Exercise - does painting count?

You CAN. I might log it as housework.

Is it exercise? No. No it is not, at least in my opinion. It's not cardio. It's not weight lifting. Those are exercises. Sure you burn calories, but let's be honest here. You aren't really exercising.

Hiya. Yesterday I spent 2 1/2 hrs painting, which obviously included lots of bending and stretching, can I class this as exercise and if so, how do I log it?

You CAN do whatever you want! I know I can feel it for a while when I have painted a big room, but it may be that I just push too hard on the roller I don't know how you would log it, though, as it doesn't seem to come up.

Oddly enough, playing the guitar is in the database. Weird. I also think it's weird that yardwork is not in there but raking lawn is.

The jury is out on this one, logging activities is personal preference.
Some people will really freak out if you log anything that doesn't involve gym equipment. However, its your log and your fitness plan, so do whatever feels right to you. It matters more in maintaining a weight, where you want to match your intake and output carefully.

You CAN. I might log it as housework.

Is it exercise? No. No it is not, at least in my opinion. It's not cardio. It's not weight lifting. Those are exercises. Sure you burn calories, but let's be honest here. You aren't really exercising.

Agreed.

If you have to ask if it's exercise, it probably isn't. Seems like most people who log this type of thing area really only looking for excuses to eat more.

Though, I also don't believe anyone is truly sedentary, so...

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You CAN. I might log it as housework.

Is it exercise? No. No it is not, at least in my opinion. It's not cardio. It's not weight lifting. Those are exercises. Sure you burn calories, but let's be honest here. You aren't really exercising.

Agreed.

If you have to ask if it's exercise, it probably isn't. Seems like most people who log this type of thing area really only looking for excuses to eat more.

Though, I also don't believe anyone is truly sedentary, so...

My activity is sedentary, and I eat back my exercise calories. If I walk around for a bit, (like going to the museum or going downtown) that doesn't get logged. The only thing I log is my morning weight lifting, and my afternoon run (if I happen to run in the afternoon).

I've seen people who log 4 minutes of walking a dog. Seriously? That's a chore, not exercise. I wash the dishes, but it would be silly to log "10 minutes of scrubbing pans - vigorous effort" so I can eat an extra gorram cookie.

I painted a room last weekend. I didn't log it as exercise (I use TDEE-20% so I don't eat calories burned) but it was a whole lot of bending, stooping, stretching and squatting that I wouldn't have been doing otherwise. My glutes sure felt it for the next two days. If it's out of the ordinary of your regular daily routine, you can count it. Best to wear a heart rate monitor while doing it though for a more accurate count.

FYI heart monitors are only accurate at measuring calorie burn when doing steady state cardio, and even then the accuracy is questionable. Do not use a heart moitor to estimate calories burned while painting

Exercise (cardio) is basically anything that puts your heart rate over 70% of your maximum for the duration of the said exercise.
I doubt painting does this. But you can always check with a heart rate monitor to see for sure if you want.

I don't think ya'll are painting the same way some of us are painting. It's definately a workout. I certainly use more energy/muscles than I do walking.

Right! Have these people painted before? Or did they hire someone?

Sorry, but moving your body *is* exercise. Whether or not you want to eat extra food because of it is a separate issue, but claiming that it isn't exercise just makes you look silly, imo.

I haven't read all responses, so apologies if this has been said already.

My activity setting is at "sedentary" so if I spend a significant amount of time doing a calorie-burning activity I log it and eat at least half of the calories burned back - more if I'm hungry. You can find the calorie count here -
http://caloriecount.about.com/activities-home-repair-ac6

According to the above website, painting (decorating) uses 306 calories per hour assuming a body weight of 150 lbs. This includes the calories you would have burned if you'd spent that time sitting in your armchair (BMR), I believe. The same website gives 68 calories as the number of calories burned if you just sat (assuming a body weight of 150 lbs), so in an hour you burned an extra 250 or so calories.

I'd log it and eat them!!

Edited to add, OK, maybe not all of them, but you've certainly EARNED more than you would have if you'd been doing nothing very much.

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I don't think ya'll are painting the same way some of us are painting. It's definately a workout. I certainly use more energy/muscles than I do walking.

Right! Have these people painted before? Or did they hire someone?

Sorry, but moving your body *is* exercise. Whether or not you want to eat extra food because of it is a separate issue, but claiming that it isn't exercise just makes you look silly, imo.

<imagine random face palm picture here.>

Yeah, painting is effort, and uncomfortable. It's not exercise, and moving your body is not exercise. It can be, but simple movement is not. My chest moves when I breathe, no, it is not exercising. >_<

Claiming everything is exercise isn't even silly, it's unreasonable, illogical, and wrong. It's also willfully misleading towards others.

right... and it's also misleading and fooling yourself. Taping is not strenuous. Nor is going up and down a ladder. Rollers and brushes don't weigh enough to be considered weights. Rolling walls isn't really more work than vacuuming.

I've painted plenty. I've painted houses. I've been hired to paint. I paint because I enjoy it.
It doesn't make my muscles sore and it doesn't make me out of breath.

But, some people like to claim doing laundry is exercising too.
I don't count exercise that isn't a workout. weights, hiking, running, biking, etc.

IMO, especially if you're trying for weight loss, those calories can just be considered a bonus deficit for the day.
Micro analyzing every move, tends to set people up for failure. It gets too stressful over time.

But, to each his own.