What do you or don't you count as exercise?

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  • ChildrenCryinNCoffee
    ChildrenCryinNCoffee Posts: 477 Member
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    LMAO. I breastfeed on-demand, 12 times in 24 hours, for 30 minute sessions.

    You best believe I'm counting that ****!!
  • carebear7951
    carebear7951 Posts: 404 Member
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    Since I entered my life a certain way I don't count the normal daily activities that are part of that life (such as cleaning my house or van) b/c I figure that was already calculated in somehow. I only count true, going out of my way to workout exercise. Anything else I figure is just a "cushion" for me. :)
  • MCproptart
    MCproptart Posts: 92 Member
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    When I first started, I counted everything.... if it got my buttprint off the couch, it counted. I've gradually become more selective as time has gone on--I only count the dog walk if I've taken him for more than a brief tinkle walk, I only count cleaning, walking, biking, if I either (a) did the activity for at least 10 minutes or (b) tried something strenuous for the first or second time and only made it a few minutes.

    These days my minutes of activity are way more strenuous than they were at the beginning--but at the beginning I was a gelatinous lump and now I actually have some muscle and some endurance.

    I say, whatever keeps you happy and motivated, and if it works, go for it!
  • DonaA123
    DonaA123 Posts: 337 Member
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    bump
  • katiefridley
    katiefridley Posts: 151 Member
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    I am a student, so I walk to class and all over our hilly campus all the time, but I don't really count that. If anything, I consider it a nice boost.

    However, if I had a dog here to walk, I would count that because it is deliberate exercise, know what I mean? For me personally, I only count what I do at the gym or to a DVD.

    However, I use the word "count" loosely considering I don't log exercise at all!
  • MCproptart
    MCproptart Posts: 92 Member
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    PS... My setting is at "sedentary" BTW... If you have it set at "lightly active" or higher, you won't want to count all those daily activities, because they're included in your starting calorie count.
  • LMick1986
    LMick1986 Posts: 431
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    I'd also get a second opinion.....someone who is familiar with how MFP works. I think with this program, you are supposed to eat back some of your burned calories. MFP doesn't take into account ANY exercise, so they assume that based on your diet alone, you can lose weight. When you throw in the exercises, you need to eat some of those calories back.....or your muscles will kind of "eat themselves". I know that's not a good term, but you want to not only lose weight, but build muscle. You can't do that while starving the muscles. Now with what I consider exercise, I'd have to agree with most of the people that said anything that raises your heart rate/gets you sweating. I think the nutritionist kind of generalized it by saying everyday activities. So walks, yes.....deep cleaning, yes....mowing, yes.
  • klacount77
    klacount77 Posts: 270 Member
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    I concur with some others on here ... I count it as exercise when I break a sweat. Normal movement to get to and from the bathroom or a co- workers desk I don't count ... But if I am cleaning up the littles room after a day of Lego play and climbing under beds and on top of the bunks, that I will count ... Doing dishes or laundry ... I don't.
  • likemeinvisible
    likemeinvisible Posts: 309
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    I stopped counting the short walks I take before and after my run when I realized it's no different than any other short walk I take to the supermarket, bus or whatever. It's included in the tdee I set for myself. I once computed the energy output of my strength routine, push-ups, pull-ups and crunches for 45 minutes and it came to nothing, like 50 or 75 calories don't remember.
    Anything but hard aerobic work doesn't burn enough to be counted. Of course if your weight is high enough, then a short walk is hard aerobic work.
  • Mighty_Rabite
    Mighty_Rabite Posts: 581 Member
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    I don't count anything that I can't really measure (my walking and activity level at work varies considerably).

    I don't eat back calories either. I have pretty much stayed at or around 2000, give or take a couple hundred here and there. But I've maintained that level with my body weight ranging from 160-180 pounds this year.

    In fact, usually what I do is I'll track my caloric burn for a given month for what the cardio machines say. Mostly just as a statistic interest. I keep my resistance days going strong, bumping stuff up when it gets too easy, and eating high protein (I aim for equal to or more than 1 gram protein per 10 calories consumed).
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
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    Losing weight is still primarily a process of calories in vs calories out. By themselves, the actual acts of logging activity or exercise, or of "eating back" calories has little effect one way or the other.

    If you log a lot of casual activity calories and still lose weight, it's not because you counted the calories--it's because you just happened to still maintain a deficit.

    Conversely, if you don't log anything, and don't eat back calories, and still lose weight, it still only means that you just happened to maintain a calorie deficit.

    From that standpoint, it doesn't make any difference how you track your activity/exercise calories -- you are just setting up your own accounting system. An accounting system that may or may not match what is actually going on in your body.

    The reason why people see different results with different systems--or the same results using different systems--is more a testimony to the inherent lack of precision in measuring intake vs output, then "proof" of the efficacy of any one approach.
  • tahila0
    tahila0 Posts: 2
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    I count everything. Mind you, I was killing my metabolism by eating next to nothing and doing nothing before I started counting. But the way I see it is if you're bothering to count your calories and do the math, why would you do it wrong? You don't just forget about a variable in algebra, so why would you forget about it in calories. When you count it all, the math makes it simple. If you're consistently under you lose, and if you're over you gain. You don't have to worry about fooling yourself into thinking that you are doing a good job, because math doesn't lie. You know when you're on track, and that feeling rocks!
  • sleepytexan
    sleepytexan Posts: 3,138 Member
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    Here's what I count: dancing (social or teaching), spinning, cycling, paddleboarding, weightlifting. I do not count laundry, cleaning or walking (I really don't walk anywhere except to - from the car and buildings anyway).

    As for eating back or not eating back your calories, your nutritionist probably doesn't realize that the way MFP is set up already includes a deficit from your estimated BMR (probably estimated too low on here btw), so if you are using MFP's calorie recommendation that you SHOULD eat back the exercise calories.
  • VelociMama
    VelociMama Posts: 3,119 Member
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    Based on what the person told you, I think you need a new nutritionist. Using their logic, if you ran an hour every day, that would count as an every day activity.

    They don't need a new nutritionist. Just don't count anything you do normally during the day that isn't performed for the purpose of getting exercise.

    This.
  • helyg
    helyg Posts: 675 Member
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    I count my daily walk to work and back (which takes 40-60 minutes a day depending on which route I take) as it encourages me to do it rather than go by car. As I don't work weekends or school holidays I don't add it in to my every day activity level.

    I don't count things like housework or playing with the kids on my days off as I use a similar amount of energy in work (nursery teacher) and so have my activity level set to Lightly Active.

    Obviously I also count things like swimming, yoga, cycling etc that I do purely as exercise.
  • xabcdefgee
    xabcdefgee Posts: 41 Member
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    I don't log stuff like chores unless I'm planning on doing some heavy duty stuff...then I would probably turn on some music and dance as I clean to really make it count lol

    Not sure if anyone already said this but as far as walking your dog, I would maybe just put more effort into it so you break a good sweat and that way you feel fine about logging it. Maybe jog some of it or go a longer distance. Something to give it that extra pow :)
  • amoffatt
    amoffatt Posts: 674 Member
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    If a person exercises everyday to lose, weight, stay fit, have endurance and so forth, would one have to stop counting it as exercise since it falls into a normal daily activity? So, I think taking a walk with the dog everyday is exercise, even though you do it everyday.
  • jenilla1
    jenilla1 Posts: 11,118 Member
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    I only count purposeful, sustained exercise activities - like when I purposefully put on my running shoes and hit the trails. Chores and sex and all that other stuff are just part of my every day life and MFP already accounts for all of that in my activity level. And since my exercise is above and beyond my regular daily activity level, as I don't necessarily exercise every day, I need to account for it. On those days I have legitimately earned extra calories and I eat them! I don't want to short-change myself on exercise days and not eat enough to repair after my workouts.

    At the same time, I'm not going to roll the trash out to the curb, overestimate my efforts and log the calories, and then pat myself on the back with a cookie. That's just nonsense. I don't take the people who do all that too seriously. For example, some time last year there was a member who was logging calories for watching a movie because it was a comedy and she just laughed so hard. Gimme a break, lady. If you want to eat the buttered popcorn and drink the sugar soda with your movie, just do it. Don't justify it with some phony calorie burn. :laugh:

    ETA: I would log heavy chores that are sustained and strenuous and not everyday kinds of activities, things that really get the heart rate up. I just wouldn't log stuff like washing the dishes and folding laundry and whatnot.
  • darleyschroeder
    darleyschroeder Posts: 322
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    I personally set my plan up on sedentary because I didn't want to over estimate what I was doing. If I do a lot of housework, like a good hour then I will count some of it. If I go for a walk, I count it. I work out, I count it.

    I would rather have to add in small amounts of calories burned through the tracker than to guess that I am already at a high level of activity when I am not, mind you I set it at sedentary even though I usually workout out at least 3 times per week.
  • NVM87
    NVM87 Posts: 57 Member
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    I count my housework as I have a two story home and the days I go nuts and spend 1-2 hrs on it is the equivalent to doing 1 hr on the treadmill (if not more) calories burned( so my pedometer shows)

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