular day, since before I worked out my 'regular day' wasn't cutting it
  • Heyyleigh
    Heyyleigh Posts: 268 Member
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    DRIVES ME NUTS! Kind of like I blinked my eyes all day and burnt 10000000 calories! Please. UNLESS it is a deliberate activity u should never list. And MFP wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy over calculates. Unless they get a device/fitbit/body media or a HRM they are being so counter productive... then they post "why cant I lose weight" and you go look at the food diary!
  • barkin43
    barkin43 Posts: 508 Member
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    My policy is not to concern myself with the activities people log. I've been known to log "jumping to conclusions" and "flying off the handle" as activities. That burns a lot of calories--I estimate about 5000, at least!
  • Mokey41
    Mokey41 Posts: 5,769 Member
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    I don't usually log calories burned from cleaning but it does burn. I wore my HRM once after a workout to clean the house and scrub the floors. It burned probably 200 calories or so and thats great but its just extra I wouldn't think of it as a workout unless you get your heart rate up. Like if I go for a walk and walk fast I count it , but if I'm strolling the mall I don't. It's what works or you. I count the things I do on top of my regular day, since before I worked out my 'regular day' wasn't cutting it

    You realize that a HRM doesn't deduct your BMR (calories you would have burnt doing nothing) and that unless your HR is significantly elevated for an extended period of time that a HRM is not accurate? Wearing one to do housework would give false numbers unless you were doing your work at a steady jog.
  • victoriavoodoo
    victoriavoodoo Posts: 343 Member
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    I don't usually log calories burned from cleaning but it does burn. I wore my HRM once after a workout to clean the house and scrub the floors. It burned probably 200 calories or so and thats great but its just extra I wouldn't think of it as a workout unless you get your heart rate up. Like if I go for a walk and walk fast I count it , but if I'm strolling the mall I don't. It's what works or you. I count the things I do on top of my regular day, since before I worked out my 'regular day' wasn't cutting it

    But that's a somewhat reasonable or at least believable number to clean your whole house and scrub floors. If you logged that it wouldn't be like people who say windexing their windows burned over 1000 calories or taking out the trash burned 500...unless they scaled the outside of their mansion walls to scrub said windows or took out the trash for a mile +
    It takes a long hard gym workout to burn 1000 calories and it's almost offensive when people say they did that doing little household things. But I guess they're the only ones being hurt by it.

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