Should I log this as exercise?

ProjectSYD · June 2015

So yesterday my girlfriend came up for the weekend so we had our date night (we went to an all you can eat buffet so I didn't end up tracking that meal). Afterwards we decided to go geocaching and while we were out we would walk to the liqpur store to buy some drinks for the pool later (spoiler, we were too tired from all the walking to drink or swim). So I ended up calculatog the distance and we walked nearly 8.5 kms (most of the walk I had 15lbs of bottles in my back pack). We were out for nearly 3 hours. This is not normal activity for me - normally I'd sit at home and watch a movie so I figured I'd track it anyways. Also today we decided to go out to the pool (no drinks for me I have to drive her home in a bit) and we raced in the pool and tossed around a football for a couple of hours (also not something I usually do I don't like swimming that much despite owning a pool). So I tracked that also.

Is it wrong to track it? Or should I be?

blankiefinder · June 2015

If you didn't end up tracking an all you can eat meal, why bother tracking your workout? I would just let those calories burned help offset your cheat meal.

zoeysasha37 · June 2015

I personally wouldn't. Id consider it just part of my daily activities and move on. It would be one thing if you where planning on walking three hours and then swimming for three hours each day but it was just a one time thing. I wouldn't even bother logging any of it.

azulvioleta6 · June 2015

Too tired to drink? Does not compute...

Yes, track it as walking, at whatever speed you tend to walk.

SherryTeach · June 2015

If I don't track the meal, there isn't much point in tracking the exercise either.

grza36 · June 2015

MFP greatly exaggerates calories burnt from exercise, and it sounds like you have a predisposition to under-report your calories. The safest bet for you in my opinion would be to not track activities that you don't partake in for the express purpose of exercise, if at all.

grza36 · June 2015

ProjectSYD wrote: »

grza36 wrote: »

MFP greatly exaggerates calories burnt from exercise, and it sounds like you have a predisposition to under-report your calories. The safest bet for you in my opinion would be to not track activities that you don't partake in for the express purpose of exercise, if at all.

I actually do the opposite I always log much more than I consume.

That's cool, I mean I have no reason to doubt you, but results-wise you aren't going to see any benefit to running the risk of overestimating calories burnt through exercise if weight loss is your goal. Do what you want but in my personal experience "knowing" my exercise calories burnt has slowed my progress more than expedited it, largely because it gave me a sense of false entitlement to that extra beer or handful of chips.

runningforthetrain · June 2015

blankiefinder wrote: »

If you didn't end up tracking an all you can eat meal, why bother tracking your workout? I would just let those calories burned help offset your cheat meal.

^This

barbecuesauce · June 2015

ProjectSYD wrote: »

blankiefinder wrote: »

If you didn't end up tracking an all you can eat meal, why bother tracking your workout? I would just let those calories burned help offset your cheat meal.

Yeah the point of the question was in regards to days where I do track all of my meals - I should have left out the all you can eat portion. Like today we were playing volleyball in the pool (and we swam some laps) the intent was to get extra cardio in.

I think if you have to ask "should I track this?" the answer is no.

8.5 km isn't nothing, but how did you do it? Were you just ambling along? Were you hustling? Were you in motion for large stretches?

It's better to overestimate food and underestimate exercise--or if you don't, to keep your eyes open to the possibility that you could have a smaller deficit than you think you do.

callsitlikeiseeit · June 2015

I wouldn't.

grza36 · June 2015

ProjectSYD wrote: »

Iav

grza36 wrote: »

ProjectSYD wrote: »

grza36 wrote: »

MFP greatly exaggerates calories burnt from exercise, and it sounds like you have a predisposition to under-report your calories. The safest bet for you in my opinion would be to not track activities that you don't partake in for the express purpose of exercise, if at all.

I actually do the opposite I always log much more than I consume.

That's cool, I mean I have no reason to doubt you, but results-wise you aren't going to see any benefit to running the risk of overestimating calories burnt through exercise if weight loss is your goal. Do what you want but in my personal experience "knowing" my exercise calories burnt has slowed my progress more than expedited it, largely because it gave me a sense of false entitlement to that extra beer or handful of chips.

I've lost 60lbs in the past and I'm on my way to losing it again although this time around I'm trying to do more physical activities for leisure like hiking, swimming, etc.

My calorie intake mfp calculated was based on me working a job where I was sitting down all day but that's no longer the case I'm up on my feet 40 hours a week. I also underestimate calories burned - I spent over two hours in the pool but only imputed 45 minutes. I also don't eat the calories I burn from exorcising.

Hey great that's great, the thing about activities like hiking or being in the pool though is that they're pretty ambiguous when it comes to physical exertion and it's impossible for a program like MFP to accommodate that. For a lot of people, myself included, the solution to this problem is to continue to simply view them as leisure activities, supplement them with an exercise regimen, and enjoy the benefit of slightly quicker results when that margin of error works in your favor.