Cleaning=Exercise

jfer1977

I thought I'd share my two cents on tracking cleaning as exercise. I had a week that I did that and I gained weight. After that I got a bodybugg and have compared the calories burned and activity time with the calories burned for exercise on here. This morning I did an hour of cleaning (vacuuming, mopping and a bathroom). I put effort into it and my bodybugg only showed 10 minutes of activity for that hour. So, I only had 10 minutes of burning more calories than normal in that hour.

I just want to say, be careful if you are using cleaning as exercise to ensure you are under your calorie intake for the day. You'd be surprised, what you'd think is burning more calories actually isn't. Then there have been some things that I wouldn't have thought would burn more calories and they do.

Good luck to everyone in their weight loss goals. I wish you all a healthy long life. :happy:

Pumpkinpie10

I agree. Many cleaning tasks are not as vigorous or incorporate as many muscles as traditional exercise routines. On occasion, I do count cleaning as exercise but only if I am winded, sweaty, or sore afterward and the event is NOT a part of my normal routine (like helping a friend move a 100 boxes or painting several rooms with cathedral ceilings one afternoon). Even then, I reduce the time so I am only counting the actual exertion minutes and not the entire event.

edorice

I never add cleaning, washing my car, and walking up the stairs at my job as part of my exercise. If I'm not breaking a sweat then it's not included.

zilla

I just count my cleaning and error running etc in my daily level of activity. I know that I spend a lot of time running up and down stairs, walking up to shops, walking to bus stop, cleaning. So I just have said that I'm got a moderate level of activity.

ajbeans

I do add cleaning in, but only if it's actually vigorous (vacuuming the whole house, etc.) and I don't add in as many minutes as I actually did it. Like today I was working for 2.5 hours and on my feet constantly, but I put in 60 minutes and don't intend to eat back all the calories. I think what MFP considers "cleaning" is a lot different from what most of us consider "cleaning." I think they want us to be climbing ladders and cleaning the tops of the door jambs and scrubbing floors with a toothbrush or something. :laugh: