Stop counting cleaning, walking to the mail box, etc.

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  • GingerLolita
    GingerLolita Posts: 738 Member
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    I use a fitbit and between walking around my neighborhood running errands, cleaning my apartment, and doing laundry around the corner, I burned 200+ over lightly active. So yes, people can actually burn calories doing these activities. I do recommend a fitbit though because I feel like it's hard to estimate how vigorous your cleaning was.
  • abyt42
    abyt42 Posts: 1,358 Member
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    Oh. Apparently I'm living my life wrong. Huh.

    Thank you for your wise and encouraging words of support and wisdom.

    I now see the error of my ways and will never be so foolish as to think I actually have a sense of when an endeavor is more strenuous than what's normal or average for me.
  • queensandria
    queensandria Posts: 39
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    Can we log clicking on forum topics? Its gotta burn something for us consta-lurkers! :P
  • imaginaryplant
    imaginaryplant Posts: 93 Member
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    Some busy parents don't have time to have dedicated workout times.

    I'm thinking people who log cleaning, walking to the mailbox, they probably do it in a more cardiovascular/aerobic way.

    The big question is...Why do you care?

    Seriously, if it's that upsetting that people do that, delete them off of your friends list.

    Simple as that.
  • Galatea_Stone
    Galatea_Stone Posts: 2,037 Member
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    Why do you care, OP? How is what someone else is doing impacting your weight loss or fitness goals or whatever you're doing? Your ticker says you need to lose almost 10,000 pounds, which is clearly incorrect, but seriously, what does it have to do with your goals?

    You do you and let others worry about themselves. If someone specifically asks for advice as to why they aren't losing, then sure, it might be a factor. But until then, I couldn't care less how people get in their calorie burns. Randomly creating threads to complain that other people are doing it wrong isn't helping anyone.
  • ThinkInOregon
    ThinkInOregon Posts: 283
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    It is a mile round-trip to my mail box and depending on traffic I do it in 15-20 min. You better believe I count it.

    That's about 60 net calories for a 200 pound human.

    yet somehow she still reached her weight loss goal by counting.

    in any case, you dont need to exercise to lose weight, so it doesnt really matter what people log or dont log, especially considering that MFP starts most people's base calories off lower than needed

    Apparently she doesn't check her mail very often according to her diary with only one walk logged in the month of July ... and that with the typical MFP overage of 114 cals for 30 minutes at 3mph ... when she netted about half of that.

    Wow, evidently you didn't view the entire month, because there were 3 walks recorded (the 2nd, 5th and the 14th)... not to mention many 700+ BodyMedia adjustments. Since I was out of town for a total of 18 days of the month (this includes going out of town for July 4th weekend) not too damn bad!!
  • wizzybeth
    wizzybeth Posts: 3,578 Member
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    I think the OP is bothered by the people who whine about not losing weight quickly enough and then log points for doing very low impact mundane "activities." I do have a step counter in my phone and half the time I do not log the calories it says I burned - I figure, if I did burn that much great, but I'm not going to eat that back, simply because I don't trust it. And I'll just use them as "extra insurance" for the day :)

    For many people the walk to the mailbox takes less than a minute, to be fair to the OP.

    A bunch of little activities do add up over the course of the day for sure. For instance, I sell real estate and sometimes am showing 10-20 houses a day. I used my step counter on my phone the other day out of curiosity. I showed about 16 houses. According to the app, I "stepped" the equivalent of 1.5 miles - going up sets of stairs to get to the front door for at least 10 - 12 houses (a lot of our homes are on raised foundations and have 10 steps at least to get inside), walking around the main floor, going up to the top floor, down to the basement, back up to the main floor, back down the steps and sometimes up or down a steep driveway. Wash, rinse, repeat 16 times. So sure, that added up...but I didn't trust the calories burned since I never really worked up a sweat or increased my heart rate too much (I did get out of breath on steps, but that's why I'm at MFP to lose weight, lol) so I took 60% of the total.

    Unless you know the person it's hard to say what they should count. But yeah, if you're whining about not losing weight, maybe ya gotta re-think what you are counting and eating back...
  • LITtlerMeCO
    LITtlerMeCO Posts: 130 Member
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    My mailbox is four blocks away from my house if I got through a neighbor's back yard, five if I go the long way--so eight to 10 blocks depending on which way I go. I never considered counting this towards my exercise goal, maybe I will now, it still won't be any of your business or remotely your problem.

    In the middle of June I counted house cleaning as part of my exercise. I moved furniture, took boxes up and down stairs, helped paint two rooms in my parents' house, took down/cleaned/rehung curtains, did yard work, cleaned out cupboards/drawers/closets/pantries. I broke a sweat every day for nine days and counted it. BTW, I lost six pounds in that two week period. It's still not your business nor your problem.

    If you don't like someone's posts block them. That's what I do.
  • shmerek
    shmerek Posts: 963 Member
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    Especially when they wear a HRM (which are notoriously wrong unless you are doing steady state cardio) and clock 600 calories burned for cleaning the house for 45 minutes and then wonder why they aren't losing weight.
  • rowlandsw
    rowlandsw Posts: 1,166 Member
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    Some busy parents don't have time to have dedicated workout times.

    I'm thinking people who log cleaning, walking to the mailbox, they probably do it in a more cardiovascular/aerobic way.

    The big question is...Why do you care?

    Seriously, if it's that upsetting that people do that, delete them off of your friends list.

    Simple as that.

    This. I don't see why people think it's their job to tell others how to do things. If i do something that i don't normally do or do once a month like shopping or heavy cleaning I count it. If you don't like people doing it just ignore them.
  • j_bark
    j_bark Posts: 1,274 Member
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    when-a-coworker-brought-a-bag-of-burnt-popcorn-into-my-office-63287.gif
  • dbmata
    dbmata Posts: 12,950 Member
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    Why do people complain about not losing as fast as they'd like and then count cleaning (vigorous effort) as exercise? Unless cleaning is dragging a 300 lb porcelain tub out of a two story building, you did not burn 300 calories.

    Seriously, stop.

    Some people don't want to be successful, but want to feel like they are doing something.
  • ryall70
    ryall70 Posts: 519 Member
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    I counted mowing today cuz I don't usually do that. It was with a push mower and hot as Hades for 30 minutes.
  • Myhaloslipped
    Myhaloslipped Posts: 4,317 Member
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    I logged shoveling snow this past winter. I have a long driveway, and that 30 minutes was definitely a workout.
  • strutdivastrut
    strutdivastrut Posts: 105 Member
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    Lol.Cleaning gets my heart rate up so I do add it.
  • SusanL222
    SusanL222 Posts: 585 Member
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    when-a-coworker-brought-a-bag-of-burnt-popcorn-into-my-office-63287.gif

    :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
  • ItsJordanNicole
    ItsJordanNicole Posts: 110 Member
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    I count them, sort of. I don't actually put that into MFP but I use a body media so when I get home from work, or just periodically throughout the day, I sync it to see what I've burned. Usually halfway throughout the say I've already earned additional calories, even before my workout. I choose to eat back calories burned doing my everyday activities but I don't eat back my workout calories. 32lbs down so far, I'm doing something right!
  • phil6707
    phil6707 Posts: 541 Member
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    Why do people complain about not losing as fast as they'd like and then count cleaning (vigorous effort) as exercise? Unless cleaning is dragging a 300 lb porcelain tub out of a two story building, you did not burn 300 calories.

    Seriously, stop.

    If you assume that only doing exercice that is hard makes you lose calories, then you are completely wrong. Walking makes you lose calories, sleeping makes you lose calories, any activity your body performs make you lose calories... it may not be 1,000 calories, it can just be 60, but for some people that is enough to start motivation...
  • stuart160
    stuart160 Posts: 1,628 Member
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    Why do people complain about not losing as fast as they'd like and then count cleaning (vigorous effort) as exercise? Unless cleaning is dragging a 300 lb porcelain tub out of a two story building, you did not burn 300 calories.

    Seriously, stop.
    WTF? why is it up to you to tell other people to stop logging or to criticize them? They can log whatever the hell works for them.
  • RllyGudTweetr
    RllyGudTweetr Posts: 2,019 Member
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    Why do people complain about not losing as fast as they'd like and then count cleaning (vigorous effort) as exercise? Unless cleaning is dragging a 300 lb porcelain tub out of a two story building, you did not burn 300 calories.

    Seriously, stop.

    Why do you even care? Who's business is it of yours?

    Seriously. Grow up.

    Workout nazis. Pfft.
    My activity level is set to sedentary. I count it when I'm mopping the floor for half an hour after the cellar floods. I count it when I walk for 40 minutes to and from my morning coffee. If it bothers you, you're welcome not to read my diary. :flowerforyou:
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