What constitutes exercise to you?

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  • Juliebean_1027
    Juliebean_1027 Posts: 713 Member
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    I counted "light cleaning" yesterday just because I was doing it for about 6-7 hours. I cleaned my entire house from top to bottom, including scrubbing all of the floors on my hands and knees, plus walking up and down the 2 flights of stairs to a) do the laundry and then b) put it away upstairs. Typically, I don't log something like that, but yesterday it was a more intense effort on my part. I was sweating, my heart rate was up, and I was constantly moving. I cleaned for about 7 hours, but only logged 3 hours of it as exercise, and even then I adjusted my calories burned to only 300 because I wasn't wearing my HRM while I was doing it. I'm sure I burned more than that, but since I had already been to the gym that morning, it was just an extra workout for me. To each his own.
  • RAFValentina
    RAFValentina Posts: 1,231 Member
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    Oh, and I only have about 5lb left to lose and only had just over 14 to lose to start with anyway! So no, I won't lose as much as you otherwise it will Kill me. Literally!
  • StressedChaos
    StressedChaos Posts: 86 Member
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    I log housework whenever I do something more then my normal routine. Such as when I do my son's room and have to move the bunk beds and clean out from under them and the dressers. I can work up a good sweat cleaning his room.
  • LorinaLynn
    LorinaLynn Posts: 13,247 Member
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    On Friday, our house flooded. I spent 5 hours bailing water out of the kitchen, brushing it, mopping it, getting down on my knees and scrubbing all the mud off by hand. Twice. Yes. I think that counts as exercise. So yes, I logged it as 2 hours of housework. It wasn't, it was actually 5 for the kitchen plus another two or three doing the normal things.

    Don't judge what other people log unless you know every single little detail of their life.

    This, too. My sister is getting a new roof, done by family & friends, and I logged two hours of "yard work" when I spent 4 hours cleaning up shingles. Bending, crawling, kneeling, lifting, carrying... It's not like I was planting daffodil bulbs. :wink:
  • jocraw66
    jocraw66 Posts: 52
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    Totally not judging... Everyone has a right to their own opinions and like I said earlier, "whatever works" There are some, many in fact who never see results and that is because they are doing nothing outside of their normal routine. If the things you are doing now aren't working for you then you need to reevaluate. Period.

    Next, I'd say cleaning up after a house flooded or helping to put up a new roof is out of the normal realm of cleaning... Dusting an entertainment center or vacuuming a living room... Not so much.
  • fteale
    fteale Posts: 5,310 Member
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    Totally not judging... Everyone has a right to their own opinions and like I said earlier, "whatever works" There are some, many in fact who never see results and that is because they are doing nothing outside of their normal routine. If the things you are doing now aren't working for you then you need to reevaluate. Period.

    Next, I'd say cleaning up after a house flooded or helping to put up a new roof is out of the normal realm of cleaning... Dusting an entertainment center or vacuuming a living room... Not so much.

    But how do you know when people log cleaning what they are doing? That was my point. Or shopping, they might log an hour or two when they were in fact walking non stop for 8 hours. That's what I do. You just can't tell.
  • jocraw66
    jocraw66 Posts: 52
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    But how do you know when people log cleaning what they are doing? That was my point. Or shopping, they might log an hour or two when they were in fact walking non stop for 8 hours. That's what I do. You just can't tell.
    [/quote]

    Because when they log is shows up as things like general cleaning 45 minutes. Log it differently if it is different.

    I think we are going to just disagree on this. One thing I do know is that when I weighed nearly 300 pounds I didn't lose any weight because I cleaned my house, went shopping or any of the other things that I mentioned in my original post. I personally think that many (myself included) want to somehow make excuses for the reasons they aren't losing weight. There, I said it. Hate me if you want but I'VE BEEN THERE so I'm not just blowing smoke up someones rear end.

    Truth is, if you want to lose weight and keep it off normal chores just aren't going to cut it. Period.
  • fteale
    fteale Posts: 5,310 Member
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    I agree that if you log the stuff you do normally you aren't going to lose weight. Where we disagree is that I don't think people are doing that. I would suggest people are only logging things like gardening and housework or even walking when what they are doing is exceptional, and even then, if they are anything like me, they log less than half of what they actually do.
  • fteale
    fteale Posts: 5,310 Member
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    I also think that if people are logging whatever they are and still losing then it's pointless to criticise.
  • jocraw66
    jocraw66 Posts: 52
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    Um, I said originally they weren't losing. I'm also not criticizing. Just stating my own personal opinion.

    I'm glad that whatever it is you are doing works for you. I only wish that my normal routine had worked for me. I could have saved thousands of bucks on a gym membership as well as laid in bed on cold mornings rather than get up for my run.
  • lacroyx
    lacroyx Posts: 5,754 Member
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    to me excercise is moving about, whether walking, dancing, lifting, jogging and breaking a good sweat for at least 30 mins.
  • sonjavon
    sonjavon Posts: 1,019 Member
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    I really think it depends on where you're "starting" from. There are those who, as a rule...didn't really clean their house very often or not all at one shot... cleaning could very well be exercise to them. There are times when I consider cleaning to be exercise... for instance, when I'm preparing for a party and spend 4 hours moving furniture and cleaning under it, scrubbing, sweeping, mopping, etc... yeah, it's exercise... and I have the HRM to prove it! LOL. But for general cleaning - I don't count it.

    I think it's important though, to respect where people are starting. We each have our own journey and because we're an online community... we will never know someone's whole story. People may not be comfortable sharing just HOW sedentary they have been.
  • gemco
    gemco Posts: 129
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    i see where the OP is coming from. i've read threads before where people have said they log things like normal housework or walking to the shop - ie stuff they've always done and wasnt helping them lose weight before. the danger is MFP way over estimates the calories for these things. i can see how it could be tempting to log 20mins of housework to balance the books, but it's ultimately cheating yourself and giving a false sense of achieving something. thinking 'i should be losing weight here, i'm following the whatsit'.

    for the most part though i think people just log things out of the ordinary for them and only half or less of the actual time. not everyone is thinking about how their diary looks to other people when they log so wont clarify it. if someone's regularly logging washing up and wondering why those 700 calories arent melting away the fat then yes i'd shake my head. otherwise i assume they've had a busy day with something.
  • fteale
    fteale Posts: 5,310 Member
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    Um, I said originally they weren't losing. I'm also not criticizing. Just stating my own personal opinion.

    I'm glad that whatever it is you are doing works for you. I only wish that my normal routine had worked for me. I could have saved thousands of bucks on a gym membership as well as laid in bed on cold mornings rather than get up for my run.

    It's not about normal routine, I have made that point 3 times now. I only log cleaning if I am doing something like bailing several cubic meters of water out of my kitchen, and who is to say when other people log housework it isn't because they are doing something exceptional? That is the only point I am making here.
  • ajbeans
    ajbeans Posts: 2,857 Member
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    I count reading this same thread over and over as exercise. Because every time it gets brought up, which is at least twice a week, my heart rate gets up. :laugh:

    Why do you care what other people log? How does it affect you? If you can't support them, get off their friend list. I do log everyday cleaning like vacuuming, mopping, straightening up, whatever. I eat back whatever calories MFP gives me for that. And I had lost nearly 30 lbs doing so (I gained some back recently due to illness).

    If it's working for them, why do you care? If it's not working for them... then again, why do you care? How does it affect you in any way? Some people are extremely overweight and cleaning is a major calorie burn. It counts. Some people are extremely sedentary, so walking through the grocery store is a big deal for them. It counts. And some people, like me, just need the extra incentive to clean up the kids' messes for the 8th time today, so we log the calories and enjoy an extra healthy snack. That counts too. It's nobody else's business.
  • JRhinoC
    JRhinoC Posts: 22
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    Cleaning, shopping, doing chores, these things would not be elevating your heart rate if you were healthy and in shape. These things are part of an active lifestyle, not exercise. By becoming active, the only thing you're doing is putting your body into a position it should have been in from the start.

    People can claim these things are exercise all they want, that's up to them. But when their body realizes that it was meant to be able to move this way to begin with, the calories burned from these activities is going to come to a crashing halt.

    So, if people want to lie to themselves, fine, let them. But when they wonder why it isn't working anymore...

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