Curious - what do you count as exercise?

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  • TheCaren
    TheCaren Posts: 894 Member
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    I have my setting as sedentary. I don't count normal every day activities like stairs, walking, cleaning.
    I will count walking the dogs as exercise if I do it long enough.
    I count stair climbing as exercise if it's sustained and done for exercise. Just climbing to the second floor at work doesn't count as exercise in my book.
    Generally what I count as exercise is what I do specifically for exercise (i.e. gym or exercise at home to DVDs or weight lifting)..oh and sex. I count sex as exercise.

    How would you add in sex as an exercise, anyway? Lol. I've searched it and nothing :blushing:

    Oh and I count actual work outs. Like "I'm going to work out now" or "I'm going to take this walk and walk faster than normal" kind of thing. Not cleaning though. Either way I don't look at the calories burned. I pay attention to what I consumed for my food and if I earned 300 calories from a work out I ignore that. I feel it helps me not end up over eating.

    I'd just add it as "circuit training" if you're moving around a bit! LOL
  • adiostrasero
    adiostrasero Posts: 127 Member
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    Any physical activity beyond that of a normal day, regardless of whether it happened in a gym or not. Things like cycling as a form of transportation and rolling a loveseat up stairs should be logged. There have been points where I lost weight faster than what made sense and wondered if the calculators here were simply that off... nope, just miles and miles of cycling and lifting things that didn't get logged.

    That's kind of why I count the house cleaning ... I won't eat the calories, but I like to know that I was more physically active than usual that day as it is not a normal, daily activity like walking or taking the stairs.
  • JingleMuffin
    JingleMuffin Posts: 543 Member
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    Just actual workouts, and sex .. :)
  • highervibes
    highervibes Posts: 2,219 Member
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    I don't count anything really because I use the TDEE method and it's factored in. That being said, if I do a day of yardwork and I'm famished afterwards, I will eat an extra few hundred calories and not think twice about it. Usually if you're starving after a day of hard work, it's because you did more than usual. I try and eat more on days I lift and less on days I don't even though I don't "have to" to make up for the days that you just need a bit more. It has been balancing out well so far.
  • lovelyx091
    lovelyx091 Posts: 217 Member
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    How would you add in sex as an exercise, anyway? Lol. I've searched it and nothing :blushing:

    People are creative about how they put it, but once you know them well as friends, you can guess what they're using. Some use "personal aerobics", "high impact aerobics" "belly dancing"..and my personal favorite..."horseback riding." You know when they're horseback riding a few times a week and they don't own a horse or live near a stable...well..it's pretty obvious. :laugh:


    :laugh: Guess I'm going to be horseback riding for a while.:tongue: I asked my boyfriend how he would log it in and he said "heavy lifting" :sad: :laugh: ha!
  • amandzor
    amandzor Posts: 386 Member
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    My activity leve is set on "sedentry" but I only count intentional exercise as exercise. So even though I have a desk job, my commute includes a lengthy walk, and my day usually involves flights of stairs multiple times a day.

    So I won't count cleaning (Hours, or otherwise.) not counting shopping trips, sex, etc. I only count my long lunch walks (45mins-1hour) and my trips to the gym (before or after work).

    Because I figure the MRP calories aren't always 100% right, so Any discrepencies can be covered by those 'extra' calories I'm not logging due to random errors.

    That being said, i stick to my goal, and tend not to eat back my calories. Doing this has meant a 26 pound weightloss in a little over two months. It's working, so I don't plan to tweek anything just yet. If I plateau, then I might consider changing things up. But for now, this works :)
  • TattedInStilettos
    TattedInStilettos Posts: 331 Member
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    I work over night and for 7 of my 8hrs there I'm walking at a brisk pace... so yes I count those as exercise cause it is...
  • busy91
    busy91 Posts: 15
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    I'm a fitbiter too. And when you do some activity, it counts it. Cleaning house can be strenuous. Sometimes I can sweat more doing that then being on a treadmill. I wouldn't count something like light dusting, but cleaning a bathroom or a child's room...that's tough.

    As far as taking stairs, the fitbit counts that as activity. I chose to walk up stairs. I can take escolators or elevators, but every step taken is more calories burned. I wouldln't log it into myfitness pal as excersise though. But it does burn calories. The other day I chose to walk up 13 flights of stairs. That wasn't something I planned to do, but the opportunity presented itself and I did it. Fitbit counted it, but you better believe if I was inputting it for myself, I would have! LOL!

    When I was logging here, I used to count my walk to and from the subway. I did this 4 times a day and it took about 15 min each way. Yes, to me that is excersise.
  • smantha32
    smantha32 Posts: 6,990 Member
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    I only count cardio. Logging every weight lifting exercise I do is a pain, and I don't believe I'm burning many calories cleaning or walking up stairs a couple times.
  • StacyReneO
    StacyReneO Posts: 317 Member
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    I count workouts, walking and house cleaning. I try to walk as much as possible at work every day. I walk to go get an iced tea almost every day and that's a 2+ mile walk round trip. My office is on the 6th floor but the producers are on the first floor so I make several trips between offices every day. I am burning calories dammit! I workout 3x a week as well.
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
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    I log house cleaning, yard work, preparing breakfast, walking up and down stairs at work, AM dump, and anything else that stokes my metabolism...but I don't log exercise...go figure...
  • MostlyWater
    MostlyWater Posts: 4,294 Member
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    I count all my fast walking and I also count my gym time. That's all.
  • snazzyjazzy21
    snazzyjazzy21 Posts: 1,298 Member
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    I'd only count my runs and HIIT as exercise. Walking, cleaning, etc isn't added.
  • Tann19
    Tann19 Posts: 94 Member
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    As long as you keep moving it's all good!

    "Exercise
    Exercise is a form of physical activity that is planned, structured and done to improve at least one aspect of physical fitness that is, strength, flexibility or aerobic endurance.

    Examples of common exercise directions include the following:

    Do whole body resistance training three days per week (two sets of eight to 12 repetitions).
    Do whole body stretching exercises daily.
    Do 30 minutes on a treadmill at 65 per cent of your maximum heart rate.

    Exercise is effective in improving people’s health, well-being and overall quality of life.

    Physical Activity

    Physical activity includes activity that is part of your daily life. Household, workplace and lifestyle physical activity are three of the most common types of physical activity:

    Household physical activity, such as sweeping and cleaning.
    Workplace physical activity, including lifting boxes or walking for longer than 10 minutes.
    Lifestyle physical activity, such as carrying a basket at the grocery store rather than wheeling a cart."

    http://www.healthyalberta.com/609.htm
  • kittyr77
    kittyr77 Posts: 419 Member
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    I only count my fitness classes at the gym.
    The one exception is when i moved house and carried heavy things from a top floor flat (with no lift) to the car then into the new house, it was seriously hard work!
    If you want to count your big clean, go ahead, I don't think "counting" it or not will make much difference so whatever
    you're happy with.
    Oh - and good for you cleaning your mums place! :)
  • twinketta
    twinketta Posts: 2,130 Member
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    i have always had my settings as sedentary.

    The only thing I log is walking...I walk between 3 to 5 miles a day. I add it as 40 minutes medium pace walking a dog.

    If you want to go down the whole route of adding everything you do to move then use a TDEE calculator such as the scooby website.

    What works for one doesn`t necessarily work for another.
  • monipie
    monipie Posts: 280 Member
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    i only count my actual workouts as exercise.
  • LaRaAnHa
    LaRaAnHa Posts: 14 Member
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    My TDEE level is set to sedentary. I count cleaning as exercise if I am spending the entire day cleaning the house - windows, floors, walls, bathroom, oven, baseboards, etc. I don't have a HRM so I check my pulse throughout the day and average it, then log only part of the time to be safe. This happens maybe once a month. I sweep the house twice a day because we have three dogs and a cat but that doesn't get logged, and neither do other daily tasks like washing dishes, wiping counters, laundry, etc.

    I also log some gardening. Gardening here is not a light task. Most of the yard is wild rose, ivy, virginia creeper and other vines, and crabgrass and pokeweed, so gardening for me is cutting things down with a large knife and trying to dig and rip roots out of the ground. Again, I only log part of the time and try to get an average heart rate. If I am just going out to water my raspberries and do some light weeding around them for about an hour I don't log that.

    I also log walking my dog when I do that. It's 3mph for 60 minutes, some flat and some at about a 40-45 degree incline.
  • cassiepv
    cassiepv Posts: 242 Member
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    i only count my actual workouts as exercise.


    Yep .
  • sting02
    sting02 Posts: 14 Member
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    To me the problem with not counting them is you aren't going to eat enough calories then. i also don't eat back my calories so that may make a difference

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