House work as exercise

Lize11e

About the only exercise I get is housework and yardwork. I generally try not to eat too many of the calories back from either because, to be honest, I am skeptical that I really burned that many. I do log it though and I am losing weight very steadily. I see NOTHING wrong with logging chores as exercise! :happy:

casi_ann

I log my cleaning but remove it from the boards so no one can see it and make their comments and I don't eat the calories back if it is earned by cleaning. I may eat a few of the calories if I want something and I'm just 10 to 30calories off my target. Everyone is different. If I tried to go to the gym and work out for one hour I'd probably have a heart attack. Maybe when I get closer to my goal weight I'd be able to do that but not now with 100 pounds to lose (actually 85 pounds now that I lost 15 )

casi_ann

On the other hand, I work full time as a registered nurse and do lots of walking all day and don't count that because I feel i do it all the time.

janemem

agreed. if you google image "maid" you get some very very sexy and fit women pop up on the search. so ladies, clean your pretty little hearts out!!

Hehehehehe! :laugh: :bigsmile:

mhoward685

What I don't understand is why I am not losing more when I don't (usually) log my daily activities like housework, gardening and MFP doesn't calculate calories burned strength training. I entered sedentary because that is what I was when I started but not now. If MFP figures calories needs on no activity then I should be in a much larger calories deficit.

jcpmoore

It's not exercise. It's the basic rudimentary functions of the 21st century human being in a first world society.

Granted, can you break a sweat cleaning or chasing a couple toddler's around? Absolutely...But to put that on the same level as 60 minutes in the gym..or a zumba class for that matter is stretching the bounds of a lazy rationale.

You should be taking care of all your domestic work in addition to conventional exercise outlets...not cleaning the toilet and calling it a hard days work.

Nothing is worse than failing because you didn't work hard enough.

So what would you say to my HRM that say my 20 minutes of circuit training and 45 minutes of scrubbing the bathrooms burn the same calories?

It's a simple thing-if you list your lifestyle as not active, then housework that raises your heart rate counts. If your lifestyle is listed as lightly active, then housework doesn't count. If I clean once a week instead of every day, I leave it set to inactive and list the housework. If I clean daily, I set to lightly active and leave the housework unlisted. Simple.

For me, if I'm scrubbing or cleaning and raising my heart rate, I list it. Because this is NOT my norm. If I'm washing dishes, folding clothes and such I don't because that's regular activity for me.

sgarrard01

Remember! if you've set your lifestyle to sedentry and your aiming to loose 2lbs a week than you'll not only be eating for someone who lives in bed all day, but also your under even your BMR which is the energy your body needs to function if you were in a coma (dont worry i'm not knocking it, im doing this myself!)

Therfore you need to add back everything as your body needs this fuel to work and function! calorie burn is calorie burn whether its anerobic, areobic or f'n exausting!... your body needs fuel to function so why deny it what it needs when your already denying it a large amount of the energy it needs anyway!....

FitLink

I don't log cleaning because frankly, I don't clean long enough or hard enough to consider it exercise. For example, I'll spend 10 minutes cleaning the bathroom then go do sonething else. A few hours later I might sweep for 10 minutes, then go do something else. Later I might water the plants, tidy up the living room a bit for 10 minutes then go do something else. And so on. All told on a daily basis I probably do an hour's worth of cleaning in short, 10 minute bursts. Am I supposed to count that as exercise? My heart rate doesn't go up, I rarely break a sweat, so for me it's just not exercise. I feel like I would be cheating myself if I counted it. Same with gardening...I used to count it until I realized that my heart rate wasn't increasing or anything. Same with walking my dog. He's one of those dogs who likes to mosey along and stop and act nosy about every little thing. Same with work, I teach and I'm on my feet all day, I wear a pedometer at work and I actually get a lot of steps in, but I don't count it as exercise because my heart rate isn't increasing and I'm not breaking a sweat teaching.

I don't care what other people do, so if anyone else wants to count their cleaning as exercise, fine with me. I have noticed that some on my friends list who do this, it's the only exercise they do. Which I find interesting.

As it happens, you don't have to raise your heart rate, or sweat, to burn calories. And NEAT, Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis, is far more important to long term weight control than any other thing you could focus on.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12468415
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/307/5709/530.short

secretlobster

I still did housework when I was fat. I mean really, I was fat but not a fat SLOB. Come on.

Chubbud1

I agree. Im moving/cleaning and trust me, some of the crap Ive had to clean and pack has been heavy. :-)

Kara52217

Agreed.
Just yesterday I logged mine. And I wore my HRM when doing it, as I was moving the furniture and such to "deep" clean parts of the house.

I personally log my "extra" house work not my day to day stuff. But to each their own. Besides if you log it or not as long as your losing weight (which is why were all here) WHO CARES. Everyone is different for pete's sakes.

Happy Friday!!

semeyer

When I first started MFP, I would log any and all exercise I would do, including housework. As I began to get more in tune with my body, it seemed like the calories MFP was calculating for 'housework' were pretty high. Consider that during my housework, I would pause to yell at my cat to get off the wet floor I just washed, stop to watch something interesting on tv that catches my eye, I get a phone call, etc -- I realized I wasn't actually cleaning the whole 90 mins or whatever it took me to clean the house. When I noticed the calories being calculated were comparable to when I do a jillian michaels dvd...I thought something seemed a little fishy because I was not even close to as wiped as I am when I do those dvds.

I think its all a personal choice and I personally don't work hard enough when I do housework to benefit from counting it as an exercise. But if you are busting booty and really in the zone, I would log it, just be honest with yourself about how much of the time spent was done on actual cleaning.

caraiselite

i don't clean every day. most days i am sitting at a desk/laying in bed watching tv.
i log anything that i do for more than 15 minutes.

FitLink

It's not exercise. It's the basic rudimentary functions of the 21st century human being in a first world society.

Granted, can you break a sweat cleaning or chasing a couple toddler's around? Absolutely...But to put that on the same level as 60 minutes in the gym..or a zumba class for that matter is stretching the bounds of a lazy rationale.

You should be taking care of all your domestic work in addition to conventional exercise outlets...not cleaning the toilet and calling it a hard days work.

Nothing is worse than failing because you didn't work hard enough.

Who are you to tell me, or anyone else, what they "should" do? And how dare you call other people "lazy?"

Newsflash! You don't get to decide what people "should" do. You're not specially gifted. You only get to decide what you "should" do.

meljane28

Agree with you on the housework. I recently scrubbed my tub for a solid hour and was sweating like I was at the gym! Also, if you search "strength training" under Cardiovascular it is there. So I log that to get the cals and then log the individual exercises to remember what I've done.

tansygreen

I don't log mine, because I set myself up as having a moderately active lifestyle when I registered with MFP. If I had set myself up as having a sedentary lifestyle I might log the more strenuous housework.

Personally, when I walk the dogs, walk the kids to school and clean up I'm not going at it 100% or working up a sweat like I would going for a run or on an exercise bike, so I wouldn't know how to make sure I was actually burning off the amout MFP would tell me I was. Maybe if you have a HRM and you are set up as having a sedentary lifestyle, it would be much more important to log it and eat back the cals.

The way I have been doing this has been working OK for me, with a slow and steady loss since I started, so I stick with it.

I know it's not totally accurate, but then it's likely my logging isn't totally accurate either. I'm sure I don't remember to log when I take a 'taste' spoonful when cooking meals, a couple of fries left on a child's plate, a piece of gum or a jellybaby from the kids pack or whatever. I'm also not going to log mopping the kitchen floor, for the same reason, the calories burnt aren't much.

I know it all works out in the end, because my weight keeps going down at a nice steady rate. I think you should just do whatever you want, experiment and see what gets you the best results, and not worry what others do/say.

As you can see by all the replies to your post so far, everyone likes to do it differently and one way or another, most are losing weight. The only thing I would say is if you don't use a HRM, be cautious with how many you actually eat back, because MFP does overestimate cals burned during a lot of activities. I know there are a lot of people on here who aim to eat back 1/2 and it works for them.

mrsRhughes

I don't know why someone else would criticize what another person counts as exercise! I agree that it is totally individual. I personally never log cleaning because I workout 6-7 days a week and am logging more than enough exercise calories, and maintaining my weight (not trying to lose). If you don't exercise much, and clean alot, then why shouldn't you log it if it makes you feel better and you are actually burning calories that way? To each their own...

mhoward685

Are you suggesting wear a hrm during strength training and log it under cardiograph to see the true calories deficit?

Ohmydaze

Whenever I do a shift at the restaurant, I log it as cleaning, light for a normal shift, heavy if we're busy, because it's hard work. Yes, we may only be smiling and carrying plates, but I walk around, wash dishes, clear and clean tables and rush around doing the bills. I'm on my feet and busy for a solid 5 hours, and I'm tired by the end. That's clearly burning calories.

I also log if I'm vaccuming, particularly trying to get dog hair out of the carpet, because It's tiring! Or if I spend an hour washing dishes and putting them away, I'll probably log half an hour light cleaning.

*Shrug* Why not. It's my diary, not theirs.

vim_n_vigor

This is just another reason why I am so happy I have my fitbit. It logs my movement for me and I don't have to tell you if it was running, shopping or cleaning. All of your activity contributes to the amount of food you need to eat in a day, even walking to the bathroom. With my fitbit, I see all of that extra activity and have a much better idea of what my activity level is. I though I was sedentary. Yeah, I was a bit off on that one!