Does Housework Really Count as Exercise?

dreamtoned10

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

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

[ 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

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

[ 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

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.