Should I log calories from playing drums?

xtiansalcedo
xtiansalcedo Posts: 25 Member
edited November 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
Hello all, asking pretty much what the subject line says. I play drums for about a half hour to forty minutes a day, generally rock music, reasonably high energy and high-tempo. Is it worth logging as exercise? It involves constant whole-body movement (you're sitting, but your arms and legs are working the whole time) and it does elevate your heart rate.

I have not been doing so until this point. MFP has an entry for it, and I'm going to assume that it's probably overestimated. Some background on me may help:

- I'm in maintenance mode, with my profile's activity level set to lightly active.
- I do cardio 4-5 times a week, usually 45 min to 1 hour of walking, averaging 3.5 to 3.7 mph (usually works out to somewhere around 17ish min./mi.). Occasionally I'll switch it up with some elliptical or biking. I log these calories burned.
- My food logging should be reasonably accurate. I use a digital scale to weigh food at home. If I'm eating out, I'll use the restaurant's nutrition info if available. The only time I use "generic" MFP entries is if it's something like the occasional slice of pizza while I'm out.
- Generally, I eat back exercise calories, but try to leave a 100 calorie "buffer" deficit to account for any discrepancies in my food logging or assumed exercise outcome.

In the past, the only three strictly non-exercise activities I ever logged were things that involve actual physical effort: mowing the lawn (gas-powered push mower, usually takes me an hour once a week March through October), raking leaves (an hour or so twice a year, and shoveling snow. Even in these cases, I only log half of the actual time I spend doing these things to account for possible overestimation on MFP's part.

I'm asking because I do play regularly, and I'm wondering if it is something worth keeping track of. I would probably do the same thing I do with mowing, logging half of the time spent.

What do you guys think?

Replies

  • AskTracyAnnK28
    AskTracyAnnK28 Posts: 2,817 Member
    I could be wrong here, but if you've been playing the drums 40 minutes a day for a long time I'd think your body is already used to the activity and you probably shouldn't log it.
  • GauchoMark
    GauchoMark Posts: 1,804 Member
    even if you are used to the activity, activities burn calories nonetheless.

    OP - do you break a sweat? Like, dripping cardio style sweat? Not talking a little bead of sweat on the forehead. If not, I probably wouldn't worry about it. If you need to consider a shower, then I probably would!

    Bottom line - all activities burn calories. The question is how much and is it worth logging it. It is a personal preference, though. If you want to be completely accurate, then log it. It might not get you much though unless you are marching.
  • astrampe
    astrampe Posts: 2,169 Member
    No...unless it is serious cardio effort like the poster above described...
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
    My initial thought would be to say if this activity is covered in your profile activity setting, then don't log it. If not, then log it.

    BUT, if you are successfully maintaining, then I'd say don't change anything. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 8,021 Member
    As your non sports activities are all pretty steady state (drumming, mowing, raking, shovelling) so I would just wear a HRM during those activities.

    Drummers are always the fittest looking guys in the band. But that might be from lugging all of their equipment around too.
  • Mediocrates55
    Mediocrates55 Posts: 326 Member
    Sweat is a bad judgement. I don't sweat. I do high cardio, HR around 160-170, and I don't sweat. Doesn't mean I'm not working hard.

    Personally, I wouldn't log it. That just pads out your count a little bit more. If you're in maintenance and staying at maintenance, then your balance is correct and adding additional calories burned while not actually changing your activity is going to throw off that balance. Plus if you're using burn counts from gym equipment or the MFP entries, you're overestimating your burn anyway.
  • jrline
    jrline Posts: 2,353 Member
    I'd say no keep on rocking but any calories burned is bonus.

    url=http://www.myfitnesspal.com/weight-loss-ticker]29509743.png[/url]
  • xtiansalcedo
    xtiansalcedo Posts: 25 Member
    GauchoMark: I'm not drenched, but if I'm really going at it (playing some Foo Fighters or iron Maiden type stuff) then I'll have worked up a decent sweat, comparable to if I'd been power walking or jogging for a similar amount of time.

    Here's an interesting case study performed on the energy cost of rock drumming, using Clem Burke, the drummer from Blondie, as a subject:

    http://www.clemburkedrummingproject.com/Research.html

    Now, I'm not a professional drummer (nor do I play one on TV!) and I don't play hour-and-a-half concerts, but 40 minutes worth of it does get you going.
  • Mediocrates55
    Mediocrates55 Posts: 326 Member
    I wonder how much Neil Peart burns... LOL
  • xtiansalcedo
    xtiansalcedo Posts: 25 Member
    pincushion: I'll bet "Tom Sawyer" alone is worth 100 calories! :)
  • GauchoMark
    GauchoMark Posts: 1,804 Member
    Sweat is a bad judgement. I don't sweat. I do high cardio, HR around 160-170, and I don't sweat. Doesn't mean I'm not working hard.

    for 40 minutes straight and no sweat? Is this in cold weather or a fan blowing on you?
  • sljohnson1207
    sljohnson1207 Posts: 818 Member
    ^^I don't sweat much either with cardio, even intense cardio. However, my basal body temperature is around 96.4 F, low blood pressure, and a slower resting heart rate due to a cardiac issue, so I have often wondered if that is it, or do I just have less sweat glands than other folks. Everyone is different, so it doesn't seem unreasonable that pincushion may not sweat all that much. I wonder if there are more folks on here who work really hard and don't get drenched.
  • mseslee
    mseslee Posts: 101 Member
    I usually just log exercise but I see people all the time logging time they take to clean the house and etc. it's really the user's preference.
  • AskTracyAnnK28
    AskTracyAnnK28 Posts: 2,817 Member
    pincushion: I'll bet "Tom Sawyer" alone is worth 100 calories! :)

    Then Spirit of Radio would be worth at least 300 B)

  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,151 Member
    I usually only log exercise, as everything else I consider normal daily activity.
  • Mediocrates55
    Mediocrates55 Posts: 326 Member
    GauchoMark wrote: »
    Sweat is a bad judgement. I don't sweat. I do high cardio, HR around 160-170, and I don't sweat. Doesn't mean I'm not working hard.

    for 40 minutes straight and no sweat? Is this in cold weather or a fan blowing on you?

    No, no fans or cold. Between 30 and 60 minutes, depending on the day. 3 minute warmup, then cycle up and hold at 4 minutes, cycle back down and hold for two. I *might* get a single bead of sweat or two. I had thyroid cancer and now am on Synthroid. I figured it was connected to that. But after seeing another poster mention a low body temperature (mine runs 96.6) and low blood pressure, I'm wondering if it is something else. Doesn't bother me. I seem to be otherwise healthy. And I consume a LOT of water.
  • xtiansalcedo
    xtiansalcedo Posts: 25 Member
    Thanks for the opinions, folks. I'm not gonna log it after all. My maintenance is on an even keel so I don't want to futz with it.

    So I guess the next step will be to start a Rush appreciation thread!
  • MyChocolateDiet
    MyChocolateDiet Posts: 22,281 Member
    yes!
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,573 Member
    I play the big double bass. I also live in New York City and have to sling it over my back and go up and down subway stairs with it. It's huge and playing it is physical. I don't log it...because that's what I do. If you entered your activity level correctly, you shouldn't take into account things you do on the norm.

    My friend accompanied me on piano for 30 min the other week and wanted to log it. She's sedentary but I still told her no, and to go do some jumping jacks.
  • pander101
    pander101 Posts: 677 Member
    No
This discussion has been closed.