Is cleaning the house a good way to burn calories? Do you count it?

Missycvt
Missycvt Posts: 422 Member
edited November 19 in Fitness and Exercise
I've been cleaning all day. Garage, driveway, bathrooms, living room, kitchen, etc...I know that MFP has an exercise input for cleaning and I'm curious as to who counts this and who doesn't consider it as heavy calorie burn? At least for the day of...

Replies

  • Missycvt
    Missycvt Posts: 422 Member
    I'm sure if you accompany it with exercise it is always better but does anyone else feel that it is necessary to consider cleaning an exercise for weight loss?
  • gamerbabe14
    gamerbabe14 Posts: 876 Member
    I would not.
  • spiriteagle99
    spiriteagle99 Posts: 3,743 Member
    Activity levels assume that cleaning house, shopping, etc. are part of your normal energy expenditure. I would look at the extra calories burned from in-depth cleaning as bonus, and not count it as exercise.
  • estherdragonbat
    estherdragonbat Posts: 5,283 Member
    I'd say if you generally don't do housework and you're doing some heavy chores. I usually have a cleaning lady come. Now, if I were doing spring cleaning on my own, where I was moving furniture, climbing on ladders to do windows, scrubbing grime from shelves that have not been scrubbed in a long time, going out and weeding the stuff coming up between the patio stones... yes, I'd probably log that. Just pushing a mop and broom and some light dusting? Not so much.
  • Mike_take2
    Mike_take2 Posts: 2,150 Member
    I don't count things that I would normally do anyway in my day to day life such as housework, yard work, grocery shopping, preparing meals, etc. I only count things I do specifically for the purpose of losing weight or getting into shape.
  • bbell1985
    bbell1985 Posts: 4,571 Member
    No. Things even out. You will have some days that are more sedentary than others.
  • Verity1111
    Verity1111 Posts: 3,309 Member
    Missycvt wrote: »
    I've been cleaning all day. Garage, driveway, bathrooms, living room, kitchen, etc...I know that MFP has an exercise input for cleaning and I'm curious as to who counts this and who doesn't consider it as heavy calorie burn? At least for the day of...

    I consider it exercise if I am doing it for a long amount of time. I don't normally clean for hours at a time every single day so yes I think cleaning for hours is exercise because it is NOT my usual routine to clean that much.
  • Verity1111
    Verity1111 Posts: 3,309 Member
    edited June 2017
    Relax_Its_Just_Burpees wrote: »
    If you wanna burn some calories via cleaning, pick up that bar and do some real cleaning.. throw in a jerk as well and you'll be good.

    Don't bother counting house work as exersice. They don't burn that much.

    That's false. If you do it for hours it can burn a lot. You can exercise for an hr and burn 500 calories so if you clean for 5 hrs you better believe you can burn at the very least 500 calories. Even with a low intensity you are moving for 5 times the amount of time.
  • Tried30UserNames
    Tried30UserNames Posts: 561 Member
    I don't count my daily life as exercise, but if I spent an entire day doing heavy cleaning, I'd probably not use the "sedentary" calculation at MFP for that day. I'd check to see what lightly active or active calories would be. I wouldn't call it exercise, but it's definitely activity.
  • Luna3386
    Luna3386 Posts: 888 Member
    I count it if it's not my normal activity. Like day to day cleaning I don't count. Of I go crazy and really clean I do. I don't eat all of the exercise calories though.
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    I wouldn't count it, I just take those days as an added bonus.
  • SCoil123
    SCoil123 Posts: 2,111 Member
    I don't count regular chores
  • EsmeMary101
    EsmeMary101 Posts: 154 Member
    I don't normally but on the rare days when I tear into it at a fever pitch I would. Those times I break a sweat and feel fit to collapse afterwards it's definitely more of an exercise.
  • MommyMeggo
    MommyMeggo Posts: 1,222 Member
    Nah- Ill just enjoy a bigger deficit. If its heavy duty garage work I just reward myself with a beer and call it a day. :)
  • JoRocka
    JoRocka Posts: 17,525 Member
    nope.

    then again- I don't clean- so there is that.
  • lauracups
    lauracups Posts: 533 Member
    The only times I've counted it was when heavy lifting, boxes, footlockers and more than 10 trips up and down the stairs where done. Otherwise no. I do count snow shoveling (800ft driveway ) and raking (a few acres)
  • Penthesilea514
    Penthesilea514 Posts: 1,189 Member
    I just let my fitbit measure my steps so I don't log it as a specific activity, just part of my daily adjustment.
  • VeryKatie
    VeryKatie Posts: 5,961 Member
    edited June 2017
    I think it's a good way to get an extra "hidden" burn. I personally would not count that in my exercise diary. But that's my personal preference.

    However, the number of times I see people on my feed who count things like cooking or cleaning as exercise and then go on to complain that they're not losing weight seems pretty high in comparison to people who only count the planned exercise.
  • ValkyrieOnline
    ValkyrieOnline Posts: 160 Member
    VeryKatie wrote: »
    I think it's a good way to get an extra "hidden" burn. I personally would not count that in my exercise diary. But that's my personal preference.

    However, the number of times I see people on my feed who count things like cooking or cleaning as exercise and then go on to complain that they're not losing weight seems pretty high in comparison to people who only count the planned exercise.
    I agree 100%! It is best as a hidden burn :blush:
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    edited June 2017
    I have a wife so why would I clean the house?
    #Joking!

    It's a good thing to swap inactivity for being active but no I wouldn't log it as exercise.
This discussion has been closed.

Categories