You can burn calories with housework!

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  • mainelymama
    mainelymama Posts: 57
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    so my question about logging housework is this.....didnt you do housework before or during the time you gained weight?

    Personally I dont log housework because I dont think its accurate, BUT I went to the gym before and during the time I gained weight but I still track that.
  • BSBgirl337
    BSBgirl337 Posts: 119 Member
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    I typically use Sunday as my non-gym day so I can get some work done around the house. Doing laundry definitely burns some calories, and my laundry room is downstairs, so I go up and down the steps a bunch of times, too. I don't have central air either, so when it's hot out, you can really tell how much work you're doing!

    Exercise is exercise, whether you'd be doing it anyway or not! :drinker:
  • verptwerp
    verptwerp Posts: 3,659 Member
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    Well, I'm in the middle of taking my house apart ...... company's coming & those dustbunnies need picking up ...... honestly, anything that makes me break out in a sweat should get logged for a few extra calories :laugh:
  • cspence2270
    cspence2270 Posts: 229 Member
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    I'm on the do not log house work or any activities that I have always done list. I'm making a change in my life- logging something I've always done is not a "change". But I'm glad others tracked what they are burning- I always wondered what I was burning- I tend to work up a real sweat while cleaning.
  • zaithyr
    zaithyr Posts: 482 Member
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    I have my calorie set for sedentary so any time I'm up doing more than just quick piddly stuff I usually track it with my HRM. Depends on how much I'm doing.
  • Dudagarcia
    Dudagarcia Posts: 849 Member
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    I have a big two-story house. I guess I could lose weight faster if I cleaned the house more. Did my family pay you to start this?? :laugh:

    Lol
  • 3foldchord
    3foldchord Posts: 2,918 Member
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    Did you know you can burn 136 Calories per hour while doing Laundry! What other house hold chores have you found that burn calories?
    I don't log housework/gardening because I chose "lightly active" lifestyle.
    Sometimes I think about switching to 'seentary' and then logging 'housework, etc"- to see what difference it makes in the way my numbers look. I think I will switch after we move- for the fun of it
  • carriempls
    carriempls Posts: 326 Member
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    Whether to log housework or not depends on how you have your activity set, not whether you used to do it before or not.

    If you've got it set at sedentary but spend an hour or more a day doing chores, you should probably log it.

    If you've got it set at lightly-moderately active to account for the housework you regularly do, then no, I wouldn't log it.
  • NWCountryGal
    NWCountryGal Posts: 1,992 Member
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    each of us burns calories per day whether we are in bed or out so the only time I count calories burned is when I am in the activity. When my heart rate is above resting in other words. Yes, doing housekeeping or laundry, whatever, burns calories but unless I am actually getting my heart rate up, I don't count them because they are already calculated into my day. Hope this makes sense;)
  • magerum
    magerum Posts: 12,589 Member
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    Out of curiosity, I wore my HRM while I did my weekly picking up and I burned about 125 calories for a little over an hour of light cleaning. I thought that was pretty neat!

    Here's a problem with counting cleaning. Lets just say you burn 100 calories an hour living, not moving, just organs using energy. Now you wear your HRM for cleaning and log 136 calories for the hour of "exercise". Now you would have burned 100 calories with just breathing and laying there over the same hour. So you log the 136 calories as exercise, but in reality it's really just 36 calories more than sitting around. Then you eat back your calories and you're actually 100 over your target. Then people wonder why they aren't seeing results. They're eating above their TDEE, the math is there, embrace it!

    Long story short, too late I know, don't log daily life activities if you want to see maximal results. Just my opinion, take it with a grain of salt. I did successfully lose 140 lbs in 7 months with nothing but diet change and exercise, if that lends credit to my opinion *shrug*. As another friend of mine says, "Success is a choice".

    Good luck!

    -M
  • artbkward
    artbkward Posts: 238 Member
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    On weekends this time a year I spend a lot of time working in concession trailers (at county fairs and such), I log that time under cooking. I usually scale back the time like if I spend 6 hours working, I'll enter 4 or so. I don't count it if we're not busy and I sit a lot. It really adds up the calories, as it should, but I know some people on here would be very critical of that. Anyone who thinks that four straight hours of rolling out elephant ears isn't burning a ton of calories is a fool (and obviously never done it).

    Also, if anyone wants to cure their desire to eat elephant ears or funnel cakes I suggest working in a trailer that serves them. :happy:
  • 3foldchord
    3foldchord Posts: 2,918 Member
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    Yes, doing housekeeping or laundry, whatever, burns calories but unless I am actually getting my heart rate up, I don't count them because they are already calculated into my day. Hope this makes sense;)

    everything gets my heart rate UP and makes me feel like my heart is about to POP.
    ::sigh::
  • WendyTerry420
    WendyTerry420 Posts: 13,274 Member
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    It's a good reminder for lazy people like me. However, I am still not going to log all of that. I generally only log my exercise routine. Sometimes, if I walk a lot of extra, then I will log it, especially if I am still hungry at the end of the day. (That way I don't go over my calories.)
  • mcrowe1016
    mcrowe1016 Posts: 647 Member
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    Out of curiosity, I wore my HRM while I did my weekly picking up and I burned about 125 calories for a little over an hour of light cleaning. I thought that was pretty neat!

    Here's a problem with counting cleaning. Lets just say you burn 100 calories an hour living, not moving, just organs using energy. Now you wear your HRM for cleaning and log 136 calories for the hour of "exercise". Now you would have burned 100 calories with just breathing and laying there over the same hour. So you log the 136 calories as exercise, but in reality it's really just 36 calories more than sitting around. Then you eat back your calories and you're actually 100 over your target. Then people wonder why they aren't seeing results. They're eating above their TDEE, the math is there, embrace it!

    Long story short, too late I know, don't log daily life activities if you want to see maximal results. Just my opinion, take it with a grain of salt. I did successfully lose 140 lbs in 7 months with nothing but diet change and exercise, if that lends credit to my opinion *shrug*. As another friend of mine says, "Success is a choice".

    Good luck!

    -M

    I am so happy you said this. It was exactly what I was thinking, but I was too lazy to type it out. Sometimes I log cleaning, but I usually only add it for about 1/4 to 1/2 the amount of time I actually did it, and even then it is only intense work.
  • Fromadaughter
    Fromadaughter Posts: 46
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    I have a big two-story house. I guess I could lose weight faster if I cleaned the house more. Did my family pay you to start this?? :laugh:

    Haha no!
  • Pollywog39
    Pollywog39 Posts: 1,730 Member
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    I have my settings at "sedentary", because I have a desk job............I count cleaning and laundry ONLY when it's a LOT more than usual. For me to do laundry, I have to walk up and down a long flight of stairs, go outside the building, and into a separate laundry room........and I only do laundry infrequently because of that (you wouldn't believe how many pairs of undies I have :)

    So I think it's fair to count ambitious housework that makes me sweat like a piggie!

    .......but that's just me, and ya'll are entitled to your own opinions!

    :bigsmile: :bigsmile: :bigsmile:
  • Fromadaughter
    Fromadaughter Posts: 46
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    I burn 2378/24 = 100 calories doing nothing. I will seriously burn 136 additional calories putting my clothes into an automatic machine or does this include folding, ironing, putting away? Or is it 36 calories?

    I am all for counting little gains, great believer in the "Fidget factor" and how little bits make a lot rather than nothing making nothing.
    It includes putting in the automatic washer, folding and putting it away. All that adds to 136 if you do it many times for a hour total.
  • Fromadaughter
    Fromadaughter Posts: 46
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    so my question about logging housework is this.....didnt you do housework before or during the time you gained weight?
    I have always done housework but I never counted my calories so I would about 2000-2500 calories on a good day. So the household stuff did not add up to much.
  • AllonsYtotheTardis
    AllonsYtotheTardis Posts: 16,947 Member
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    I'm thinking I need to resent laundry a little less....
  • autumnk921
    autumnk921 Posts: 1,376 Member
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    I don't log normal every day cleaning but I do log stuff like moving furniture or getting on my hands and knees to scrub floors or gardening,everything else I just look at as bonus calories burned.

    This is what I do as well...The things I normally do to keep the house cleaned, like laundry, dishes, etc. I don't count but when I start scrubbing, mopping and really sweating during cleaning I do log this b/c it is not something I do in my normal activities.

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