What exercise is to be logged and which is not to be logged?

Hannahp1402
Hannahp1402 Posts: 85 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi,

I am a little confused about what I should be logging 'exercise' wise. Yesterday I spent an hour cleaning my house and out of curiousity I logged it (removed it after) and found that that apparently burned 433 calories? I spend most of the day on my feet and have 4 five minute walks during the day and a half an hour walk aswell.

Should I really be taking any notice of these 5 minute walks or even bother logging 'housework' as an exercise. I figured I did housework before I gained weight so is it really making that much of a difference?

I work 12 hours per day and spend the majority of it on my feet so I can't exactly chose to log this in any way?

Does anyone have any idea's of how you go about accurately logging exercise and telling me which actually counts? Should I just included my workouts and leave the rest?

Thanks

Hannah

Replies

  • Holly_Roman_Empire
    Holly_Roman_Empire Posts: 4,440 Member
    I only log exercise when I'm actually setting time aside to get in a full workout. I do little things throughout the day like walk during my lunch, take the stairs up to my floor, and carry the baby around all evening. I don't log any of these as exercise.

    If you want, you can set your activity level to lightly active instead of sedentary. Beyond that, I wouldn't log any of the activities you named as exercise.
  • emilyisbonkers
    emilyisbonkers Posts: 373 Member
    if you'd feel ashamed posting about it for the fear of what people might say eg "omg I burnt 600 calories today driving, lets get mcdonalds" and you'd just know people would be like wth, thats when you don't log it :P

    in my opinion anyway
  • mheebner
    mheebner Posts: 285 Member
    I only log dedicated workouts. Movement that I do anyway through the course of a day...like house cleaning, etc, I never log. The only exception for me is shoveling snow as that can be as intense a workout as going to the gym for the same amount of time.
    Even walking around the county zoo or a summer festival I don't log as this is movement I would do anyway, and movement I have done before I was trying to lose weight.
  • HealthyMakeover
    HealthyMakeover Posts: 142 Member
    I only log real exercises except if I go on a hike, walk my dog, or do horse chores. But I kinda assume that when I do any other activities around the house, they burn off calories that I may have accidentally overestimated when I log my true exercises.
  • DonnaJones7
    DonnaJones7 Posts: 99 Member
    Be consistent for 4 weeks - either log it or do not - then see what your results are. You are certainly burning more calories per day by being active (especially long work days on your feet) than sitting. So if you log it all (I would!) and you're not losing, then either lower your calorie allowance or do not log regular "activity". But if you're losing at a measurable rate, then keep logging it.

    I figure it makes a whole lot more sense to work in regular activity than by having to schedule special workout sessions. You want to end up healthy with a great lifestyle, not a gym rat. Don't discount regular activity.

    It may also depend on your overall fitness level. If you're really out of shape like me, an hour of cleaning is going to burn a lot. If you're in much better shape, it might not matter that much.
  • Iknowsaur
    Iknowsaur Posts: 777 Member
    I only log exercise when what I'm doing is for the sake of exercise alone.

    For example, I have to walk about 15 minutes to get to the train but I don't log that.
    If I play wii tennis for an hour because I feel like I need to move around more that day, I'd log that.
  • christa279
    christa279 Posts: 222 Member
    I only log dedicated workouts. I increased my activity level on MFP from sedentary to lightly active, to account for housework and other daily activities. The way I see it is that the total for the week is what matters, so if you only do housework or something 1-2 days a week it will average out.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    I include stuff like that in my activity level. I have a desk job, but I set my activity level to light active with MFP (when I was using that method) for the fact that, while I might not be going all out cleaning or whatever on a daily basis, I am doing some cooking and cleaning and fixing of this or that or a little yard maintenance or whatever. There's always something to be done. Additionally, I do tings like walk from the 3rd floor to the 1st floor at work when I need to use the restroom or fill my water bottle...I park further away from my office building...when I go grocery shopping, I park further away from the store, etc. I just include these things in my activity level rather than trying to track every little thing.

    You can get buried in the minutia trying to track every little thing...this is ultimately why I went with the TDEE method.
  • peabean26
    peabean26 Posts: 78 Member
    I don't normally log housework, or anything like that. I would only log when you do a dedicated workout. If you can wear a heart rate monitor, even better since MFP seems to overestimate the amount burned (at least for me).

    I've recently begun to question logging my bike commute to work, since I do it every day. I'm not sure if it 'counts' anymore? It's about 9 miles round trip, and when I've worn my HRM in the past I typically burn 300-350 during that trip. But since it's part of my daily life (and I don't log daily life activities) I'm not sure where something like that would fall.
  • Hannahp1402
    Hannahp1402 Posts: 85 Member
    Thanks everyone I thought it was not right to log things are part of normal life..

    :)

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