So, is housework considered exercise or is it not?

laddyboy

No it's not.

battyg13

Nope. I don't count house work, playing at the park with my kids, or anything like that. I only count intentional exercise.

This.

If its something that needs to be done then i dont log it.
ie my walk to work, running about the office, a lunch time walk to town to buy something.

xampx

I logged 'housework' once when I had been stripping wallpaper, sanding walls and re-painting a room for a whole weekend.

And I would log gardening if I had been digging over the garden and laying 5kg patio slabs all day.

I might log if I was moving house and hauling tons of heavy boxes and furniture, but I wouldn't log it as house work.

Washing dishes, ironing, vacuuming etc are NOT exercise!

GameOfPounds

I usually dont log it but I'm happy because I know I was active.

If I do something heavy though,I log it as "moderate effort".

Anna_Joys_Journey

Nope. I only count intentional exercise. I don't count daily routine things as exercise. I did them before I was trying to lose weight, and I still do them now...so not exercise.

sylnova

I don't log it. I work a desk job thus I set MFP to sedentary and I wear a fitbit, so everything in my normal routine is accounted for. I only log intentional exercise.

jkleon86

When I log house work it is when I am wiped out afterwards and then I don't log but a 1/4 of the time.

food prep ?? no , if I logged prepping I would also have to log eating and that doesn't seem right at all, although I do work in a school kitchen and lug heavy pans and boxes but still No on that.

AbnormalYak

I don't log it but I'm not against people who do. If logging it motivates you to do more of it, then log, log, log away! I wear a FitBit activity tracker and since I started wearing it I am more likely to walk places rather than drive, to take the stairs than the elevator, to do gardening, cleaning and other things because I like seeing the numbers go up on the tracker. And this is a good and healthy habit to have.

My only concern is that MFP seems to have a really insane idea of the amount of calories these kinds of things burn, and if people are eating back their exercise calories and think that 30 minutes of folding laundry means they can have an extra cheeseburger, then they are going to gain weight and be discouraged.

jetlag

Housework doesn't burn calories?? WTF?

All of the not-sitting-on-your-*kitten*-watching-jerry-springer activity you do is beneficial to you and burns calories. Is it going to get you Jillian Michaels' body? No.

Is it exercise? YES!!!! Should you log it? Well, that depends on your activity level settings. If you said "sedentary" then yes, why not? I only really log "housework friday" when I lift and wash all the rugs, hoover and mop all the floors, change the bedding, clean the bathroom from top to bottom and so on. I don't log doing the daily dishes or picking up the dog toys. I would take with a pinch of salt what MFP says about the calorie burn, though. I log about half the hours that I actually do.

Please read about Non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT). This is thought to be why some people are naturally thin (basically, they move around a lot more in their normal lives).

The American Journal of Preventative Medicine says:

http://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar_url?hl=en&q=http://www.researchgate.net/publication/49672694_Integration_of_short_bouts_of_physical_activity_into_organizational_routine_a_systematic_review_of_the_literature/file/79e41507c5afe8ee69.pdf&sa=X&scisig=AAGBfm3VXRcd87oNV2JEKvOaV7fp3RdXpQ&oi=scholarr&ei=wnbmUaLYLMOl0QWvioCQDw&ved=0CC4QgAMoADAA (opens in a PDF)


YOU DO NOT HAVE TO GO THE GYM TO LOSE WEIGHT.

__Di__

Housework doesn't burn calories?? WTF?

All of the not-sitting-on-your-*kitten*-watching-jerry-springer activity you do is beneficial to you and burns calories. Is it going to get you Jillian Michaels' body? No.

Is it exercise? YES!!!! Should you log it? Well, that depends on your activity level settings. If you said "sedentary" then yes, why not? I only really log "housework friday" when I lift and wash all the rugs, hoover and mop all the floors, change the bedding, clean the bathroom from top to bottom and so on. I don't log doing the daily dishes or picking up the dog toys. I would take with a pinch of salt what MFP says about the calorie burn, though. I log about half the hours that I actually do.

Please read about Non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT). This is thought to be why some people are naturally thin (basically, they move around a lot more in their normal lives).

The American Journal of Preventative Medicine says:

http://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar_url?hl=en&q=http://www.researchgate.net/publication/49672694_Integration_of_short_bouts_of_physical_activity_into_organizational_routine_a_systematic_review_of_the_literature/file/79e41507c5afe8ee69.pdf&sa=X&scisig=AAGBfm3VXRcd87oNV2JEKvOaV7fp3RdXpQ&oi=scholarr&ei=wnbmUaLYLMOl0QWvioCQDw&ved=0CC4QgAMoADAA (opens in a PDF)


YOU DO NOT HAVE TO GO THE GYM TO LOSE WEIGHT.

Out of interest, how many calories would you log for, say vacuuming? or ironing?

jetlag

Read my post and see if you still need to ask me that question.

__Di__

Read my post and see if you still need to ask me that question.

Right, just read your post. So how many calories are you logging for various housework?

ndj1979

Only on MyFitnessPal have I seen people consider cleaning and food preparation to be "exercise."

LOL this^

its not exercise.

ndj1979

Why do people care what other people log it doesn't effect you.? If it works for them great if it doesn't work there problem not yours.

because the topic specifically asked if housework should be considered as exercise???? So your saying if we think no we should not opine?

jetlag

Oooh, little miss confrontational!

I only really log "housework friday" when I lift and wash all the rugs, hoover and mop all the floors, change the bedding, clean the bathroom from top to bottom and so on. I don't log doing the daily dishes or picking up the dog toys. I would take with a pinch of salt what MFP says about the calorie burn, though. I log about half the hours that I actually do.

I don't log "ironing" because a) I don't do ironing and b) I already told you that I log "hours" of housework, not independent activities, so you lose points for not reading my post.

On housework friday, I clean off and on all day, but take breaks so probably get about 4 hours of proper work in. I will log 1 or 1.5 because MFP notoriously overestimates. So, that would give me 212 calories an hour. Considering that my heart rate monitor says I get 353 for an hour of walking, I would say that that is a fair number.

Now, it's time for YOU to do some thinking and answer a question. Do you honestly think that standing up and ironing for 30 minutes doesn't burn more calories than sitting down watching the telly? Can you hand on heart tell me that vacuuming for 10 minutes does not burn more calories than sitting down?

Have you read about NEAT or are you just in the mood to be contrary?

Housework may not be "exercise" but it burns calories, just like everything else.

keenesmom

Nope. I don't count house work, playing at the park with my kids, or anything like that. I only count intentional exercise.

This for sure. I just consider any calories burned outside of intentional exercise "bonus points" floating out there in the universe. I do not enter them.

__Di__

Only on MyFitnessPal have I seen people consider cleaning and food preparation to be "exercise."

LOL this^

its not exercise.

Although it is not exercise, it is staying active, however, I fully agree. People were doing housework when they were overweight and it did not help them then.

I have seen somebody log 1900 (yes nineteen hundred) calories per day for housework, they then added this to their exercise diary and proceeded to eat all calories back, they did this day in, day out. They lost 2lbs in the year.

I am going to do two hours worth of ironing shortly, will I log it? No, I bloody will not, standing there moving my arm backwards and forwards and walking to and from the hook to hang the clothes up does not constitute exercise to me, it is just doing day to day stuff.

dym123

Nope, and if you see my house you'll know why. I do count outdoor work, such as raking leaves, cutting grass, etc.

__Di__

Oooh, little miss confrontational!

I only really log "housework friday" when I lift and wash all the rugs, hoover and mop all the floors, change the bedding, clean the bathroom from top to bottom and so on. I don't log doing the daily dishes or picking up the dog toys. I would take with a pinch of salt what MFP says about the calorie burn, though. I log about half the hours that I actually do.

I don't log "ironing" because a) I don't do ironing and b) I already told you that I log "hours" of housework, not independent activities, so you lose points for not reading my post.

On housework friday, I clean off and on all day, but take breaks so probably get about 4 hours of proper work in. I will log 1 or 1.5 because MFP notoriously overestimates. So, that would give me 212 calories an hour. Considering that my heart rate monitor says I get 353 for an hour of walking, I would say that that is a fair number.

Now, it's time for YOU to do some thinking and answer a question. Do you honestly think that standing up and ironing for 30 minutes doesn't burn more calories than sitting down watching the telly? Can you hand on heart tell me that vacuuming for 10 minutes does not burn more calories than sitting down?

Have you read about NEAT or are you just in the mood to be contrary?

Housework may not be "exercise" but it burns calories, just like everything else.

I have just explained about the ironing and I do not consider fitting to log everything I do when moving about, unless I want to fool myself that is.

Ironing burns 150 calories per hour, HOWEVER, take off 80 calories - why take off 80 calories you may ask - because 80 calories are what I would burn anyway sitting about.

Don't get sarky with me please, I am putting my opinion forward, you don't like it, perhaps that is because I have hit a nerve. I do not need to ask your permission to write my own opinion and I certainly am not obliged to agree with yours.

theplumgirl

I count it. I go off feel...and after a day of my housework I am exhausted!..At my house where we are off the grid/on solar power etc etc...there is a lot of "housework"...chopping wood, digging the gardens, building stuff, lifting stuff, slashing vines/lantana, and such from over taking the garden...it's really quite physical because we don't have access to vacums, irons, etc etc...it's all man and woman powered...