does it count?.....

sure, grocery shopping counts as exercise. So does sitting on the couch.

It depends on your activity level settings - if you are sedentary then you can add extra activities that burn calories into your diary.
If you are set at lightly active or more, then you should only be adding extra exercise that isn't in your regular routine.

Having said that, grocery shopping isn't going to burn up very many calories than regular daily moving around (unless you walk for miles at the shops and don't stop along the way). Strolling around Woolies pushing a trolley and stopping to read labels and drop things into the trolley wouldn't count for me.

I don't believe that you have to be at the gym to burn calories, but you also want to be sure that you aren't counting them twice (ie adding extra exercise that has already been accounted for in your activity settings)

If you feel that you are getting a workout while you shop, then add it in as slow walking. Be conservative with the time as you will not be walking for the full time you are in the shops.

And keep and eye on your weight loss - if you aren't losing weight at the rate you expect then you might be better not counting things like this.

sorry but this is going to sound really mean...if you don't want to WORK out then maybe you are looking at this the wrong way!
You gotta WORK to get things done. If you only buy groceries once a month and you are putting 6 gallons of milkin the cart with your 40 pound kid and you push it around the store for about an hour...that might be a workout!

Does lifting your fork to your mouth count as bicep curls?

-_-

Only if your running up and down the aisles at a steady pace stopping every 10 mins to pick up an item would it really count as exercise. Otherwise, it's really just shopping.

I'll count housework if I'm really busting it out and working hard to the point where I'm sweating. I sometimes turn on my dance cardio music and race around doing squats as I pick up toys, etc. Two birds with one stone. Multi-tasking is what mom's do best after all. If you haven't done much and you're making a lot of trips lugging heavy bags...over snow...in sub-zero weather (hey, I'm Alaskan..) then I'd say count it if it feels like you worked. After all, the only person that benefits by the exercise log is you.

not the actual shopping, no. but if you're carrying heavy groceries back all the way to your house or something, then sure!

i live in a college town, the grocery store is a bit more than a mile away from my dorm and i usually end up carrying 35 pounds back to my dorm, which is the farthest up the hill. lots of stairs and hills along the way, so yeaaah. i end up really sweaty by the time i get back to my room LOL. it really is a workout if i may say so myself.

It could if its something you don't do often. I go shopping a lot so I don't count it, but if all I did was sit at home on my computer and go out and shop and walk around the mall and things once a month for 6-8 hrs yes I'd count it. Just like cleaning, I clean often, but if I spent the day busting my butt, scrubbing floors and getting up and down off the floor and moving so much that itI break a sweat then I'd log it, cause I don't do it often. But I usually always counted the time down, if I was cleaning for 6hrs that day I usually will bring it down to 3hrs that were active cleaning.

Maybe if you walked to the grocery store late at night in a bad neighborhood wearing Air Jordans and a mink coat you could generate enough of a caloric burn to make a big enough difference. You could log it as "Survival"

I did not mean to offend anyone here, its just if general house cleaning and food preparation count ...

Listen, I completely understand where you're coming from. I used to rationalize to myself that if I was running around doing errands then it counted as 'exercise' so I'd skip going to the gym that day... but that really isn't the right mindset. I've seen people log things like housework as exercise, but it's usually an afterthought considering they've already had a proper workout for the day. You just need to think about your weight loss differently-- working up a sweat is the way to do it, and being consistent should get you results. :flowerforyou: