Counting everyday chores/walking

It really depends....some people count it, others don't. I particularly don't, especially if you have your mfp activity level set to anything above sedentary....those are normal daily activities. Now, if I'm close on calories and still hungry and it's been a day that i've done a lot more movement for whatever reason, I won't sweat it as much, but I don't personally log them. If you're going for a walk like exercise, I'd say count it, otherwise it's a normal daily thing that gets figured into your daily calories already.

This is one of many highly contentious topics on mfp. Whether or not you count it really depends on how your activity level is set with mfp. It doesn't count as "exercise" per se, but it does burn more calories than sitting on the couch. If your activity level is sedentary, that means it's counting almost nothing for regular everyday activity. If your activity level is set higher than sedentary, some of those regular everyday activities are included.

The challenge in counting these regular everyday activities is that it's very difficult to gauge how much you actually burn. While you're shopping, you're walking some, stopping some, standing in line, looking at this, looking at that. You may have been at the store for 3 hours, but how much of that time were you actually walking and at what speed? It's easy to over estimate, and if you eat back those calories, you could be eating back more than you actually burned.

Most people seem to generally not count normal everyday chores and activity. If you really do these things every day, and your activity level is set to sedentary, consider upping it to lightly active and your normal everyday stuff will be counted.

If it is something you do everyday, no I would not count it. But if it is some thing out of the ordinary like moving furniture or mowing the yard, then yes count it. BUT the way count is at half time. If you were moving boxes for a total of 4 hours, you most likely took some breaks so you can't really count a full 4 hours ya know? I do that because it makes me feel a little less guilty about counting cleaning as a work out lol

I log my walk to/from work purely because it's uphill. Similarly, if I've been working my butt off cleaning, I'll log half of the time and put it was 'gentle' rather than vigorous. I try to downplay it so I get a rough idea of a couple extra calories without kidding myself that I've done more than I actually have. I also walk up stairs where I can, and go out to the shops to buy lunch every day, for example, but I don't cumulate any of that.

I log anything that it is out of the norm for me. Go up and down 2 flights of stairs several times a day is something I did before I started MFP, so i don't log it. I will log my after dinner walk, my weights while watching TV, etc. If I'm not expressly doing it as exercise, then I won't count it. I never count laundry, house cleaning, cooking, or other chores.

Be careful you aren't logging too much "exercise" and then eating those calories back. It could be counter-productive. But heck give it a try and see what happens. If it doesn't work stop, if it works keep going.

I only count housework if it is above the normal everyday chores. If I break a sweat and am lifting and hauling (cleaning closets or basement), vacuuming the whole house, including curtains and furniture (hauling vacuum up and down 3 flights of stairs), washing the windows, etc then I count it. Doing dishes, straightening the house, laundry, I don't count that it is built into my activity level.

It is really up to you and how you want to log your meals and exercise. Be honest with yourself, that is all that really matters. This is for you after all.

To nip this in the bud, I bought a fitbit. It's basically a glorified pedometer. I have the Zip, so it tells me steps, calories, miles for every day. I do a good amount of walking/jogging, so I don't input that into the cardio exercise as burned calories. What I do is put: 60 minutes, 1 calorie burned... because at the end of the day, it syncs with MFP and tells me how many calories I burned over my just walking around being alive.