Does Holiday shopping/walking COUNT?
 

Does Holiday shopping/walking COUNT? Whew I'm beat, between yesterday and today I'm almost done with Christmas shopping. Walked and walked and walked around a number of stores - my feet hurt - so I'm just thinking, did that COUNT as any sort of calorie burning? I mean it was light walking however goodness 4 hours of it!

Sure, it's not the best to count it as an actual workout session, but it is exercise!

I would count it! Do you have a pedometer, that could help you estimate calories burned. I'd say in the mall most people walk around 2 miles per hour.

I dislike exercise and have yet to add it to my new lifestyle...right now what I *am* adding to my lifestyle is "activity"...today I walked my new dog and yesterday I play 9 holes of frisbee golf which included lots of walking as I can't aim a frisbee to save my life! Going from a couch potato who literally would use the drive up ATM to avoid having to get out of my car...to actually looking forward to moving my body...is a big change!

I think you should count any activity you do that includes moving your body!

HORSEY ~Every single bit of walking burns off calories!

Good for you! and if you spent a lot of $$$$$ you lightened your load just a bit more....wink

I plan on doing some serious christmas shopping tomorrow with lost of walking...I will need it since I won't have an opportunity to do a regular work out

I think the idea that it "doesn't count" is kind of silly. Our ancestors didn't exercise, they worked and they played. They didn't get on a treadmill or do jumping jacks after a hard day of bison-hunting or herb gathering.

If you're using it as an excuse to eat more, or think that it's equivalent to the same amount of time spent at a higher intensity workout, that's one thing. But to think that a walk at the same pace on a treadmill for the same duration would count, but that walking in a mall doesn't? Well, that's just silly.

Walking until your feet hurt is a pretty good indication that you got in more exercise than you usually do. If your usual workout includes some high intensity aerobic activity then walking probably doesn't replace your usual workout. But, if your usual work out is less intense than something you're doing for work or fun (as long as it's not part of your usual routine - your body does adapt to "usual"), it definitely still "counts."

I think alot of people don't fit exercise in at all, because they think it doesn't count unless it's done in a way that clearly defines it as a workout, as opposed to just being more active for another (perhaps even practical) purpose.

Sometimes the easiest way to start fitting exercise into your life is to see it as leisure activity - fun and games as opposed to another chore to add to the list. When you're busy one more chore seems impossible, but setting aside some time to play - that's alot easier.

I'm still hugely fat, so many people would think "what the heck does she know - tieing her shoes is probably exercise for her," and they'd mostly be right. But there are dozens of things I can do now that I couldn't do 60 lbs ago, and a lot has been due to looking at physical activity as playtime, or adding it to practical activities like shopping has worked out alot better than formal workouts, which I'm likely to skip when I'm tired.

Walking for a workout, I get bored and tired quickly. Walking in a mall or while geocaching or in a local or state park, I push myself further because of the inherent meaningfulness of the activity.

I forgot that during these few days of shopping I did park as far away from stores as I could, even at my Starbucks/Barnes & Noble break, and I really walked FAST in and out of stores to the car. I read somewhere that if you do a handful of "bursts" throughout the day it can really add up.

That is good to know, I am constantly running to catch up with my SO! :carrot:

I definitely count walking as exercise. It's still important to do other exercise, but I wear a pedometer almost every day. It's not cardio, but I'm naturally a really fast walker, (especially for someone with such short legs), so I definitely count it.

Funny Pedometer side notes: I started wearing a pedometer because I was curious about my walking when working at a summer camp. (I was an administrative staff member and had to be everywhere all at the same time.) Many days I walked more than 15 miles!

About a year ago I came down with mono while working as an outdoor educator. The camp (that I still work at now) is in ohio, and VERY hilly. We're in a valley, so you pretty much have to walk uphill to get anywhere - it was 72 steps between the dining hall and our house. I wore a pedometer one day and found out that I had walked five miles before lunch. No wonder I was so tired! Mono and outdoor ed is not a recommended combo.

Seriously, if camp food was something other than carbs and cheese, I would be so skinny...

I think I'll go back to my 1-2x per week walking around my little four year old boy as he plays at the mall this winter! Everyone else was sitting around and I went in circles and circles and circles for about 1/2 hour and I figure I burned some serious calories, and it wasn't as boring as normal walking because the kids are always screaming about something, and are funny to watch. It's true, exercise doesn't always have to be "formal" on a stair step, treadmill, or with a dvd! Someone's right, previous generations didn't even have these machines!

And it reminds me I did read this in a Denise Austin book on weight loss, to incorporate at least three bursts of something (quick walk, kick boxing moves, jumping jacks, etc) throughout the day (maybe 3-5 min each) including my fast walks in parking lots to help keep the metabolism revved up throughout the day... Today while doing computer work I'll get on my bouncer a few times for 3-5 min to take breaks and rev it up. Just think 3 of these at 5 min is 15 min of exercise, for those of us who lack attention this is helpful - I can't do more then 30 min myself!