Thoughts about burning calories by cleaning?

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  • Tropical_Turtle
    Tropical_Turtle Posts: 2,236 Member
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    I dont vacuum and scrub floors, toilets and bathtubs every day, I do that on the weekends - so with that being said I do log it. And like this last weekend I spent 2 1/2 hours mowing (gas push mower) and weedeating my 1/4 acre back yard - you betcha I counted that as exercise. I was all hot and sweaty when I was done.

    If I am wiping down counters - oh no that I do not consider exercise
  • Serenstar75
    Serenstar75 Posts: 258 Member
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    While cleaning is exercise...it wears me out when I go on a cleaning spree (I'd rather exercise in any other way :P) I do see people who clean and move heavy furniture every day. I'm wondering if they are rearranging their house daily? These people can burn over 1400 calories in 3-4 hours by mfp. These are also the people who if you're lucky....eat 800 calories on a good day. Reminds me, I need to get into a deep spring cleaning this weekend if I can since I start school again this week.
  • myfitnessnmhoy
    myfitnessnmhoy Posts: 2,105 Member
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    The tools are there to help you track burned calories accurately. If someone wants to set their lifestyle to "sedentary" and log walking to and from the car at work, then that's the way they choose to use the tool. If they are losing weight, then the tool is working for them, even if they are using it differently.

    MFP's numbers are way off, but people tend to figure that out pretty quickly. :)
  • Spanaval
    Spanaval Posts: 1,200 Member
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    There is a lot to this that is definitional/situational.

    Does a setting of 'sedentary' mean that it expects you to not move at all? Or does it account for someone who is sitting around about 8 hours a day, sleeping about 8 hours a day, but moving the other 8 hours of the day doing normal, everyday things (driving, grocery shopping, walking from a parked car to stores, taking a shower, etc.)?

    For me, I have never in my entire life cleaned anything that left me half as drained as any of my workouts do (and I say this as someone that cleans a 4000 sq. ft. house with an "assist" from the 2 year old). I might be moving, but I'm nowhere near pushing myself to exhaustion. To me, the things I do to just live my normal life, should be accounted for in my 'lifestyle' setting and not as exercise. Anything I do above and beyond that, to improve overall fitness, that's what exercise is.
    So for people to elude that this is normal everyday stuff..once you are in a routine of going to the gym-isn't that an every day normal activity? Should you just stop logging your everyday workout routine..because it has become an every day occurence?

    To the person that asked this. My workouts are never 'normal activity', although they are on my schedule. I generally don't do the exact same thing twice. If I'm not pushing myself, doing more, better, faster than I was doing the previous time, I'm not doing it right. I don't take nearly the same attitude towards stuff I do on a routine basis.
  • LuckyAng
    LuckyAng Posts: 1,173 Member
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    If I'm sweeping, scrubbing the tub, and vacuuming for an hour you can bet I'm logging it. Lugging that vacuum up 4 flights etc. So...depends on the person but I always log yard work and house cleaning. You can bet I'm breaking a sweat.

    Oh and yes, I do workout at the gym too.

    Exactly.
  • Kimmerso1
    Kimmerso1 Posts: 1
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    I put in housekeeping because my job is housekeeping at a local university. Believe me 8 hours of that job I have definitely burned some calories. I do believe that the calorie calculator does over estimate how much I have burned so I lower the amount. Its not a "heavy" workout, but it is a workout(when its your job) .
  • troystweets
    troystweets Posts: 15
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    I cleaned houses for 3 hours a day, 5 days a week. I lost 30 pounds doing it. I did NO other exercises at that time so I know that it was because of the workout I was getting while cleaning houses.
    That being said, I do put down cleaning as my workout when I do non-stop cleaning of my own home (usually Saturdays).
    and as for MFP and the calories being burned totals, I find it actually a little more accurate than those listed on the treadmill and are slightly less than other calorie counters on the 'net.
  • melbatoast917
    melbatoast917 Posts: 370 Member
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    I USED to log everything! EV-ER-Y THING-UH! (cleaning, shopping, painting, etc.) But then when the weight started coming off I decided not to log anything that wasn't a conscious decision to elevate my heart rate. Now I use a heart rate monitor for an accurate burn count and only wear it at the gym.
  • tvanhooser
    tvanhooser Posts: 326 Member
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    If I sweat it counts so no on general everyday cleaning...but heavy duty cleaning for hours on end, yep you bet. But I generally take my pulse every so often and stick in the heart rate based calorie burn calculator at shapesense.com since I don't have an HRM. That tells me whether I am actually putting in enough effort to make it worthwhile to enter it.
  • kellie1055
    kellie1055 Posts: 80 Member
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    If I log housework its because Im washing walls, moving furniture, cleaning floors by hand.....its work. Hard work! Washing dishes and doing laundry doesnt count for me.
  • jessmart83
    jessmart83 Posts: 283 Member
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    I dont usually log cleaning, its part of every day life for me, having a 5yr old i am always cleaning something! I guess if I did some heavy spring cleaning I would log it.
  • LadyBeryl
    LadyBeryl Posts: 344 Member
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    Why would someone who tracks cleaning as part of their exercise routine negate the "sweat pouring off of you"? Why do you care? If YOU aren't counting them, how does it affect you? Other than allowing you to affect a superiority complex about it, of course? If people want to count cleaning as exercise, I don't care. I don't do it, but that's MY approach. More power to them if they want to...doesn't affect my net for the day.

    This right here. I have no strong feelings either way.

    I have a cleaning lady and if I did her laborious work, I would probably count it. However, I don't count my daily house cleaning, laundry, vacuuming, etc.. It is like any other hygienic routine. OTOH, I do count grooming my dogs. It wears me out so much that I'm not only sweating -- I have almost fainted.
  • DebbieLyn63
    DebbieLyn63 Posts: 2,650 Member
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    Just so you all know, the girl who started this thread, back in MAY, has deleted her account and is no longer following this thread.
  • amandavictoria80
    amandavictoria80 Posts: 734 Member
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    I have to agree with you. I'm a stay at home mom and clean vigorously almost daily. I have never once logged it as exercise.
    It bugs me too when I pushed myself through a killer workout and then see someone burned the same as me by cleaning.

    Get this, I actually saw someone log 'meal preparation' as exercise. Come on now. lol
  • amandavictoria80
    amandavictoria80 Posts: 734 Member
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    Just so you all know, the girl who started this thread, back in MAY, has deleted her account and is no longer following this thread.

    What do you mean? Her profile is still there.
  • IHopie
    IHopie Posts: 14
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    I am disabled with rheumatoid arthritis and several other chronic conditions , especially neck and back spine damage. So if I spend an hour cleaning, I'll count that as 30 minutes even though it takes a lot out of me to do that much. I can't walk much but if I shop, that hour of walking around counts as 30 minutes to me. I could ride in a cart and take the easy way out but I don't. So don't deny me the time I spend moving. Any time I am off the sofa or out of bed is progress. It's not like I count the everyday tasks of picking up and putting away and wiping down. When I count it, it counts.
  • trophywife24
    trophywife24 Posts: 1,472 Member
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    I don't think that anyone is doing themselves any favors by logging the things that you would normally do (around the house) pre-diet/life style change.... cleaning, carrying around a baby, anything like that.. especially people that eat their exercise cals.

    That being said, I try to mind my own business on my feed.
  • 388gigi
    388gigi Posts: 485 Member
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    I do a huge house clean once a week. I usually do it after a workout and taking my dog for a walk, so I am wearing my HRM. Since I already have it on, I usually log those calories. And that's because I actually sweat when I clean my house. Depending on how much cleaning I do, the burns range from 100-400 calories!

    However, I don't log a quick tidy up, or cleaning the kitchen after preparing a meal, or making my bed, or anything of the little day to day stuff.

    Also, I don't eat back those calories. It's more just out of interest, since they are calories I wouldn't burn every single day.
  • DrewyPoohLovesLife
    DrewyPoohLovesLife Posts: 1
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    I'd like to have it as an option because I'm a housekeeper, so that really affects my daily calories burned, in reality versus on MFP if I don't take it into account.
  • Mokey41
    Mokey41 Posts: 5,769 Member
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    I'd like to have it as an option because I'm a housekeeper, so that really affects my daily calories burned, in reality versus on MFP if I don't take it into account.

    If you mean your job is as a housekeeper then you can set your activity level to lightly active to account for those calories burned while you work. You might even go the next level up if you're a super duper housekeeper.

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