Can I count teaching as exercise?!?

Suksabai
Suksabai Posts: 10
edited September 21 in Fitness and Exercise
I teach elementary kids and usually spend 2-3 hours per session on my feet walking around the classroom correcting students or writing on the board.

Surely I deserve to count some of this towards my exercise! :laugh:
But how to calculate it???

Any ideas?????

Replies

  • ChubbieTubbie
    ChubbieTubbie Posts: 481 Member
    Get a heart rate monitor watch--it'll calculate the calories for you. lol. Every little bit helps!
  • Elokyn
    Elokyn Posts: 448 Member
    There's a place when you sign up that asks you how active your lifestyle. If you put sedentary I would think yes put it but if you picked a more active lifestyle I think it's already considered in your daily burn :)
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    No, it should be included in your daily activity level. You are probably set at light active (are you?) which would give you extra calories to account for being on your feet and teaching all day. If you are set at sedentary then you could add the walking as exercise.
  • lisawest
    lisawest Posts: 798 Member
    Before you start counting those, what did you set your activity level as when you put in your weight, height, etc? If you put sedentary, go ahead and put in all those calories. If you put "lightly active" or "active", I would be leary of counting them for the simple fact that a portion of them would be double counted (in both your lifestyle and your exercise). You definately do NOT want to double count exercise calories, it could cause you to over eat and slow or even hault your progess. Be careful when counting calories you expend on a daily basis in your exercise.

    That is my experience and opinion, take it for what it's worth. Good luck on finding what works for you!
  • IndyFit52
    IndyFit52 Posts: 18
    Try counting your steps with a digital pedometer. You could obtain the number of steps you are taking and convert that to calories to get a more accurate account of how much you are burning during the day.
  • la4et
    la4et Posts: 134 Member
    I wouldn't -only add your actual exercise- like going for a walk, not walking around
  • kwardklinck
    kwardklinck Posts: 1,601
    I'm really active at school too (I teach Orthopedically impaired kids and do a lot of pushing wheelchairs and lifting at work) Under goals, I put myself as lightly active and just counted the exercise I set out to do as exercise. You can do it however you want, but that worked for me.
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
    I teach elementary kids and usually spend 2-3 hours per session on my feet walking around the classroom correcting students or writing on the board.

    Surely I deserve to count some of this towards my exercise! :laugh:
    But how to calculate it???

    Any ideas?????

    Again-general guidelines:

    Does this represent a substantial, sustained effort?

    Are you losing weight when you are doing this activity?

    Most likely, the answers are "no".

    If you are trying to set your average level of daily activity in order to set a daily level of "base" calories then your average level of work activity should be taken into account.

    But trying to count walking around a classroom as "exercise"-well, you would just be fooling yourself. Just moving around is not "exercise" unless it is done at an substantially increased sustained effort. And, no, a HRM cannot be used to track calories in this case.

    My wife teaches 5th grade and she always gains weight during the school year because the long hours keep her from exercising regularly.
  • amymeenieminymo
    amymeenieminymo Posts: 2,394 Member
    No, for two reasons. First as a teacher, you should have listed your job as lightly active. Your daily activity level will determine how many calories MFP says you need to maintaine your weight, and how many you need to lose weight. Since I have a sedentary job (desk job) I get fewer calories a day than my fiance who does landscape just based on activity level alone. Of course he gets more calories anyway since he is a guy and he is bigger.

    Even if you did change your lifestyle to sedentary, I still don't think it is a good idea because walking around your classroom does not get your heartrate going. To give you some idea, when I am walking briskly my heartrate is anywhere from 112-119, when I am playing tennis, running or biking, my heartrate is right around 140-170 depending on difficulty. If I were just walking around the room as you would be, my heartrate would probably right around 95 which is not much above my resting heartrate which is around 86-89. You're better off saying your lifestyle is slightly active and counting only exercise that you do for the purpose of exercise, otherwise you're only cheating yourself in the end.
  • k8tb52
    k8tb52 Posts: 8
    I just retired from 25 years of teaching junior high. YES teaching is exercise. My husband used to say - all you do is sit behind a desk. Obviously he hadn't been in a school in years. When you teach junior high, if you sit you are dead. You have to be up and walking or they will take advantage.
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
    People commonly make the mistake of equating movement and fatigue with "exercise".
  • Suksabai
    Suksabai Posts: 10
    Thanks everyone for the input. I'll recheck my activity level and make sure it's set to lightly active. I might wear a pedometer just to see how many steps I take. Could be interesting!
  • shaggys
    shaggys Posts: 140 Member
    Definitely not-you will never lose weight with that thinking.
    Babies after 40-serious business!
    Good luck:flowerforyou:
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