What do you think...

tresa1234
tresa1234 Posts: 796 Member
edited September 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
First ... I'm not very fit and most of my day is spent sitting at my desk. So today I spent a couple of hours shopping at walmart & grocery shopping walking pretty much the whole time. When I put in two hours of walking at a slow (2 mph) pace it comes up with a ridiculous number of calories, so I cut it down to about 75 minutes, which is still a whopping number of calories burned. I dunno, that may be all I was actually walking with stopping to look at stuff, etc.

I've already got my food planned and logged for the day and adding in this as exercise makes me under my calories by something like 400!

What should I do? Should I keep that in there as exercise calories and add something else to my food ... or should I just leave it out and consider it part of daily activities (but really it isn't, I only do it once a week).

Or should I cut back the minutes until it is some more reasonable number of calories?

Or none of the above? LOL

Replies

  • tresa1234
    tresa1234 Posts: 796 Member
    First ... I'm not very fit and most of my day is spent sitting at my desk. So today I spent a couple of hours shopping at walmart & grocery shopping walking pretty much the whole time. When I put in two hours of walking at a slow (2 mph) pace it comes up with a ridiculous number of calories, so I cut it down to about 75 minutes, which is still a whopping number of calories burned. I dunno, that may be all I was actually walking with stopping to look at stuff, etc.

    I've already got my food planned and logged for the day and adding in this as exercise makes me under my calories by something like 400!

    What should I do? Should I keep that in there as exercise calories and add something else to my food ... or should I just leave it out and consider it part of daily activities (but really it isn't, I only do it once a week).

    Or should I cut back the minutes until it is some more reasonable number of calories?

    Or none of the above? LOL
  • denisebee
    denisebee Posts: 137 Member
    I only put walking down if it's out of my regular routine. I don't count shopping, errands etc... I only count it if I go out for a walk or I do something way beyond my norm..i.e. heavy walking from sight seeing etc...make sense? That's just my take.
  • tresa1234
    tresa1234 Posts: 796 Member
    Yeah, I'm sort of leaning towards taking it out of my exercise for the day. It has been something I have done weekly for years, so it's not like I'm adding to my usual weekly calorie expenditure when I go shopping. But I know some people count housework, etc., as exercise, so I'm still interested in hearing what people think about this ....

    Thanks!
  • gabi_ele
    gabi_ele Posts: 460 Member
    I looked at your profile and you are not trying to loose a huge amount of weight ( compared with my goal:noway: ) I would play it by ear... are you still hungry after you ate all your food, get another snack, if not just don't worry about it. I wouldn't make it a habit to go to low on my calories all the time but a day a week is ok. Maybe since you know now how much you will burn eat a bigger breakfast on the shopping day.... I count anything that I don't do every day, like on fridays I'll clean for 2 hours , I'll count that, it all depends what kind of lifestyle you put in your profile. I put sedentary so anything extra get's counted:laugh: I also do a sweatin to the oldies dvd every once in a while and I like it, it gives me extra stamina but it is slow enough that I can still walk the next day. I wish you success
    :drinker:
  • LokiFae
    LokiFae Posts: 774 Member
    When I count my grocery shopping (which I do, because it can get pretty time consuming), I always use "pushing or pulling a stroller with child" for my exercise activity. I figure it's the most comparative.
  • raincloud
    raincloud Posts: 405 Member
    I wouldn't count it.
  • may_marie
    may_marie Posts: 667 Member
    i dont normaly count activities.. only workouts

    if you are going to count it though ,, dont forget to substact the calories you would have been burning anyways if you sat on the couch ... that can be up to 80 cal an hour...

    may
  • lifesaver
    lifesaver Posts: 132
    whenever I go to the mall for a substantial about of time, I count it, especially if I go to West Edmonton mall because by the end of the day I am EXHAUSTED haha. so if it feels like you did some work, I'd count it. if you feel like you didn't do much work/aren't that hungry then leave it. :)
  • neverbeenskinny
    neverbeenskinny Posts: 446 Member
    I wouldn't count it as an activity unless you are walking consistantly for that amount of time, which you normally don't do when you're shopping. Shopping usually consist of walking to the next item, stop, look at it, decide if you're going to buy it, put it back on the shelf or in your cart, then walk to the next item. You're probably not burning the same amount of calories as if you're walking consistantly on a threadmill at 2 MPH.
  • JessicaT2007
    JessicaT2007 Posts: 553 Member
    If it is something you always do, I would not count it. LIke me, I don't count my walking across campus everyday because I do it everyday as a normal activity. It is not part of my exercise routine and I do my best not to break a sweat while doing it. LOL. It could add a good 30 minutes of a brisk walk to my day, but I just don't think I should count it since it part of my daily routine no matter what. Does that make sense?
  • jamerz3294
    jamerz3294 Posts: 1,824 Member
    Kinda depends on what lifestyle you have selected. Mine is Sedentary, 'cause I am *giggle* So I do try to take a walk, daily, to burn calories, which I count! You definetly should invest in a HRM! (Heart Rate Monitor) That's the best way to estimate the calories you actually burn, rather than depending on the website, or trying to tweak numbers until you think (?) you are close.
  • tresa1234
    tresa1234 Posts: 796 Member
    Hey ... thanks for the input everybody! :happy: :heart: :happy: I think I probably won't count it today because I'm still a bit under my calories without it and not too hungry.

    I do the whole park far away thing and this Walmart is humongous, plus I have to lug all my trunkload of stuff up the stairs to put it away. And my lifestyle setting is for sedentary since I do sit here so much! But still, it's something I do every week and have since we've been eating. wink9qa.gif

    So anyhoo ... Jamerz ... I'd love to sweet talk my hubby into getting me a Polar F4 but he's balking a bit at the price at this point ... but it's in my plan. I don't wanna settle for a cheapo one that doesn't do what I want it to do so I can wait.

    Hmmm ... I'm supposed to get paid for singing at a gig in a couple of weeks. Maybe I'll use THAT to buy me an F4!!
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