Logging exercise vs. being 'lightly active'

girlr94
girlr94 Posts: 38 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I currently have my activity level set as 'lightly active' because I spend at least 40 minutes walking to places most days and spend over an hour doing strength training in the gym 3-5 times a week. But some days (like today) I go to the gym alone and those times I do a few minutes on the elliptical/ cross trainer as well. Should I log this or not? I haven't been because to me 'lightly active' includes any physical exercise, I don't want to overestimate calories. But on the other hand some days I go over the recommended 1500 by 100 calories and I'm not sure what my deficit should be for that day.

What do you guys do? Do you log exercise individually on top of your activity level setting or not?

Replies

  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,267 Member
    anything I do for purposeful exercise is logged in my exercise...

    Or if it is not a regular occurance such as throwing in wood...that happens once a year and is hard work...

    Gardening gets logged 2x a year in my diary as well....that is prep work and harvesting...but "regular gardening" does not get logged.
  • czechwolf52
    czechwolf52 Posts: 194 Member
    If it's not apart of your daily schedule then I would log it as exercise. I put my activity level as lightly active because my normal day includes a fair amount of walking on campus with a heavy backpack and during my free time I'm not always sitting. When I go to the gym, mow the lawn, ride a bike for a few hours, etc. I count those as exercise, since I intended to exercise and I don't do those things daily.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    With MFP, activity is what you do every day, random walking from daily activities etc. You're supposed to log exercise separately.

    If you don't want to bother with that, you can use http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/ to set your goal.

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