Calories burned cleaning (light effort) for five or six hours?
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JeromeBarry1 wrote: »Verity1111 wrote: »Can I get an estimate? I was seated most of the time, but sorting clothes, sweeping the floor around beds, sorting toys, moving laundry bags around and doing laundry (so a tiny bit of walking but not much) for 5-6hrs. Myfitnesspal says 600-700 calories for 4hrs but it seems a bit over the top to me so I was wondering if anyone has a better calorie estimator. I'm 5'4" 180lbs and 27 years old.
The database entries for light cleaning and food preparation simply reflect the MET value of that work. It's a low number, in the range of 3 or so, but it's a real number of some effort expended above the sedentary act of sitting.
I speak as one who logs 8 hours a day of "standing at desk, working", a MET 2 exercise which burns 348 calories. I eat back those calories and continue losing weight steadily.
That one advises you to only log the breathless, sweaty, intense, deliberate MET 6 or higher exercises is just arbitrary.
Thanks very much! Yes since it's six hours worth I don't see why I'd ignore it. Especially considering my calorie goal is usually the minimum. I could see ignoring an hr of housework but not six continuous hours of nonstop movement.1 -
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Thanks all for the input I went with the mets given above logged around 300 calories. There's no way I burned nothing extra that's ridiculous this was more than my usual activity and I already lose 2.2 lbs per week when I average 1500-1600 calories per day and I was aiming for 1200 yesterday. I definitely don't clean for six hours nonstop on a daily basis. I find it strange some of you think that's normal.4
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This is how a lot of us got overweight, hard to hear but true... I'm not just talking about you, I'm talking about most overweight people (myself included). Overestimating burns and underestimating how many calories are in something we're eating. The only workouts I log are things like intense bike rides, long uphill hikes, running, etc. Even when I go from an average 2-3 miles of walking per day up to 11 miles, I don't count it. I just take it as a win that I'll hopefully have a little loss on the scale after.
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This is how a lot of us got overweight, hard to hear but true... I'm not just talking about you, I'm talking about most overweight people (myself included). Overestimating burns and underestimating how many calories are in something we're eating. The only workouts I log are things like intense bike rides, long uphill hikes, running, etc. Even when I go from an average 2-3 miles of walking per day up to 11 miles, I don't count it. I just take it as a win that I'll hopefully have a little loss on the scale after.
Considering I've been losing 2+lb per week consistently I'm pretty sure I know my body. I definitely should log six hours of work.2 -
Verity1111 wrote: »
You are misunderstanding - all the activities you listed are normal routine activities. Sitting down cleaning and tidying isn't exercise.
That you may do them all in one day instead of spread over the week maybe unusual but that doesn't change the activity itself.
If you are that desperate to log an activity you said yourself was mostly sitting down then perhaps you should review your activity setting?
BTW - Seems everyone who has a different view to you is "ridiculous".
You may want to think how that comes across.
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No cleaning for six hrs and saying it's normal is ridiculous. I checked my Fitbit and it has me in fat burning heartrate around 120bpm for six hrs and assumed I was exercising and walked four and a half miles between whatever I was doing. I know exercise I'm not a friggin moron this wasn't relaxation. It was a lot of physical work. I feel like you're all imagining someone folding towels while watching TV -_-Verity1111 wrote: »
You are misunderstanding - all the activities you listed are normal routine activities. Sitting down cleaning and tidying isn't exercise.
That you may do them all in one day instead of spread over the week maybe unusual but that doesn't change the activity itself.
If you are that desperate to log an activity you said yourself was mostly sitting down then perhaps you should review your activity setting?
BTW - Seems everyone who has a different view to you is "ridiculous".
You may want to think how that comes across.3 -
Verity1111 wrote: »
No cleaning for six hrs and saying it's normal is ridiculous. I checked my Fitbit and it has me in fat burning heartrate around 120bpm for six hrs and assumed I was exercising and walked four and a half miles between whatever I was doing. I know exercise I'm not a friggin moron this wasn't relaxation. It was a lot of physical work.Verity1111 wrote: »
You are misunderstanding - all the activities you listed are normal routine activities. Sitting down cleaning and tidying isn't exercise.
That you may do them all in one day instead of spread over the week maybe unusual but that doesn't change the activity itself.
If you are that desperate to log an activity you said yourself was mostly sitting down then perhaps you should review your activity setting?
BTW - Seems everyone who has a different view to you is "ridiculous".
You may want to think how that comes across.
I wouldn't put too much stock into what Fitbit says ...
https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Surge/Clocked-up-5000-steps-whilst-knitting/td-p/987116
https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Fitbit-com-Dashboard/Knitting-counted-as-steps/td-p/1642877
https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Flex/Why-does-my-fitbit-track-my-knitting-activity-as-steps/td-p/5591162 -
I personally wouldn't log it, however, I had to rent a carpet cleaner yesterday and steam clean my entire house (thank you to my dog) and was considering logging that because I was pushing that heavy machine around the house for about three hours, and felt like I was at the gym all day. However, I realized that even set at sedentary, I probably only used as much energy as I normally do vacuuming which I do every two days so I figured why blow my calorie budget for the day just because I assumed I burned a few extra calories.1
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laurenebargar wrote: »I personally wouldn't log it, however, I had to rent a carpet cleaner yesterday and steam clean my entire house (thank you to my dog) and was considering logging that because I was pushing that heavy machine around the house for about three hours, and felt like I was at the gym all day. However, I realized that even set at sedentary, I probably only used as much energy as I normally do vacuuming which I do every two days so I figured why blow my calorie budget for the day just because I assumed I burned a few extra calories.
Yeah that's the difference though you said you do something similar everyday. I definitely do not do anything similar. I am sure I used as much energy if not more than when I go to the gym. I said I was seated most of six hrs and people are not thinking that means I could have walked for a full hour or two hours and still four hours of sitting is most of the time. I keep my calories at my BMR pretty much and add on any activity. My activity level is the bare minimum before I add anything in my diary. I manually adjust it. I do not use MFP settings.1 -
Verity1111 wrote: »laurenebargar wrote: »I personally wouldn't log it, however, I had to rent a carpet cleaner yesterday and steam clean my entire house (thank you to my dog) and was considering logging that because I was pushing that heavy machine around the house for about three hours, and felt like I was at the gym all day. However, I realized that even set at sedentary, I probably only used as much energy as I normally do vacuuming which I do every two days so I figured why blow my calorie budget for the day just because I assumed I burned a few extra calories.
Yeah that's the difference though you said you do something similar everyday. I definitely do not do anything similar. I am sure I used as much energy if not more than when I go to the gym. I said I was seated most of six hrs and people are not thinking that means I could have walked for a full hour or two hours and still four hours of sitting is most of the time. I keep my calories at my BMR pretty much and add on any activity. My activity level is the bare minimum before I add anything in my diary. I manually adjust it. I do not use MFP settings.
Well I guess the way I look at it is, If you log it I wouldn't eat back any exercise calories for it. I didn't log mine even though it felt like way more than I normally do, but if I happened to burn extra calories then great! I just didn't over eat. If you arent eating back your exercise calories I dont see a problem logging it.0 -
I log activity if it is way above and beyond the activity level that I have set in MFP. One thing to note is that your set activity level is an average of your activities. The days that you are not getting as much normal activity should balance the ones where you do slightly more. When I was cleaning my house to prepare for company coming over, I only logged calories when I was mopping my floors as I was sweating while doing it. The rest of the time while I was wiping counters off, doing laundry, picking things up, I didn't log. You are right in the fact that you know your body better than anyone else here. Try logging it for today and eating those calories back. If you are still happy with the weight that you are losing, then obviously it is okay for you to do so and you can do it again. If logging it and eating those calories back stalls you from losing weight, then don't do it again. Weight loss is a long process and sometimes you have to experiment with these sort of things because our bodies are not all the same.0
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Sat down for most of it? Not worth logging, as others have said, consider it a bonus. For two days a week I used to move around heavy boxes and bed and sort, probably a bit more than you describe, I logged about 1 hours of lifting boxes or whatever entry I could fine, can't remember now, for the whole weekend. And it was damn hard work, constantly shifting around about 50 boxes selling vintage stuff wholesale.
I have a new kitten, I'm spending about 3-4 hours a day actively playing with him, I'm not logging it just calling it a bonus to my NEAT.
And let me preface this by saying I'm not judging, I know all about disability albeit mine isn't physical. But, if you needed to do 6 hours of cleaning today it probably means you're not doing so much as part of your normal day to day, so it equates to maybe 1 hour a day of general housework adding in the odd bit you might be doing already. It's really not worth logging.8 -
I wouldn't log it either.After that much housework I would pour myself a glass of wine to enjoy the nice organized house and call it a wash (red wine averages 200 calories for a 250ml glass).7
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OP, you can log it however the heck you want. Bottom line, though, is that your body knows and will reflect the truth of it.17
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Verity1111 wrote: »
I agree with you but we tend to be in the minority.
I don't count the ordinary housework I do everyday, but 6 hours is definitely out of the ordinary, and I would count that for sure. I use "Cleaning, light, moderate effort." If you feel you were somewhat less than moderate due to being seated a lot, only count 4 hours, or whatever time makes sense to you.
Similarly, I don't count ordinary daily cooking, but when I put on a big meal like I did for Mother's Day, I sure do count it.6 -
Verity1111 wrote: »Can I get an estimate? I was seated most of the time, but sorting clothes, sweeping the floor around beds, sorting toys, moving laundry bags around and doing laundry (so a tiny bit of walking but not much) for 5-6hrs. Myfitnesspal says 600-700 calories for 4hrs but it seems a bit over the top to me so I was wondering if anyone has a better calorie estimator. I'm 5'4" 180lbs and 27 years old.Verity1111 wrote: »How so? I was sweaty and exhausted by the time I was done. It was 5-6hrs of moving way more than normal.
You were sitting down most of the time, but sweaty and exhausted?
Chores are part of your activity level, you shouldn't enter them separately if your goal is to lose weight. And in terms of activity level, mostly sitting down for 4 hours probably counts as sedentary.4 -
If she normally does one hour of housework six days a week but last week did none Sunday-Friday and did six hours on Saturday, then I would agree that she shouldn't count it, as this would be her normal pattern, just distributed differently. But this was not normal for her.
This was in addition to whatever she does normally.
What is normal for one person, is not universal for us all. No one would consider the amount of time my mother spends gardening normal for someone not doing it commercially. Similarly, my OH and I have widely disparate ideas of how long one should spend in post-meal prep cleanup.7 -
kshama2001 wrote: »If she normally does one hour of housework six days a week but last week did none Sunday-Friday and did six hours on Saturday, then I would agree that she shouldn't count it, as this would be her normal pattern, just distributed differently. But this was not normal for her.
This was in addition to whatever she does normally.
What is normal for one person, is not universal for us all. No one would consider the amount of time my mother spends gardening normal for someone not doing it commercially. Similarly, my OH and I have widely disparate ideas of how long one should spend in post-meal prep cleanup.
Beyond this (which I agree with), she is eating bare minimum calories as it is (1200). Not eating some of them back would be no different than not eating some exercise calories back and could leave her 30% under her goal for the day. We wouldn't recommend that if someone at 1200 cals burned 300 at the gym, so why is this different?
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Verity1111 wrote: »I know this is not what you want to hear, but when you include everything--BMR, what you did before, what you did after, the fact that activity tables drastically overestimate calorie burns---it works out to be a wash. If the activity you described is "way more than normal", then it actually sounds as if your "normal" needs more movement.
Six hours of cleaning I wouldn't say is normal.
To be honest, I wouldn't call sitting most of the 6 hours normal house cleaning either.8 -
Cleaning is normal part of life. Anything that is a normal part of life is not worth logging.5
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Tacklewasher wrote: »kshama2001 wrote: »If she normally does one hour of housework six days a week but last week did none Sunday-Friday and did six hours on Saturday, then I would agree that she shouldn't count it, as this would be her normal pattern, just distributed differently. But this was not normal for her.
This was in addition to whatever she does normally.
What is normal for one person, is not universal for us all. No one would consider the amount of time my mother spends gardening normal for someone not doing it commercially. Similarly, my OH and I have widely disparate ideas of how long one should spend in post-meal prep cleanup.
Beyond this (which I agree with), she is eating bare minimum calories as it is (1200). Not eating some of them back would be no different than not eating some exercise calories back and could leave her 30% under her goal for the day. We wouldn't recommend that if someone at 1200 cals burned 300 at the gym, so why is this different?
300 calories at the gym is real effort for some. It takes me an hour of serious workout to burn 300 calories. Cleaning and folding laundry, even for hours, isn't serious workout.5 -
Ironandwine69 wrote: »Cleaning is normal part of life. Anything that is a normal part of life is not worth logging.
SMH.
This is so wrong. You set your activity level according to your normal activity. If you do something out of the ordinary, you should account for it. Especially when you eat the low end of the calorie range.
I just go by what my watch tells me, but if you don't use one it can be important.11 -
If she's losing an average of 2 pounds/week then she obviously isn't over-partaking of inflated activity calories every day. So what if she logs 300 calories for cleaning that is over and above what she normally does? Now if someone asked this question and in the next breath lamented the fact that they are not losing weight, my answer would be different.10
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I log cleaning and gardening, mostly because I usually don't have my phone/pedometer on me and so it doesn't count my steps. It's not a huge deal, and it usually doesn't make that big of a caloric difference, but sometimes (like when you do it most of the day) it does.
Anyway, it's just a poor question to ask around the forums, as so many people have really strong feelings about it. REALLY STRONG feelings.5 -
Ironandwine69 wrote: »Cleaning is normal part of life. Anything that is a normal part of life is not worth logging.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA clearly you've never met some of the men with whom I used to live.
Also, what about people who pay others to do their housecleaning?
Again, what's normal for you is not universal.16 -
Ironandwine69 wrote: »Tacklewasher wrote: »kshama2001 wrote: »If she normally does one hour of housework six days a week but last week did none Sunday-Friday and did six hours on Saturday, then I would agree that she shouldn't count it, as this would be her normal pattern, just distributed differently. But this was not normal for her.
This was in addition to whatever she does normally.
What is normal for one person, is not universal for us all. No one would consider the amount of time my mother spends gardening normal for someone not doing it commercially. Similarly, my OH and I have widely disparate ideas of how long one should spend in post-meal prep cleanup.
Beyond this (which I agree with), she is eating bare minimum calories as it is (1200). Not eating some of them back would be no different than not eating some exercise calories back and could leave her 30% under her goal for the day. We wouldn't recommend that if someone at 1200 cals burned 300 at the gym, so why is this different?
300 calories at the gym is real effort for some. It takes me an hour of serious workout to burn 300 calories. Cleaning and folding laundry, even for hours, isn't serious workout.
By this logic, I should only count high energy activities like swimming and snowshoeing, and not lower burn activities like walking, even if I walk for miles. O_o
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kshama2001 wrote: »Ironandwine69 wrote: »Tacklewasher wrote: »kshama2001 wrote: »If she normally does one hour of housework six days a week but last week did none Sunday-Friday and did six hours on Saturday, then I would agree that she shouldn't count it, as this would be her normal pattern, just distributed differently. But this was not normal for her.
This was in addition to whatever she does normally.
What is normal for one person, is not universal for us all. No one would consider the amount of time my mother spends gardening normal for someone not doing it commercially. Similarly, my OH and I have widely disparate ideas of how long one should spend in post-meal prep cleanup.
Beyond this (which I agree with), she is eating bare minimum calories as it is (1200). Not eating some of them back would be no different than not eating some exercise calories back and could leave her 30% under her goal for the day. We wouldn't recommend that if someone at 1200 cals burned 300 at the gym, so why is this different?
300 calories at the gym is real effort for some. It takes me an hour of serious workout to burn 300 calories. Cleaning and folding laundry, even for hours, isn't serious workout.
By this logic, I should only count high energy activities like swimming and snowshoeing, and not lower burn activities like walking, even if I walk for miles. O_o
You log what you want. Eat back what you want too.
This being healthy thing is not as complicated as people make it.6
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