Legit question. Housework....exercise or no?

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  • chereamie
    chereamie Posts: 7
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    I had a friend tell me once she was exercising by doing the same thing you're doing except she'd also tighten different muscles while cleaning different things. Like clean the walls, flex your calves like you're doing calf raises, then squat as if you're doing squats to clean lower parts. Scrubbing floors, flex your abs on and off. Etc, etc. I've tried it and I sweat just as much as a workout makes me sweat. I'd consider it exercise.
  • Jersey_Devil
    Jersey_Devil Posts: 4,142 Member
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    no.
  • Velum_cado
    Velum_cado Posts: 1,608 Member
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    I'd maybe wear a HRM to see what I'm actually burning. If it seems significant, I'd log it, I guess.
  • dadoffo
    dadoffo Posts: 422 Member
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    Btw, I have had plenty of friends that have logged their cleaning as exercise and have lost a great deal of weight.

    There is a pretty good chance that they lost weight not because of housework.
  • JonathanBB
    JonathanBB Posts: 252 Member
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    It sounds like you have two days out of the week where you do more than your normal amount of housework. I would suggest buying a heart rate monitor or a podometer. Track your activity on a normal day and then on a "super clean" day. If you notice there is a significant difference on the superclean days, I would count that activity as extra.

    Yes.

    And what others said about what you put as your activity level setting.
  • lcyama
    lcyama Posts: 209 Member
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    I have a toddler, 3 cats and 2 dogs in the house. Needless to say if i dont clean every inch, I'd rather not find hidden cheerios that have been chilling in a corner for a month.

    your dogs are not doing their jobs if they are not gobbling up those cheerios for you. :-)

    i log cleaning if i work at it enough to tire me out, but i only log about half the actual time. but i have a desk job, so my activity level is set to sedentary.
  • Jersey_Devil
    Jersey_Devil Posts: 4,142 Member
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    you can log it ONLY if you are wearing yoga pants/shorts while you clean.

    baby-exercise-cleaning.jpg
  • meadow_sage
    meadow_sage Posts: 308 Member
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    Nope.

    It's housework. If it's part of what you were doing normally when you came to the site, you've already accounted for it when you set up your tracker.

    I strongly disagree. Your calories are not calculated according to what you did before or after you came to this site. They are calculated on a day of doing minimal activity and then you add exercise as you do it. Housework is exercise. If someone rode a bike twice a week before coming to this site, they would count it. Just because the movement is beneficial for more than the purpose of burning calories, does not mean that it doesn't count. We would all be better off if we used up our exercise time this efficiently.
  • dadoffo
    dadoffo Posts: 422 Member
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    This sounds like one way of getting out of doing actual exercise.
  • XxYeaIrocxX
    XxYeaIrocxX Posts: 224 Member
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    I have a toddler, 3 cats and 2 dogs in the house. Needless to say if i dont clean every inch, I'd rather not find hidden cheerios that have been chilling in a corner for a month.

    your dogs are not doing their jobs if they are not gobbling up those cheerios for you. :-)

    i log cleaning if i work at it enough to tire me out, but i only log about half the actual time. but i have a desk job, so my activity level is set to sedentary.

    Haha I have HUGE dogs, they can't fit into corners and normally just give up trying lol
  • XxYeaIrocxX
    XxYeaIrocxX Posts: 224 Member
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    you can log it ONLY if you are wearing yoga pants/shorts while you clean.

    baby-exercise-cleaning.jpg

    Sports bra, and yoga shorts/boy shorts count??
  • meadow_sage
    meadow_sage Posts: 308 Member
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    Nope.

    It's housework. If it's part of what you were doing normally when you came to the site, you've already accounted for it when you set up your tracker.

    +1.

    If house work is exercise, what about those who work manual labor, can they count that as exercise?

    Not if you have set your activity level correctly on your profile.
  • XxYeaIrocxX
    XxYeaIrocxX Posts: 224 Member
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    This sounds like one way of getting out of doing actual exercise.

    yeah, not even. Even during my deep clean days I make it to the gym or atleast a run on the treadmill ;)
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
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    It depends on what you have set your activity level at... if it's set to sedentary... then go for it... if it's set higher than that... then I would say... mmm... probably not.

    Perhaps you can get an activity tracker (like fitbit) to calculate those calories for you already. I have my calorie goal set to sedentary but have a fitbit, so I don't track my cleaning calories.

    no

    Well that is a smart rebuttal.

    I really don't feel like wasting my time - which I am doing now - on a dead horse...this one get tossed about like every other day..

    Exercise is something that you do in addition to your daily activities...i.e. Cleaning...I mean my office is on the second floor I walk up and down stairs every day..but I do not "log" that..it is built into my activity level for the day.

    satisfied?
  • XxYeaIrocxX
    XxYeaIrocxX Posts: 224 Member
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    It depends on what you have set your activity level at... if it's set to sedentary... then go for it... if it's set higher than that... then I would say... mmm... probably not.

    Perhaps you can get an activity tracker (like fitbit) to calculate those calories for you already. I have my calorie goal set to sedentary but have a fitbit, so I don't track my cleaning calories.

    no

    Well that is a smart rebuttal.

    I really don't feel like wasting my time - which I am doing now - on a dead horse...this one get tossed about like every other day..

    Exercise is something that you do in addition to your daily activities...i.e. Cleaning...I mean my office is on the second floor I walk up and down stairs every day..but I do not "log" that..it is built into my activity level for the day.

    satisfied?


    Appreciate the input but basically what your saying is if i do something everyday...it shouldn't counted?
    I run at least 2 miles. everyday. and deep clean 2 days out of the week.

    So according to you. Running would classify as a daily activity. and deep cleaning would be an addition. Am I wrong?
  • Jersey_Devil
    Jersey_Devil Posts: 4,142 Member
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    you can log it ONLY if you are wearing yoga pants/shorts while you clean.

    baby-exercise-cleaning.jpg

    Sports bra, and yoga shorts/boy shorts count??

    not sure. need a picture to know what you are talking about.
  • mazzasweet
    mazzasweet Posts: 266 Member
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    totally counts! :-)
  • k8blujay2
    k8blujay2 Posts: 4,941 Member
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    It depends on what you have set your activity level at... if it's set to sedentary... then go for it... if it's set higher than that... then I would say... mmm... probably not.

    Perhaps you can get an activity tracker (like fitbit) to calculate those calories for you already. I have my calorie goal set to sedentary but have a fitbit, so I don't track my cleaning calories.

    no

    Well that is a smart rebuttal.

    I really don't feel like wasting my time - which I am doing now - on a dead horse...this one get tossed about like every other day..

    Exercise is something that you do in addition to your daily activities...i.e. Cleaning...I mean my office is on the second floor I walk up and down stairs every day..but I do not "log" that..it is built into my activity level for the day.

    satisfied?

    Then why even bother to reply... seriously?
  • bethfartman
    bethfartman Posts: 363 Member
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    I clean the same way and I don't log it. I will sometimes skip a workout to clean and I still don't log it, but I don't feel bad about missing the workout.
  • k8blujay2
    k8blujay2 Posts: 4,941 Member
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    Btw, I have had plenty of friends that have logged their cleaning as exercise and have lost a great deal of weight.

    There is a pretty good chance that they lost weight not because of housework.

    You're right it wasn't because of housework... it was because they were tracking all of their calories in and out... regardless of how the "out" happened.

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