Cleaning as exercise?

tvsloan9438

I want to know your thoughts. Would you log your cleaning as exercise?

cmriverside

no.

You were cleaning when you got to over-weight, I assume?

It's part of daily life, unless you're doing a full-house deep clean for several hours, like moving all the furniture, vacuuming ceilings, doing all the floors. That might be worth it. Like twice a year. :flowerforyou:

AnnPT77

Routine cleaning? No.

The sedentary/not very active activity setting already includes a calorie allowance for basic activity, such as routine housework. Implicitly, so do the other settings.

If a person logs routine housework in that context, they're double counting those activity calories. That would result in slower loss compared to expected.

How big a problem that is would be situational and individual. If someone's trying to lose weight stupid fast (not unusual), it could even be a good thing.

pony4us

I do but only when doing a big clean. Truth be told I am not a daily cleaner so my cleaning generally is move the furniture scrub floors type. When I do that, or take down and wash curtains, switch rugs etc I do count it. For just a quick swifter..no.

Retroguy2000

It worked for Daniel LaRusso.

ninerbuff

If it were something that you don't normally do, then probably. But personally I don't count cleaning as exercise. I just count it as NEAT throughout my day.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 35+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

ninerbuff

Retroguy2000 wrote: »

It worked for Daniel LaRusso.

So you were a car salesman?

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 35+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

csplatt

nope nope that’s just daily movement.

springlering62

I was the Queen of Clean, and obese as well.

However, during lockdown, I cleaned my house top to bottom three times a week, whether it needed it or not, simply for the NEAT. I didn’t count it as calories.

My Dyson probably has more miles than my car.

peazoo1325

Cleaning, mowing lawn, doing laundry burns calories. We track steps… why? Because 10k steps equals 5 miles. It’s up to you. Just be aware as you become more fit, the calories burned are not the same.

AnnPT77

peazoo1325 wrote: »

Cleaning, mowing lawn, doing laundry burns calories. We track steps… why? Because 10k steps equals 5 miles. It’s up to you. Just be aware as you become more fit, the calories burned are not the same.

If you do the same activity at the same intensity and the same body weight . . . the calories are about the same. As you get fitter, it feels easier to do the same thing. That's the definition of "improved fitness", pretty much.

Also, heart-rate-based calorie estimates may be lower for the same-sized fitter person doing the same activity at the same intensity. But that's a flaw in tracker estimates, not a reflection of reality. As we get fitter, our heart gets stronger (it's a muscle, right?). It pumps more blood per beat, so each beat delivers more oxygen to the muscles. It's the oxygen consumption that correlates well with calorie burn. Heart rate is an imperfect proxy.

Yes, as we get lighter, activities that involve moving our body through space do require fewer calories, because moving a smaller body is less work, in the physics sense of "work". It's the work that burns the calories.

Call me cynical, but I think the "body confusion" or "shock your body" ideas are something that outfits like Beachbody cooked up to keep us buying new and different exercise programs and equipment.

If fit people burned lots fewer calories doing intense things compared to unfit people, the world's elite endurance athletes wouldn't require the massive calorie intake they need when training to keep up their strength and size. Same general idea applies to average people. I burn about the same number of calories rowing at the same pace/distance as I did 20 years ago, adjusted for my change in bodyweight. But it feels easier, for sure.

Jthanmyfitnesspal

@tvsloan9438 : I wouldn't call it exercise, but it's certainly an activity that burns more calories than lying in bed.

If you wear an activity monitor (Fitbit, Garmin, Apple watch), you'll get some calorie credit for it.