Confused about what counts as exercise!

I have my setting on Sedentary as well, but after getting my fitbit (which calculates my activity level by recording how many steps I take...etc.), I've realized my job isn't as sedentary as I thought it was, since I always burn few hundred more calories than on my days off (if I don't do any kind of exercise). So, yes. I think just a leisure walk, or even a light to moderate amount of cleaning and such should be counted as calories burned. You should just try to be as honest as you can be on any activities you log, and see how that is affecting your weight loss. I wouldn't dwell too much on being exact with the calculations and drive yourself crazy. It's a lifestyle change, so any small change you make (eating healthier or getting more active) will ultimately help your goal.

MFP gives you a baseline, which you set as sedentary. So in reality, any activity over that could then be something you can account for. Now, you could buy a HR monitor. WalMart even has some affordable models. That will give you an idea from before to after of how many calories you burned. I agree with the previous posters about some of these things being overestimated by MFP. I always wince when I see people burn as many calories mowing the yard for an hour than I burn running for that same hour....

Different people do different things. That's the beauty of MFP. If you ask 20 people how they log, you'll probably get 30 answers.

The trick is to find what works best for you. What are your main goals? Losing weight? Becoming more fit and healthy? Once you've decided exactly what your main goals are, you can decide how your daily actions fit into that goal, and your logging.

Me, personally, I don't worry much with logging food. But I'm all about the workouts. So I personally log workouts that are designed specifically to be workouts. House cleaning, vacumming, furniture moving (unless it's really intense), those things I don't log. Lawn mowing, I log. Because it's quite the workout. And stretching. Yeah, it sounds nutty, but I log stretching.

In the meantime, there are tons of people who log housecleaning, and it fits into their MFP goals just fine.

My two cents.

To be on the safe side, you don't want to log every single activity that you do.

There is a risk that MFP will put your calorie allowance too high and you'll stop losing weight if you eat back all of those calories and hit a maintenance point. This is especially a concern as people near their goal weight and the calories they need to sustain their bodies decreases. Remember all of the forum posts where people are near their ideal weight and complain that they're not losing weight anymore ? That's because the margin of error is much tighter as your caloric needs go down. A 300 - pound person could potentially cut out soda and lose 20 pounds over the course of a few months. But a 150 or 200 - pound person overestimating their activity by a couple hundred calories could actually gain weight.

I am up on my feet all day but I don't count it as exercise. If something really elevates my heart and is done for a prolonged period - for me I set that at about 30 minutes or more at a heart rate of 130 or more beats per minute - then I log it.

It doesn't matter if you eat every calorie that you've earned from exercise. What matters is that you can consistently and comfortably lose weight each week and get closer to goal. Too little food and your hunger will be out of control - too much and you'll "plateau." Tweak the formula based on results.

Here's the thing- when you count it as exercise it =more calories to eat. So when your counting things you do every day-or on a normal weekly thing around the house, running errands etc-that's more calories your going to then eat that week- which equals slower weight loss.

SO unless it's something i've done as "exercise" specifically to get fitter and healthier- i don't count it. Do i still do all the other stuff? of course- but i don't count it on MFP. SO for example every day i walk 10 minutes to get to class from parking- i don't count that- i do that- it's part of my life. even though that may be 20-40 minutes of walking a day- it's part of my normal get through the day routine. Now if i go for a HIKE for 20 minutes? im' going to count that- that's something not in my normal routine/daily required stuff

I have a Fitbit, so if I do something (even housecleaning) for a significant period of time where I'm not taking a lot of steps then I do log it. If I load the dishwasher I don't write it down. If I spend 3 hours cleaning (sweeping, dusting, vacuuming, etc.) then I will often log it. I have my own calorie range I try to stay in for food, regardless of MFP tells me I have left to eat, so I'm not eating those calories back. Mostly I'm logging them so when MFP syncs with my Fitbit it reflects that I wasn't as sedentary as my Fitbit thinks I was.

Whatever you choose to do, be consistent. If you're logging it & you're eating those calories back & you're not losing weight, that's the first place to look.

Since the tendency for most people is to underestimate the food caloric intake and overestimate the exercise caloric burn, I would not log that as part of my exercise.

This. I only log stuff I specifically did for exercise as exercise. The only other thing I would log is something like 3 hours of intense yardwork. Oddball stuff that takes a lot of energy.