What's really considered 'exercise'?

erkuhns79
erkuhns79 Posts: 46
in Fitness and Exercise
This is going to sound like a stupid question at first, but hear me out. What should I really be tracking as 'exercise?' Obviously enough, if I do the elliptical for 30 minutes...or do 15 min. of pilates. But take a typical day in the office...yes, I may spend a good 5 hours sitting at my desk...but the other 3-4 hours is spent walking to the printer, walking to the bathroom, going up and down 3 flights of stairs, filing - you get the point. Then, I may come home and put dishes away...straighten up the house...get lunches together for the next day...cook dinner...again, you get the point. These are the things I don't ever track, but to me seems like they burn plenty of calories! I do tend to track the hours I spend cleaning the house on Saturday b/c that's the day I need the extra calories!

I even sometimes snack on a few M&Ms during the day...or drink a coffee with a Tbsp of cream...or eat some veggies...and not even track that in food diary b/c I figure I'm doing plenty of tasks that would have easily burned that off.

Is anyone else on the same boat as me? :huh:

Replies

  • erkuhns79
    erkuhns79 Posts: 46
    This is going to sound like a stupid question at first, but hear me out. What should I really be tracking as 'exercise?' Obviously enough, if I do the elliptical for 30 minutes...or do 15 min. of pilates. But take a typical day in the office...yes, I may spend a good 5 hours sitting at my desk...but the other 3-4 hours is spent walking to the printer, walking to the bathroom, going up and down 3 flights of stairs, filing - you get the point. Then, I may come home and put dishes away...straighten up the house...get lunches together for the next day...cook dinner...again, you get the point. These are the things I don't ever track, but to me seems like they burn plenty of calories! I do tend to track the hours I spend cleaning the house on Saturday b/c that's the day I need the extra calories!

    I even sometimes snack on a few M&Ms during the day...or drink a coffee with a Tbsp of cream...or eat some veggies...and not even track that in food diary b/c I figure I'm doing plenty of tasks that would have easily burned that off.

    Is anyone else on the same boat as me? :huh:
  • lotusfromthemud
    lotusfromthemud Posts: 5,335 Member
    The normal everyday stuff is considered "activity" and not exercise in my book, although I do log my weekly scrubbing my house frenzy.

    I track every morsel, but that's just my policy.

    I had my activity set at "sedentary" and then one day just out of curiosity wore my pedometer to work. By lunch I had logged over 12,000 steps, which I think is about six miles. So I upped my activity level on my settings. Losing more weight and not dizzy anymore. Guess I wasn't as sedentary as I thought.
  • deanea
    deanea Posts: 1,437
    I agree, change your activity level when you set your goals to moderate activity instead of sedetary, and my policy too, if you are willing to calculate every bit of activity during the day then you must do the same with every bit of food as well.
  • breddell
    breddell Posts: 11
    I'm really glad you asked this question...I've been wondering and doing the exact same thing! I have only been tracking for a couple of weeks now but I've already lost 4lbs. I think I'm going to keep my activity level at Sedentary...I'm liking the results. I haven't noticed being light headed or dizzy, however I have had some pretty bad indegestion lately which is odd because its not something I deal with.
  • georgiaj
    georgiaj Posts: 59
    here's a site that calculates those activities with your weight to tell you how many calories you have burned. http://www.1is2fat.com/calorie_calculator.htm
  • Razboo
    Razboo Posts: 439 Member
    The normal everyday stuff is considered "activity" and not exercise in my book, although I do log my weekly scrubbing my house frenzy.

    I track every morsel, but that's just my policy.

    I had my activity set at "sedentary" and then one day just out of curiosity wore my pedometer to work. By lunch I had logged over 12,000 steps, which I think is about six miles. So I upped my activity level on my settings. Losing more weight and not dizzy anymore. Guess I wasn't as sedentary as I thought.

    I started out with a sedentary setting as well. I didn't use a pedometer, but I found myself really lethargic after a couple of weeks. I couldn't get out of bed and I'm normally a very early riser. My brain didn't seem to be working well; I just felt icky all 'round. After one day over-eating my calories by a fair amount, I felt much better the next day, so I upped my activity to the next level (permitting me more calories) and have felt fine since.

    The pedometer seems like a good idea to help figure out your basic activity level. Unless you *want* to track each activity, but I think that would get on my nerves. :smile:

    At all times, I think one needs to take how one feels into consideration and make adjustments that seem reasonable, no matter what the calculations tell you. The calculations are for a generally average person. If your weight goals start reversing, nudge your settings back the other way.
  • yoginimary
    yoginimary Posts: 6,783 Member
    I've been wearing a pedometer for over 2 years. I get about 8,000 passive (non-exercise) steps a day. This makes me somewhat active. An article just came out about wearing a pedometer:
    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21901412/
    people walked about a mile more if they tracked their steps - these are passive steps. I get about 15,000-20,000 total steps per day with all my exercise and it really motivates me to keep track. Especially after I read in the article that the woman got over 3 million steps in two years - I got 5 times that!
  • erkuhns79
    erkuhns79 Posts: 46
    Thanks to everyone~! I'm a pretty hyper person and can't sit still for long periods of time...so maybe I will up my 'activity' from sedentary. :happy:

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