Pet Peeve - logging non 'exercise' exercise

I completely agree! One person asked if she should log playing on the beach with her kids as exercise, and how she would log it. I was like are you kidding me? I don't log things I do on a daily basis as exercise, such as cleaning and playing with my children. I only log the things I do to intentionally burn calories!

As with everything it's personal choice!

Unless it's causing you to not lose weight (or gain it), why in the world would it drive you crazy?

I don't log those things, but it's none of my business if someone else does.

For some people, it is a good exercise. It depends on how much you weigh - because when you're 250+ pounds, doing any activity takes a lot out of you and increases your heart rate. And, if you're like me, you add little movements when you're cleaning to get more out of it.

yeah I have to agree with you on this one. I clean for a living - maybe I should log all that work?
Netty

It annoys me too, these things are surely covered by your activity level, even sedentary adds an extra 500 cals to your BMR, so that must cover these kinds of things! I know if you're really heavy just mopping for 15 mins can be hard, but if you count these daily necessities as exercise then it gives you less of a reason to do "real" exercise

I agree with you about the logging, though it would not bother me if I see someone else doing it! Every day 'living' has not helped me lose weight, it will be the extras that will count towards it.

If you have not done real effort towards weight loss, putting daily tasks in might make a good excuse but deep down you know that this is not what you are aiming for.

For me, anything beyond an actual workout is just a bonus. I do plenty of hard sweaty labor (digging, etc...) around the house and I don't log it as exercise. The way I see it, if people do all these little things on a daily basis and want credit for it, they should just bump up their daily activity level.

I was surprised to see things like food prep listed as exercise. The only one I do use on occasion is light gardening - because I hate gardening, I don't do it on a daily basis, so when I plant myself out there & I'm digging out weeds on an 85 degree day, raking out the flower beds, walking all over the yard & bending up and down picking up dead sticks or those stupid black walnuts from all over the lawn, I do count that. But - I also underestimate it (I did 40 minutes yesterday, but just counted 30).

I log cleaning, heavy vigorous effort when I am scrubbing on my hands and knees, moving furniture, scrubbing walls and ceilings or cabinets, or anything that is beyond regular weekly cleaning. I do not log vacuuming, dusting, anything I do on a regular daily/weekly basis as exercise. I agree with the food prep part unless they are usually sedentay and going to the grocery store can be counted as exercise exepcially if you ahve to amke several trips and and down stairs to get the groceries in the house and put away.
If the perople logging this keep losing, then it works for them. If you don't want to add it then don't! People are free to choose what they want to log and how they log it. You ahve to keep in mind what their average lifestyle might be (sedentary) so anything beyond going to the bathroom is exercise!!

I only add cleaning if its top to bottom, moving all the furniture, doing things I don't normally do while cleaning. About 4 times a year I do this.

Unless it's causing you to not lose weight (or gain it), why in the world would it drive you crazy?

I don't log those things, but it's none of my business if someone else does.

I second this. Why is it worth the energy to get peeved? I've got so much stuff going on in my life, and my family's, why on earth bother with what may or may not work for people I don't even know?

Who cares? I mean, do what you do and don't worry about what anyone else is doing - how the hell does it directly or indirectly affect you???

well stated in my opinion! we are here to support each other and if someone can only get calories burned by cleaning or cooking we should support them not put them down. some of these posts are just pointless

Don't you think that it really has to do with what you put your activity level at? Mine's sedentary. I don't always have the ability to get up and cook or clean. I log it if I do, just like I log the 3 hours I spend actively walking at the zoo.

Perhaps you simply shouldn't be friends with people you don't actually support?

For some people, getting up and making dinner or cleaning their house is exercise. As an RN, I once attended an extreme weight-loss class for morbidly obese people (the people that if wanting life-changing surgery needed to lose 50+ lbs in 3months) for work and learned that just walking in 5 minute bursts up their stairs was more exercise than they've probably done in a long time. The class made let you know calories in, calories out. At my house, there are 3 levels so doing laundry for everyone and putting it away can give me a few miles on my pedometer with all of the stairs I'm walking. Not everyone has the same fitness level and if cleaning house, standing to make dinner or walking to the mail box if their exercise for the day, then congrats to them for making some type of movement besides picking up a fork or remotes.