cleaning as a cardio?

angelexperiment

I do if I make it intensive! Hours of cleaning, moving furniture, vigorously sweeping mopping quickly picking up toys, cleaning the stairs (carpeted) with a broom broom cleaning the carpet. It quickly adds up calories wise. It's always a minimum of 2 hours. Like today I took two hours to fold laundry I put laundry on floor and had to bend and pick up each item ( 4 people adds up to a lot of clothes!)

ElizabethOakes2

I think it really depends on your lifestyle.
I have a two bedroom, one bath house, with a large living room and family room, and two cats. I count steps on "Floor day", which is supposed to happen once a week, but it's more often every two weeks or so. Vacuum all the carpets, the drapes, the curtains, the cat trees, the corners. Sweep and mop all the tile, hardwood and linoleum. Spot clean the doorway rugs and hallway rugs where dirt accumulates. Floor day sometimes rocks me over 10,000 steps, depending on how much mud, dirt and whatnot got tracked in.
I don't count stuff like washing dishes that happens every day, or cleaning the toilet, or whatever.

ninerbuff

If you clean daily, no. If you clean occasionally, then okay, but don't think it's a high burn. Well unless you're really messy like some of the selfies I see on FB.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

victoria_1024

I have my mfp settings at sedentary so there are times that I count cleaning, but only if it's outside the realm of my normal cleaning. Like today. My kids had the stomach flu so I spent many hours doing laundry, cleaning floors and bathrooms, and sanitizing. I only logged 60 minutes even though I probably did more than that. I've lost almost 80 lbs doing this so it must not be hurting my weight loss at all! It's really not many calories though. My 60 minutes were only 155 calories and I only eat back half so it's not like I got a lot more food or anything! If I was "lightly active" on mfp I wouldn't log cleaning.

trjjoy

I only count scrubbing the floors as exercise. And I only log half of the actual time it takes me to clean. Yesterday, though, I more than likely only logged a third or possibly only a quarter of the actual time it took me to clean.

scolaris

Hahaha @kshama2001
I work out a lot and I really like to read novels... I don't have a very clean house!

PAV8888

It really does depend on your general logging of both your food and activity levels.
Log or not depending on what brings your weight trend closer to what your logged caloric balance would predict.

I have an MFP friend whose tracker logged more calories for her cleaning than 90 minutes of weights + AMT.
Based on her weight fluctuations... logging the >650 Cal was the right thing to do.

I do not expect that most of us would be able to even reach, much less maintain, the cleaning/scrubbing pace she sets.

smotheredincheese

I wouldn't normally log it, but occasionally will do if I've done a huge spring clean and moved furniture round to clean floors, washed the windows etc and it's been particularly strenuous.

GUARDiAN_GUiLD

If it's like cleaning countertops and spraying Windex and wiping windows and cleaning a rifle or rearranging shelves and whatnot, I just dock it down as a freebie/extra-room for a KitKat bar or somethin'. But if I'm doing yard-work or climbing up my roof to get rid of leaves or to clear out my rain gutters or if I have to bust some Edward Scissorhands sh** on the huge bushes surrounding the house, I'll definitely log that down.

Jonna13

I log cleaning as exercise if I'm breaking a sweat. Scrubbing floors, washing windows, folding laundry and putting it away (going up 2 flights of stairs), burning calories really add up. If I'm just doing daily tasks such as making dinner, dishes etc. I don't add it, I count it as my daily burn.

kpk54

If it motivates you to move more, go for it. Just don't eat back all the calories.

joolywooly33

NO! Didn't stop us all getting fat in the first place lol

bluestarlight19

I used to log it if it was something out of the ordinary like I was doing "spring cleaning" ie moving/flipping furniture, hands n knees scrubbing for hours, etc. Then I would only log like 1/3 of the time since MFP counts were high. Now I have a fitbit, I would probably just rely on that unless it gave me extra steps for scrubbing or something. But just everyday picking up, sweeping, laundry, dishwashing? nope.

LivingtheLeanDream

No.
It sort of bugs me when I see 'friends' log cleaning as exercise ..or ironing! hmm
Its already figured into the number MFP gives you....

kshama2001

Jonna13 wrote: »

I log cleaning as exercise if I'm breaking a sweat. Scrubbing floors, washing windows, folding laundry and putting it away (going up 2 flights of stairs), burning calories really add up. If I'm just doing daily tasks such as making dinner, dishes etc. I don't add it, I count it as my daily burn.

Ya, in the summer I would definitely have broken on sweat on the frig, but keep it cold in here in the winter so yesterday I achieved the equivalent when I took off a turtleneck and a sweatshirt, and put my hair up.

Unknown

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vczK2t

Since I am bad with regular housekeeping, if it is a VERY intense and deep cleaning session, i will count it. if I am not dripping sweat from doing it, then i don't count it.

Meganthedogmom

joolywooly33 wrote: »

NO! Didn't stop us all getting fat in the first place lol

Haha exactly.

Yesterday I washed two vehicles inside and out, and cleaned my entire 2400sf home. This took hours. No, I did not log it. Yes, I logged the 40 minute walk I did later that was deliberate exercise.

kshama2001

meganridenour wrote: »

joolywooly33 wrote: »

NO! Didn't stop us all getting fat in the first place lol

Haha exactly.

Yesterday I washed two vehicles inside and out, and cleaned my entire 2400sf home. This took hours. No, I did not log it. Yes, I logged the 40 minute walk I did later that was deliberate exercise.

Is your activity level listed as Sedentary? Your Sunday doesn't sound very sedentary to me...

MondayJune22nd2015

I counted my snow shoveling as exercise because 1 I live in an apartment & therefore it isn't my responsibility, to do it; so basically I did it for exercise & 2 because even if it was a tenant's responsibility, this is the 1st & most likely the final time that it'll snow this season. So this wouldn't become apart of my daily and/or weekly lifestyle. I'd only count something that is intense, several hours (than usual) and/or if it's done, once every 2 weeks or longer.

However I do agree that depending upon the severity of a disability, that even regular chores can be considered as exercise because of the difficulty involved, due to the disability. Obviously it's going to take longer & be harder, than for someone; whom isn't.

Lounmoun

I would not log regular cleaning because that should be part of my activity level already.
I might log some cleaning if it was very heavy like when my basement got flooded and I was cleaning and hauling out that mess.

murp4069

I see a lot of people on my feed count cleaning, but I do not. To me, cleaning is just an everyday, regular activity. I probably wouldn't even count it if it were particularly labor intensive. I'm also skeptical of the calorie burns in the database - one person on my feed logged 1.5 hours of cleaning and it came up with some insane calorie burn that I wouldn't even get if I ran for a 1.5 hours.