Does grocery shopping count as exercise?

skylinekt
skylinekt Posts: 56
edited October 1 in Fitness and Exercise
I added 30 minutes of slow walking (2.0 mph) to my exercise today, but I was grocery shopping. I was pushing the cart and walking, do you think this is accurate?
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Replies

  • JennsLosing
    JennsLosing Posts: 1,026
    only if your activity level is sedentary, and thats still pushing it, IMO
  • MelissaL582
    MelissaL582 Posts: 1,422 Member
    If your activity is set to sedentary, I would but I don't add in bringing the groceries inside and putting them away even though I do it all on my own. I log it since I'm a stay at home mom.
  • barbiex3
    barbiex3 Posts: 1,036 Member
    uhh. i used to count it before I changed my lifestyle settings to lightly active
  • TruckerChick
    TruckerChick Posts: 263
    I count it because right now any amount of walking I do is exercise!
  • andreacord
    andreacord Posts: 928
    Uh .. I'm a student and spend most of my day on my *kitten* in class learning so I'm set to sedentry. I spend A LOOOONG time browsing in grocery stores before I go buy my stuff so I log it/
  • taso42_DELETED
    taso42_DELETED Posts: 3,394 Member
    Have you ever tried HIIGS (High Intensity Interval Grocery Shopping). I did once. Never again. The bill was like $500 and my cabinets are still full of weird foods I can't even pronounce.
  • LoveLiveLift
    LoveLiveLift Posts: 459 Member
    Have you ever tried HIIGS (High Intensity Interval Grocery Shopping). I did once. Never again. The bill was like $500 and my cabinets are still full of weird foods I can't even pronounce.

    :laugh:
  • Jenscan
    Jenscan Posts: 694 Member
    Have you ever tried HIIGS (High Intensity Interval Grocery Shopping). I did once. Never again. The bill was like $500 and my cabinets are still full of weird foods I can't even pronounce.

    Best Post Of The Day. Yes, unfortunately, I've done that. Ended up with 6 gallons of cranberry juice. My HRM flatlined.
  • Panda_Jack
    Panda_Jack Posts: 829 Member
    Have you ever tried HIIGS (High Intensity Interval Grocery Shopping). I did once. Never again. The bill was like $500 and my cabinets are still full of weird foods I can't even pronounce.

    bwahaha!
  • PatientBear
    PatientBear Posts: 92
    Ummm...no. Grocery shopping is not exercise. Sorry.
  • ccckwalk
    ccckwalk Posts: 262
    Have you ever tried HIIGS (High Intensity Interval Grocery Shopping). I did once. Never again. The bill was like $500 and my cabinets are still full of weird foods I can't even pronounce.



    Super funny! Got a laugh out of me! ~CC
  • CakeFit21
    CakeFit21 Posts: 2,521 Member
    :huh:
  • Hopeinanguish
    Hopeinanguish Posts: 101 Member
    Did you break a sweat? If not, no.
  • Katie3784
    Katie3784 Posts: 543
    I never think of non exercise activities as exercise. If you're gonna do that, you may as well log every single non-sleep activity you do, and hey, you even burn calories when you sleep, so log that too.
  • kdouglas11
    kdouglas11 Posts: 185 Member
    I think any time you are moving is exercise... if you don't do it every day, truth is you're burning calories... so why not log it? I wouldn't eat those calories back, but I'd log it regardless.
  • braunle
    braunle Posts: 16
    Anything that I normally would do such as grocery shop, clean the house, walking at work I don't count. I figure my body is use to that anyways so I wouldn't really burn any calories so why count it.
  • Heather75
    Heather75 Posts: 3,386 Member
    I think it could count if you kept moving the entire time, carried/juggled everything in your hands, and then walked everything the whole way home.

    Otherwise, no. I'm afraid pushing the grocery cart, leisurely selecting items from shelves is not really exercise.
  • ande2994
    ande2994 Posts: 136
    My activity level is set as sedentary, so I absolutely count shopping.

    You don't have to break a sweat to do things that are good for your body. I don't break a sweat stretching, but that's listed as an exercise and I count it. And all of those programs that get you to walk more, take 10K steps a day, park at the edge of the parking lot, take the stairs.... those all assume that little things add up -- and they do!

    If you're worried about whether it's a valid count of calories burned, just underestimate by ten minutes.
  • brewingaz
    brewingaz Posts: 1,136 Member
    I log wiping my butt as exercise.
  • grassette
    grassette Posts: 976 Member
    I use a pedometer to measure the number of steps I take in a day, to make sure that I get a minimum of physical activity in. The minimum amount of steps is 10,000 per day. Once I have done the minimum, then I start to count it as exercise. I wear it when I take walks so that I have an idea of the calories burned. I find it to be a very useful motivational feedback tool.

    Where it might be useful in your instance is to see if you had 10,000 steps before you went grocery shopping, or how much of your daily requirement you filled by grocery shopping. There are some chores that take a lot of energy to do, like washing windows, or washing the walls of your house, so I think that it is fair to count that as exercise.

    http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/walking/SM00056_D
  • Pebble321
    Pebble321 Posts: 6,423 Member
    This is another one of those contentious issues!

    Here's my opinion - for most people, slowly browsing around the supermarket is not going to create a significant calorie burn, so I wouldn't count it.

    But, if you are a very sedentary person and this is outside the kind of activity you do, then sure, go ahead and log it. It's not true to say that it isn't ever exercise, for some people walking slowly for an hour IS unaccustomed exercise.

    I think you also have to put it in context - if you are set at losing two pounds a week and are desperate to find "exercise" in order to eat more, then it would probably be more constructive to change to one pound loss and not log little extras like this.
  • MicMar66
    MicMar66 Posts: 186 Member
    Have you ever tried HIIGS (High Intensity Interval Grocery Shopping). I did once. Never again. The bill was like $500 and my cabinets are still full of weird foods I can't even pronounce.

    Um...is there a website where I can check out how to do HIIGS exactly?
  • kanonxbou47
    kanonxbou47 Posts: 265 Member
    It depends. I wouldn't count it, because I do super-intensive workouts, but if you don't, maybe count it.
  • TammyLanham
    TammyLanham Posts: 109 Member
    Depends - do you have kids? If so, I would bump that baby up to cardio!
  • PatientBear
    PatientBear Posts: 92
    Ok people, I'm sorry, but GROCERY SHOPPING IS NOT EXERCISE!!! Neither is folding laundry, watering the plants, putting milk in your cereal or pressing the gas pedal EVEN if you are pushing it really hard and speeding!! Basically, if you have to ask...guess what...IT'S PROBABLY NOT EXERCISE!!!
  • cownancy
    cownancy Posts: 291
    Have you ever tried HIIGS (High Intensity Interval Grocery Shopping). I did once. Never again. The bill was like $500 and my cabinets are still full of weird foods I can't even pronounce.

    Thanks.....I can't stop laughing!
  • cownancy
    cownancy Posts: 291
    Ok people, I'm sorry, but GROCERY SHOPPING IS NOT EXERCISE!!! Neither is folding laundry, watering the plants, putting milk in your cereal or pressing the gas pedal EVEN if you are pushing it really hard and speeding!! Basically, if you have to ask...guess what...IT'S PROBABLY NOT EXERCISE!!!

    Oh, crap, now I am going to start to snort and choke.
  • MicMar66
    MicMar66 Posts: 186 Member
    Ok people, I'm sorry, but GROCERY SHOPPING IS NOT EXERCISE!!! Neither is folding laundry, watering the plants, putting milk in your cereal or pressing the gas pedal EVEN if you are pushing it really hard and speeding!! Basically, if you have to ask...guess what...IT'S PROBABLY NOT EXERCISE!!!

    Wait, so are you telling me HIIGS would be a waste of my time???
  • TS65
    TS65 Posts: 1,024 Member
    If you aren't raising your heart rate and breaking a sweat, it's not exercise.
  • chezmama
    chezmama Posts: 396 Member
    Do what works for you and don't worry what others say. I log it, but I also recognize that off all the things I log, that particular exercise comes the closest to not being exercise. Plus my goal is set to 3 times a week, though I exercise on most days. The most important thing I have learned this time around is to do what works for me, not what others say I should be doing. I am losing much slower than others but I am losing...and I am prepared to do what I am doing forever without any problem.
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