Fake Activity Calories?

elsinora
elsinora Posts: 398 Member
edited November 12 in Health and Weight Loss
I've noticed that quite a few people add "sitting, sewing" and other activities like "food preparation" into their activity log ad some people rack up a few hundred extra calories from "cleaning, light effort."

Honestly, do these activities, especially the sitting ones, actually rack up an extra burnt calories because to me it's sedentary.... If its worked for you and you're losing weight- please let me know!

Basically, any extra calories to add to my total would be welcomed!
«134567…11

Replies

  • geekpryncess
    geekpryncess Posts: 118 Member
    Idk about sitting and sewing as being worthy of logging as fitness calories, but I would log anything where you are up and moving, if it is something you don't do on a regular basis.

    For me, sweeping/mopping/vacuuming the whole house is a workout! I don't do it every day, and being generally sedentary, to me it counts as work. During the summer, mowing the lawn counts. (with a push mower). Other chores can count too, like raking leaves, etc.

    I wouldn't log something like 'cleaning the toilet' into my fitness activity though.

    Honestly, the only person those people are hurting, is themselves. If you worked out, you know if you worked out. I sincerely doubt anyone broke a sweat sewing. If you did...maybe it's time for a new machine!
  • mambagirl
    mambagirl Posts: 137 Member
    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.
  • jesz124
    jesz124 Posts: 1,004 Member
    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:
  • kimcalica
    kimcalica Posts: 525 Member
    I only add cleaning when I'm picking things up and I know I'm being active and not standing still. I don't clean that often because I have a housekeeper, so why the hell not! :) it's not my real workout anyway do weather it counts or not, is not really important.
  • sleepytexan
    sleepytexan Posts: 3,138 Member
    Can anyone tell me how many calories I burn from knitting?

    I knit a lot.
  • TR0berts
    TR0berts Posts: 7,739 Member
    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.


    Hey - hunting and dragging the deer is hard work! :wink:


    But, yeah - no. Unless it really is hard work, don't log it. You'll only be hurting yourself in the long run.
  • Confuzzled4ever
    Confuzzled4ever Posts: 2,860 Member
    I think the only way it works out to log cleaning would be if you use that TDEE thing and start out with a high calorie goal. Like.. you burn 2000 calories a day (example numbers only) just by waking up and breathing. So technically anything you do after you get out of bed is burning more calories then you would have, if you just laid in bed all day. The only way of course for this to work is to log all activity and to work out and to not eat over that number.. which I don't think is the case here. Of course the only way I can eat that much is to eat junk anyway.. so I just eat healthy and log gym and actual workouts and I log my walk to work.
  • Firefox7275
    Firefox7275 Posts: 2,040 Member
    Anything less that about 6000 steps a day is sedentary. Cleaning and food prep and the like are classed as 'activities of daily living' not exercise. Most people don't understand that exercise is a subset of physical activity, the two words are not interchangeable.
  • ChinniP
    ChinniP Posts: 166 Member
    If you don't normally move around ... like in a desk job or something .... and you move around it would burn calories you don't normally burn. I noticed since I started wearing my bodymedia that when i was doing stuff around the house it logged as activity and made an adjustment on my exercise diary here on MFP.
  • Bobby__Clerici
    Bobby__Clerici Posts: 741 Member
    I laugh when I see this, but some folks have gotten results.
    It's certainly not something I'd ever count as real exercise, but again, to each his or her own.
    The fruit of our philosophy either way is displayed in our results, and results are all that count.
  • Nerdy_Rose
    Nerdy_Rose Posts: 1,277 Member
    I used to log cleaning and food prep back when I was on 1,200 calories/day. It worked, because 1,200 calories is ridiculously low for most people.
  • TheRealParisLove
    TheRealParisLove Posts: 1,907 Member
    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.

    Some food prep is hard work. Baking bread for instance. The kneading process makes me break a sweat every time!
  • mem50
    mem50 Posts: 1,384 Member
    The only time I use the cooking or cleaning activty calories is when I am doing a "full" house cleaning or really doing the cooking on a large scale. Like when I have friends over for dinner and am running around like a chicken with my head cut off. Thank God it does not happen often. lol.
  • gungho66
    gungho66 Posts: 284 Member
    i only log actual workouts, like i ran 5 miles or di 60 minutes of strength training, even at my job i probably walk 10 miles a day but i dont log that because its part of my day
  • buffcleb
    buffcleb Posts: 150 Member
    I only log exercising... but as I do not eat back my calories all that is really only for me anyways...

    I will be putting the christmas tree away for the next half an hour which means going up and down two flights of stairs with about a dozen rubermaid boxes... not going to list it... just got back from the gym... listed everything there... doing laundry after I get the tree done... not listing... going out for a 3.5 walk later... listing that...
  • Crankstr
    Crankstr Posts: 3,958 Member
    It's none of anyone's business
  • Nikki31104
    Nikki31104 Posts: 816 Member
    I think if it makes you sweat or makes your heart beat faster you could log it. If you vacuum fast and you work up a sweat then that is an "exercise". I moved a bunch of furniture the other day. I don't consider that an exercise but I logged it. It was hard work.
  • SinCity2003
    SinCity2003 Posts: 163 Member
    I've never considered cleaning, shopping, food preparation as exercise and I don't log it here on MPF; however, I now have a FitBit and it adjusts my calorie goal (negatively or positive) at the end of the day (or as the day progresses, depending on what I'm doing) for me. I have it set that I would like to burn 750 calories a day above my BMR and so far I've met that 2 out of 3 days, with the 3rd day being 505 calories over my BMR. Since I haven't used it for a full week, I'm not sure if it's 100% accurate, but I have it set to lose 1.5 pounds per week and this past week I lost 1.5 pounds.

    So I say all that to say that my FitBit takes into account all my daily activities (including sleeping) and adjusts for me, so it is counting those things such as cleaning, shopping and food preparation, but I don't physically go in and count them.
  • DavPul
    DavPul Posts: 61,406 Member
    I know where this thread is heading

    ad9927b3_tumblr_mdpmmaVY8u1r8cvzdo1_400_zps1eb3a181.gif
  • annwyatt69
    annwyatt69 Posts: 727 Member
    I think "normal" everyday food prep wouldn't count. I think that when it includes a LOT of moving around and is something more vigorous than your regular daily routine, then it is o.k. to add. Probably a case of personal choice. If your diary is set at sedentary, that is....However, if it is your job, I wouldn't log it, but instead set your diary at lightly active or a step up from that.
  • gungho66
    gungho66 Posts: 284 Member
    I wonder how many calories are burned by worrying about what other people are doing?


    I would think that the caloric burn of that activity has caused some people to have ceased to exist.
  • 1ConcreteGirl
    1ConcreteGirl Posts: 3,677 Member
    Fake activities? Are you saying that knitting, cleaning, shopping, and food preparation are not real?
  • LeahRandom
    LeahRandom Posts: 34 Member
    I was surprised to see house cleaning, but I log it since it happens to be my job. Unlike when I clean my own house, at work it can be very fast paced and I generally work nonstop for 2 hours. I don't count it as anything but "light effort" unless I broke a sweat (or could feel that my heart rate was really up from normal) and not just from the vacuum exhaust. I also don't log it until the end of the day, that way I don't really factor that activity into my calorie count.
  • geekpryncess
    geekpryncess Posts: 118 Member
    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
  • mem50
    mem50 Posts: 1,384 Member
    Can anyone tell me how many calories I burn from knitting?

    I knit a lot.

    I went and looked it up. "assuming a body weight of 150 lbs you will burn 105 calories in an hour". Taken directly from site.

    Neat. So the afgan I made burned roughly 1000 plus calories over the course of my time off work last week.
  • eris1981
    eris1981 Posts: 58 Member
    I don't log my every day cleaning like washing dishes and wiping the toothpaste out of the bathroom sink, but once a week or so when I clean like scrubbing the shower and mopping the floor and doing laundry (I live in an apartment without a washing machine, so while putting clothes in and out of the machine isn't work, lugging the baskets to the laundry room and back is), I log . . . my job is primarily sitting so those are extra calories burned. Also, I don't like cooking dinner as food preparation, but when I cooked Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners, I logged that because I spent about six or seven solid hours chopping and beating and moving around pots and pans.

    ::shrug::
  • Carolyn_79
    Carolyn_79 Posts: 935 Member
    I used to log cleaning and food prep back when I was on 1,200 calories/day. It worked, because 1,200 calories is ridiculously low for most people.

    Agreed, I think a lot of people set themselves as sedentary so they get 1200 calories and are hungry so they log every little thing to get more calories. I would just change the settings to lightly active and not worry about logging the everyday stuff. Doesn't matter though. To each their own and if they're getting results then who am I to argue.
This discussion has been closed.

Categories