When does it become normal activity?

maryann73
maryann73 Posts: 763 Member
edited September 21 in Health and Weight Loss
I have a question. For my exercise, I only count activity that is above and beyond the norm. So I am trying to walk the dog every day because he needs it. It's a decent walk and I burn about 200 calories. When do I stop counting that in my exercise calories, or do I? What's your opinion? Thanks folks!:flowerforyou:

Replies

  • dansdeb
    dansdeb Posts: 164
    Why would you stop counting it? It is a walk, which is always exercise. For both you and the dog, maybe after a few weeks step up the pace some if you think you need a little more! I'm sure your dog appreciates the daily outings!
  • jennifermcornett
    jennifermcornett Posts: 159 Member
    I've often wondered the same thing myself, and I have no real answer for you. I understand the thought process behind your question. When does it become part of your daily activity (like we filled out in our profile) vs. exercise? Maybe update your goals and change your normal daily activity (like from lightly active to the next one)...?
    I'll be checking back to see what others say!
  • July24Lioness
    July24Lioness Posts: 2,399 Member
    I count my dog walkings as exercise also.
  • amymeenieminymo
    amymeenieminymo Posts: 2,394 Member
    I wouldn't stop counting it as exercise. In fact, there is really nothing I would stop counting as exercise because presumably, you'll get into a regular routine that you do just about everyday, but you wouldn't stop counting that as exercise.

    The only thing you should be counting as normal activity should be the activity level you were at when you came here, for example, if your a mail delivery person, you wouldn't count your daily walking at work as exercise, but rather you would say your daily activity is moderately active.

    Also if you do chores everyday already, I wouldn't count that, I only count cleaning if I spend the whole day, like when I am preparing for company and I am really putting a lot of effort into it.
  • Yurippe
    Yurippe Posts: 850 Member
    I have my activity level set as sedentary because I have a desk job. I do travel for work quite often and when I'm out of town lightly active would be a much better description of my activity level. When I'm traveling I don't change my activity level in my goals but I allow myself to go over my calorie goal by 200-500 a day without getting concerned. I still consistantly lose 2 lbs a week.

    The thing you need to understand about the site is that raising the activity level in your goals or adding the daily walk as exercise is the exact same thing. Both of these actions will give you more calories to eat since you are telling the site that you are burning more calories.
  • tex43
    tex43 Posts: 229
    Good question,and I have an opinion.As an example I strapped on my HRM this weekend when I mowed and weed eated,I worked for a little over two hours with very few breaks,I burned over 1700 calories.I began to wonder if I should count the calories burned while breaking even though the breaks were short.My opinion is that even when exercising you have to break on occasion particularly when lifting weights.Anyway I think you count the calories burned up until it is actually back to normal routine.I also told my wife who is planning to experiment with the house work and her HRM today that she should try to keep the breaks minimal for the same reason to have a more accurate assessment of what is actually over and above normal routine.

    Hope this helps!
  • jennifermcornett
    jennifermcornett Posts: 159 Member
    Sounds good! Thanks, everyone!
  • iplayoutside19
    iplayoutside19 Posts: 2,304 Member
    Good question,and I have an opinion.As an example I strapped on my HRM this weekend when I mowed and weed eated,I worked for a little over two hours with very few breaks,I burned over 1700 calories.I began to wonder if I should count the calories burned while breaking even though the breaks were short.My opinion is that even when exercising you have to break on occasion particularly when lifting weights.Anyway I think you count the calories burned up until it is actually back to normal routine.I also told my wife who is planning to experiment with the house work and her HRM today that she should try to keep the breaks minimal for the same reason to have a more accurate assessment of what is actually over and above normal routine.

    Hope this helps!

    Remember to back out the calories you would have burned just watching TV for that peroid of time. The HRM may say 1700, but you might have burned 300 just sitting on your duff, so you really netted 1400.
  • tex43
    tex43 Posts: 229
    Good question,and I have an opinion.As an example I strapped on my HRM this weekend when I mowed and weed eated,I worked for a little over two hours with very few breaks,I burned over 1700 calories.I began to wonder if I should count the calories burned while breaking even though the breaks were short.My opinion is that even when exercising you have to break on occasion particularly when lifting weights.Anyway I think you count the calories burned up until it is actually back to normal routine.I also told my wife who is planning to experiment with the house work and her HRM today that she should try to keep the breaks minimal for the same reason to have a more accurate assessment of what is actually over and above normal routine.

    Hope this helps!

    Remember to back out the calories you would have burned just watching TV for that peroid of time. The HRM may say 1700, but you might have burned 300 just sitting on your duff, so you really netted 1400.
    I actually was working the entire time,the only break was getting in the garage in the shade for a few minutes to cool down and get a shot of water.I watched the HRM and when it got down to like 119 I'd get back to it.I appreciate the heads up though.My wife was talking about stopping for lunch and like your suggesting I told her to stop the HRM,write it down and restart it once she started back.So do you still think we should back out calories?Should we back out calories when we go to the gym to? Never really thought about that,whatcha think?

    Thanks
  • iplayoutside19
    iplayoutside19 Posts: 2,304 Member
    Good question,and I have an opinion.As an example I strapped on my HRM this weekend when I mowed and weed eated,I worked for a little over two hours with very few breaks,I burned over 1700 calories.I began to wonder if I should count the calories burned while breaking even though the breaks were short.My opinion is that even when exercising you have to break on occasion particularly when lifting weights.Anyway I think you count the calories burned up until it is actually back to normal routine.I also told my wife who is planning to experiment with the house work and her HRM today that she should try to keep the breaks minimal for the same reason to have a more accurate assessment of what is actually over and above normal routine.

    Hope this helps!

    Remember to back out the calories you would have burned just watching TV for that peroid of time. The HRM may say 1700, but you might have burned 300 just sitting on your duff, so you really netted 1400.
    I actually was working the entire time,the only break was getting in the garage in the shade for a few minutes to cool down and get a shot of water.I watched the HRM and when it got down to like 119 I'd get back to it.I appreciate the heads up though.My wife was talking about stopping for lunch and like your suggesting I told her to stop the HRM,write it down and restart it once she started back.So do you still think we should back out calories?Should we back out calories when we go to the gym to? Never really thought about that,whatcha think?

    Thanks

    Well think about it. You're assigned a certain amount of calories to maintain your weight. And then MFP takes off the amount you want to have as a defecit. An hour is a pretty significant time peroiod. To make this simple lets say your maintenence calories are 2400. Divided by 24 hours. Theroeticly you would burn 100 calories regardless of what you were doing for that hour. So, the longer the duration you had your HRM on, the error grows to it's actual calories burned.

    Most of my workouts don't go over 45 minutes so I usually don't mess with it. But if I'm counting something over a long duration like, golf, swimming, long bike rides, and lawn mowing I back out my "couch calories" so to speak.
  • tex43
    tex43 Posts: 229
    Good question,and I have an opinion.As an example I strapped on my HRM this weekend when I mowed and weed eated,I worked for a little over two hours with very few breaks,I burned over 1700 calories.I began to wonder if I should count the calories burned while breaking even though the breaks were short.My opinion is that even when exercising you have to break on occasion particularly when lifting weights.Anyway I think you count the calories burned up until it is actually back to normal routine.I also told my wife who is planning to experiment with the house work and her HRM today that she should try to keep the breaks minimal for the same reason to have a more accurate assessment of what is actually over and above normal routine.

    Hope this helps!

    Remember to back out the calories you would have burned just watching TV for that peroid of time. The HRM may say 1700, but you might have burned 300 just sitting on your duff, so you really netted 1400.
    I actually was working the entire time,the only break was getting in the garage in the shade for a few minutes to cool down and get a shot of water.I watched the HRM and when it got down to like 119 I'd get back to it.I appreciate the heads up though.My wife was talking about stopping for lunch and like your suggesting I told her to stop the HRM,write it down and restart it once she started back.So do you still think we should back out calories?Should we back out calories when we go to the gym to? Never really thought about that,whatcha think?

    Thanks

    Well think about it. You're assigned a certain amount of calories to maintain your weight. And then MFP takes off the amount you want to have as a defecit. An hour is a pretty significant time peroiod. To make this simple lets say your maintenence calories are 2400. Divided by 24 hours. Theroeticly you would burn 100 calories regardless of what you were doing for that hour. So, the longer the duration you had your HRM on, the error grows to it's actual calories burned.

    Most of my workouts don't go over 45 minutes so I usually don't mess with it. But if I'm counting something over a long duration like, golf, swimming, long bike rides, and lawn mowing I back out my "couch calories" so to speak.
    Makes a lot of sense,thanks.I agree specially like you said for long periods.I have a huge yard and I push it just for the exercise often,so this is going to be helpful.I've been usually left with a deficit anyway,but considering this will allow me to be that much more precise.
  • lisa811
    lisa811 Posts: 363
    For what it's worth: There was a thread here a while back about subtracting calories burned from what the HRM says. The HRM isn't smart enough to know what you would have burned just sitting around. It will tell you what you burned during that time period, not what EXTRA calories you burned.

    I don't think it's a big deal if you don't account for that. BUT, I figured if I'm being so exact by using a HRM in the first place, I might as well be as accurate as possible. Especially since I'm a believer in eating your exercise calories. I did a little test and determined I burn approximately 1.5 calories per minute just sitting. So, I always multiply my minutes exercised by 1.5 and subtract that many calories. That's just me.

    Maryann...count the dog walking, definitely!!
  • maryann73
    maryann73 Posts: 763 Member
    thanks everyone!
  • Rhyssa6
    Rhyssa6 Posts: 33
    How do you figure out your calories burned by sitting?
  • maryann73
    maryann73 Posts: 763 Member
    I put on my HRM and just sit for 10 min. When I have my 10 min. #, then I can figure out how many it would be for 30 min.
  • lisa811
    lisa811 Posts: 363
    I put on my HRM and just sit for 10 min. When I have my 10 min. #, then I can figure out how many it would be for 30 min.

    Ditto.

    If you don't use a HRM, I think MFP's numbers already take the resting calories burned into account. At least for me, the numbers are often very close to my HRM number after I subtract the resting calories. You really only need to worry about this if you're using a HRM.
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