Does Housework Really Count as Exercise?

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  • tjpinch
    tjpinch Posts: 87 Member
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    It really depends. I'm a SAHM of two boys, and when I first signed up I had my activity level as "sedentary", and my calorie goals at 1.5 lb/week loss. I was losing over 2. So obviously carrying loads of laundry up and down the stairs were having some impact. I've re-adjusted my activity level and it balanced out. If I were doing anything out of the ordinary I'd log it.
  • ARDuBaie
    ARDuBaie Posts: 379 Member
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    Since I exercise every day, I don't count it. I know that some do, but when I am burning up to 1000 calories a day and can't even eat all those calories, why count housework as exercise? On top of that, I do a little housework, sit down, do some more, sit down, etc. so it just doesn't seem like exercise to me. Just my humble opinion that only applies to me. What others do is up to them.
  • schnarfo
    schnarfo Posts: 764 Member
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    no its not exercise, it is an activity. however should you log it? totally up to you - if you worked hard and worked up a sweat then why not?
  • adjones5
    adjones5 Posts: 938 Member
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    If I'm doing my regular cleaning (laundry, kitchen, dusting, etc.) I don't count it but if I spend 7 hours moving heavy **** around and scrubbing on my hands a knees I'll wear my heart rate monitor just to see, if its significant I may log some of it.
  • abbigail_r
    abbigail_r Posts: 283 Member
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    the amount of calories you are givien in a day is about how many calories you burn daily. If you are doing housework you dont normally do and you break a sweat yes i think it can be counted but daily activity and cleaning no...
  • ajbeans
    ajbeans Posts: 2,857 Member
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    no its not exercise, it is an activity. however should you log it? totally up to you - if you worked hard and worked up a sweat then why not?

    I don't sweat very much except in the summer, regardless of what I'm doing, and then in the summer I sweat almost constantly. Sweat is not a good indicator of effort, or of calories burned.
  • dez_yaoichan
    dez_yaoichan Posts: 454
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    i only count it if its beyond the normal, everyday chores. washing dishes? no. moving around the living room and scrubbing floors? yes.
  • grapenutSF
    grapenutSF Posts: 648 Member
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    No. Quit it.
  • dez_yaoichan
    dez_yaoichan Posts: 454
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    double post
  • jillcwhite
    jillcwhite Posts: 181 Member
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    No I would not count it! If I did a all day cleaning and was out of breath and broke sweat - I would put in some time for calorie burning but not the whole time. I would hate to eat a bunch of food thinking I burned it cleaning.
  • dreamtoned10
    dreamtoned10 Posts: 163 Member
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    Id say Ive logged it a handful of times ever. Ive logged cutting the grass, as in the last house we had a push lawnmower which would take about 2 hours to do front and back garden and Id always do the neighbours...Id have to take a five minute break in between because it would tire me out so much!!

    Ive also logged hoovering, as I have a husky dog, and in the last house I lived in there was carpet up the stairs, so hoovering the dog hair would be an EXTREME workout!!!!

    Other than that no I dont log it, but I do secretly feel happy Ive burned a few bonus calories!

    Edited to add: When I logged it I logged it as light housework, and usually logged it for half the time it took to be on the safe side.
  • jellybaby84
    jellybaby84 Posts: 583 Member
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    Oh, and I always count shoveling snow. Sometimes I get a better work out from that than I would my regular exercise.

    Shoveling is a good one, you have to put your whole body into it. The last time I shoveled I wore my HRM. My heart rate was 160-180 the entire time and I burned something like 700 calories in just 45ish minutes.

    I'm so jealous of people for whom snow shovelling is regularly necessary! (not that I like to shovel, I like to have snow!)

    I don't think housework counts as exercise, no. I can accept that it raises your heart rate and might even make you sweat if it's hot or you sweat easily. But daily life gets your heart rate up occasionally too. Nobody sits on their butt all day every day.

    I don't think it's a problem to log it if you want to have something to log that day - but to treat them as burned calories you can eat - I think that's pretty counterproductive. It would be like saying 'Oh I ran down the road to the post box this morning, I must remember to eat back those calories' - nope, that's just living really isn't it!!
  • ajbeans
    ajbeans Posts: 2,857 Member
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    [ Nobody sits on their butt all day every day.

    Actually, they do. Lots of people do. If you have an office job and sit all day there, then you come home and watch tv all night, yeah, you're pretty much sitting on your butt all day.
  • Alysia1119
    Alysia1119 Posts: 12
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    O do not think that it counts as exercise. unless you are doing something very vigerous, moving furnature perhaps, shoveling snow. something that you would actually break a sweat i guess you could count.
  • jellybaby84
    jellybaby84 Posts: 583 Member
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    [ Nobody sits on their butt all day every day.

    Actually, they do. Lots of people do. If you have an office job and sit all day there, then you come home and watch tv all night, yeah, you're pretty much sitting on your butt all day.

    No, they have to get up, move around the house, go up and down stairs a few times, make breakfast, wash it up, get to their car, get out to their office, move around the office for probably countless little reasons and move around their house in the evening doing various little things. And then their routine will change - they might go and buy something from a shop at lunchtime or go to post a letter or go visit a friend, go grocery shopping etc. They are not going to just sit for their entire day.
  • sarahp86
    sarahp86 Posts: 692 Member
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    If I'm doing daily cleaning I don't count it. If I'm doing a major clean I strap on the HRM. It makes me work faster.

    Yesterday I was moving furniture, scrubbing floors and packing away Christmas decorations and I burned 608 calories in 92 mins.

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