What do you count as exercise?

My work - at the moment - requires me to sit for anything up to 14hrs a day. Days that I do less desk work and have more free time I make an effort to go to the gym (4 times a week, if possible) and the days where I work a lot, I tend to either go shopping (walk in to town and carry it back) or do all my chores as vigorously as I can. It's these days where I log 'light cleaning' as exercise, but because I intentionally put effort into dancing around the flat while cleaning!

I only count intentional exercise. Not what I do at work, not housecleaning or even when I'm working the wood to bring in to burn in the fireplace.

I agree with most of you......calories burned being alive and doing "alive people" things do not get logged on mine. This app has supposedly already taken into account our daily activity when it asked how active we are on a daily basis right from the get-go. People on here are always wondering why they can't get past a weight loss plateau.....perhaps it is because they are eating all those calories burnt sleeping??

I don't log daily laundry, dishes, vacuuming, etc however I do log non-routine items. Just this week I put away boxes in the attic, heavy boxes, up/down ladder (Christmas stuff...don't ask why, I know it's March:blushing: ) I have also logged cleaning the roof/gutters and yard clean up (I think I logged both as "gardening").

I use a BodyMediaFit and often times have to come up with something equivalent to enter to pump my exercise calories up to the level I have actually burned without doing actual planned exercise. Since I know I do this, I figure others do as well and I don't put much stock/thought in what anybody else logs. It's not my business to monitor what they choose to log and they may very well have a good reason for putting in. You never know where the person started from and that exercise they are counting may be the best they can do and they don't deserve to be judged.:flowerforyou:

and I count sexual activity as well.

I would as well. But I'm married so it's never appeared in my log! Haha



Seriously though, I only log activity that makes me sweat.

And as for logging sleeping as an activity....that's just nuts!

Hey! I'm married too, that don't stop us. lol I never sleep during the day, I was sick and it was just out of the norm for me so I counted it. It was a one time deal. I am horrible about cleaning, so when I do do clean usually I work up a sweat! So I count it. Shopping, sometimes I get sore from just walking around and stuff, so I count it. I'm weak, and have spend most of my life just sitting around, so I count everything.

I "intentionally" exercise, I'll go do Zumba, walk the local track, I have a gazelle I will exercise on (that was collecting dust for years). Before I started this, I went to work, came home, made and ate dinner, watched tv and went to bed. I let housework slide, we looked like we live in a pigsty most times.So yes If I cleaned, it was a all day or all weekended ordeal, and I'd sweat my *kitten* off. I don't count driving or anything that involves sitting. I never exercised before, other than "bedroom stuff", and walking around a store to get the stuff I need. I have lost weight, since MFP, mainly cause of changing my eating habits, but also just cause I'm actually getting up off my *kitten* for a change.

When I first started on here I was logging cleaning but that was because working on a poolside you do do a lot of cleaning. Some of it did not make me break sweat so I decided to stop logging it.

My activity level is set at light but when I am in the pool teaching I can do up to 5 hours of wading back and forth in the pool as my clients swim. Believe me, that is some hard work at times so I sometimes log that, but only as an hours worth.

I have started to walk laps around the pool when I am Lifeguarding. I timed myself intentionally the other day so I could see how fast I was going and now total it up as I do blocks of 15 minutes throughout the day.

MFP knows how many calories you burn in the day living and breathing as you set it when you first start, so sleeping and any sort of sitting should not be counted.

I count anything that elevates my heart rate or is out of my normal routine. I figure if i do something that causes exertion out of my normal or that i have planned for as a bonus. Every little bit helps

It really depends on what a persons activity level is set as to whether they should log certain things. If you are VERY active in your life, then I would only put deliberate exercise. BUT if you start out as seditary (like me) or as light activity, then you should log the things that are out of the norm for you and the things that make your heartrate go up. If someone that sits on their bum all day decides to GET UP and CLEAN then they should be able to log it. Now if someone that is constantly moving and has their activity level as active, then NO they probably shouldnt be counting normal everyday things. Just because an activity is NORMAL LIFE STUFF for someone, doesnt mean it is for others

My activity level is set as sedentary. So at weekends when I can spend 2 hours running around getting all the house work done, I log it. I figure that is not part of a sedentary life style. A couple of times a week I spend my lunch break walking into and round the town. Again, that's not sedentary so I log it. Other days I'm stuck at my desk all day so that's why I keep my activity as sedentary. If I set it as light activity I'd only be lying to myself. So cut people some slack and let them log what they want, it's up to us.

I log my intentional exercise. I also log some of my kinect play since some of that can be quite vigorous. Other people log what they want and that's their prerogative, everyone has different fitness levels and to some of them that stuff is just like exercising. We might look at it and go "are you kidding?", but they're not for them it's that something they need to just get that much more active.