Cleaning as Exercise?

paulaviki

I don't log cleaning because it just seems like normal daily stuff to me, even when I am doing a big weekend clean. The only thing I log other than actual exercise is gardening but only when I've done the whole thing and spend several hours on it.

Jynus

If you're using your fatty acid energy system to do work, then is NOT exercise. Me sitting here typing to you is burning calories. but it's not exercise as it's not intense enough to move out of the fatty acid energy system. It doesn't matter if it's routine or not. Just cause it's out of your routine, does NOT mean the body will be like zomg, I've never done this before, i'll switch into exercise mode..

Activity != exercise.

Sure you can log it, but don't make the mistake that just cause your body is moving, you're exercising.

DrowningMermaid

I'm pretty lazy. Let me just put that out there right now. If I'm just tidying up my house, picking up after my daughter and the boy I babysit, I'm not going to log the 10 or 15 minutes it takes me but when I do log the cleaning, it's because I've worked my butt off (hopefully literally) and am dripping sweat. I only log the cleaning once or twice a week because other than that, I just pick up here and there, but the weekend is when I deep clean and heck yes, I'm logging. Weekends are my eating cheats as well, so I suppose I can take all the "extra" calories I can;)

I still love exercise but will admit that I don't do it as often as I should. I also log in sexytimes and gardening, walking around doing the shopping and that sort of thing that I really consider to be standard activities. But I feel more accomplished if I log them in.

SpazzyMal

If I'm doing something that's really active — cleaning the garage, spring cleaning the house for hours at a time, rearranging furniture, carrying heavy boxes to help someone move, etc, I will log it. Otherwise I just consider cleaning a part of my everyday chores.

Leiki

I think if cleaning requires heavy lifting of 30+ lb boxes, and squats, lunges, and putting stuff over your head for 8 hours in a day, that surely should count as exercise. However, if you are getting a feather duster, and lightly brushing some desks, I don't consider it exercise.

NCchar130

So far, I have not been logging cleaning as an exercise if it is part of normal daily activity. But the extra deep-cleaning projects that I do, I definitely log those because they do get my heart rate up. I'm even sore from them the next day. That should count.

glittermouse

It doesn't affect you, or your journey. Just let other people do their thing. You do yours. Problem solved.

NCchar130

It's better than sitting but it's not an excuse to not challenge your body with real exercise.

I so do not agree with this statement. Real exercise is what gets your heart rate up and strengthens your muscles. If you have ever scrubbed floors on your hands and knees, washed walls and woodwork, raked leaves, or turned over a garden without a roto-tiller, you have experienced "real" exercise.

I will concede that if you are a body builder, you may need to do the type of heavy lifting not provided by the activities I just mentioned.

I definitely agree with you. I'd be willing to bet these type of daily chores, which people back in the day used to do all day every day without the benefit of of all the time and labor-saving devices we have today, is why people weren't obese at the levels we are today, and all without having to go to the gym.

7funnygirl7

For me, it is not logged very often.If I am rearranging furniture, cleaning the bottom of the pool, scrubbing walls, etc. If it make me break a sweat for a significant amount of time, I will log it. However, I only log for HALF of the time...I don't want to cheat myself in the end. I could log it every day if I wanted to, I run a daycare...and if you have ever had to follow 5 kids and clean up after them all day long, you would understand the sweat in that. But, I just set my activity level to active.

I guess in the end of it all, I don't particularly care what people are logging...if they are losing and staying healthy then they are doing something right. Not my business.

Exactly this! I am a stay at home mom of two and am constantly cleaning/organizing something in our 3400 sq.ft home. UGH! For some people, housework is all they can do because of physical ailments that hinders them from joining a gym..Don't go judging before you've walked a mile in someone elses shoes!...just sayin'

iluvmyhoneys

I do not count cleaning as an exercise. I do housekeeping for a job right now (for the past year) and then I come home and do more cleaning.. and I haven't lost ANY weight doing just that. Sure it's hard work, I of all people know that, but as far as counting it as an exercise, no way.

BringingSherriBack

I only count if I am doing something above and beyond the normal day to day cleaning, straightening or laundry. For example, I count cleaning out closets, cabinets, taking down/cleaning/putting back up blinds and drapes, heavy cleaning like moving furniture to clean, vacuuming furniture, shampooing furniture and carpets, washing windows,washing walls, scrubbing floors on your hands and knees, hand washing the car and cleaning it out, etc.
I also have my setting on sedentary because I have a desk job. I don't use it as an excuse not to do other exercise as I also walk, do Zumba and take kickboxing classes. AND the items I am counting are things that I very rarely did before I started losing weight primarily because I was exhausted from just doing the normal day to day cleaning when I was 325 pounds so the cleaning calories I count are NOT normal activities for me.
I also don't eat back my exercise calories anyway so it doesn't really matter if I log it or not.

echosentwo

I agree cleaning is not an excercise. Just like I hear that shopping is an excercise How? you walk, you stop, you look. I think these are excuses so we don't feel bad about not being focused on our health goal.

BringingSherriBack

There was time when I counted it more than the actual gym workouts because it WAS strenuous and i was consuming a lot of calories cleaning for hours on end. I was purging a lot from my life to make room for a new lifestyle. I think a lot of people who fall into morbidly obese would agree that when you are ready to lose there has to be entire life SHIFT in order to be successful. A big part for me was putting my home and finances in order.

And hey it worked cause I've already lost almost 90lbs and go to the gym 3 days a week. who cares how you get there right?

And now I pay a house keeper to come clean so I have tIme for more strenuous calorie burning exercises! I know a LOT of people that do that and I could just as easily have said in the beginning that THEY were the lazy ones because they weren't carrying an extra 200lbs on their backs doing it, yet hey still hired someone to do it for them. perspective!

THIS!

jadedzen

i don't log normal daily cleaning that i do on a regular basis. however we are getting the house ready to be put on the market aug 10 or 17th and that included a super deep clean which i logged. that burns calories, and i often would clean myself into a sweat as a polished the hardwood floor or carried boxes between floors etc.

stargazer008

Some may place themselves as sedentary so cleaning would be an exercise for them.

jessicajoy87

I believe exercise is exersice and cleaning is cleaning. I do not ever log cleaning even if I am rearranging furniture. When you are changing your lifestyle for a healthier you do you really change your cleaning habbits? I know I didn't. We change our eating habbits and add cardio "workouts" and strength training to our day. My opinion folks!, We are all entitled to it!

3lisab3

I'm sorry...you do not have to push yourself hard to lose weight and get in shape. Most people make that mistake when they start a weight loss program. They start out strong, push too hard, and then lose momentum..and then quit.
All you have to do is watch what you put in your mouth and START MOVING! If that means that they dust and vacuum instead of sitting on the couch in front of a TV or computer, then good for them!
I would suggest that you stop worrying about how/if others are cheating. We all have our own demons to deal with. If they are cheating themselves then they will not lose weight (or get in shape)..then they lose. But that shouldn't effect you!

Just_Bethy

I only log mine when Its a Sunday. We do an all out clean most Sundays. Scrubbing. Windows. Floors. Beds. (5 of them) Cabinets, baseboards. garden. bathrooms. Cupboards. desks, Yeah Its a Burn!!!

Lleldiranne

If I spend 6 hours getting everything ready for the carpet cleaners (hey, my house ins't perfect, but it's amazing how much it takes a reasonably clean home to get the floor completely clear) and I'm working hard and really sweating, I don't see anything wrong with logging a couple of hours of "light effort" cleaning.

If' I'm just washing dishes, folding laundry, vacuuming, etc then I don't. But when I really do work at it, I log it, but try to underestimate.

And keep in mind, what is easy and slacking off for you may be a real workout for someone. When I was 9 months pregnant, just vacuuming the dining room was a REAL workout; I can't imagine what it would be like for someone who is just starting to get into shape after years of inactivity.

jessicajoy87

What does it matter to anyone else what I log anyway? It's my fitness quest, not anyone else's. If I want to log brushing my teeth, I will.

Agrrrreeeeed

Jeeze, it was a question. They didn't ask specically what you log. They just wanted feedback.

LilRiver

I've burned a heck of a lot more calories doing a half a day of spring cleaning than, say, a ten minute walk (which I tend to assume is folks taking their dog out). But I don't think anyone would question walking.

I absolutely count it. It's not counted in my sedentary lifestyle, so if I burn em, I count em. If I don't count them, it seems dishonest. But I also count every thing I eat - whether it's a half a cracker or a full serving.

Now, I don't tend to use MFPs estimates. I cut them in half or more. Heck, when I moved (there was a lot of "cleaning" and "moving boxes" in the moving process), I cut the calories suggested by MFP in half and there was one day when it still wanted to tell me I'd burned 4000 calories or something absurd like that, so I cut em in half again.

Even eating back a bunch of my calories that week, I lost six pounds. So, maybe it wasn't as far off as I'd assumed. (I typically lose ~2. The 6 was a definite anomaly.)

Jynus

I've burned a heck of a lot more calories doing a half a day of spring cleaning than, say, a ten minute walk (which I tend to assume is folks taking their dog out). But I don't think anyone would question walking.

I absolutely count it. It's not counted in my sedentary lifestyle, so if I burn em, I count em. If I don't count them, it seems dishonest. But I also count every thing I eat - whether it's a half a cracker or a full serving.

is the burning of calories exercise??

Lets rephrase, if you burn a ton of calories using your fatty acid energy system as the primary driver, do you consider that more exercise than less calories burned from doing cardio based energy system movement?

WendyTerry420

So I do not mean to sound rude, or unmannerly. But who hear actually considers cleaning an exercise. I mean cool, your cleaning and losing calories, but I do not include it as an exercise. I believe that some people ( NOT MOST or ALL) use it as an excuse to not going to the gym. .I would love some positive or negative opinions on this. Very skeptical.

If you used to sit in front of the TV, but now you actually clean your house, it can be called an exercise. Or if you do "spring cleaning" or do a major clean-out of a closet or bathroom or whatever.

But.....once that finally became a habit and you got closer to goal weight, it wouldn't make sense to include it anymore.

tibeck01

I don't log daily things like dishes or folding laundry...however, when I do a major clean, I log it because: I stretch, I bend, I walk, I use muscle to scrub, etc...and I sweat. So I log it. I am on my feet with my job and I don't count that because it's normal daily activity...but for someone who is used to having very little or no activity, I can see how actively cleaning is a workout, especially if just starting out in a new active lifestyle from a very sedentary one.

WendyTerry420

There was time when I counted it more than the actual gym workouts because it WAS strenuous and i was consuming a lot of calories cleaning for hours on end. I was purging a lot from my life to make room for a new lifestyle. I think a lot of people who fall into morbidly obese would agree that when you are ready to lose there has to be entire life SHIFT in order to be successful. A big part for me was putting my home and finances in order.

And hey it worked cause I've already lost almost 90lbs and go to the gym 3 days a week. who cares how you get there right?

And now I pay a house keeper to come clean so I have tIme for more strenuous calorie burning exercises! I know a LOT of people that do that and I could just as easily have said in the beginning that THEY were the lazy ones because they weren't carrying an extra 200lbs on their backs doing it, yet hey still hired someone to do it for them. perspective!

I totally get where you are coming from! :bigsmile:

Here's the deal: if you are sweating and you hit your THR for an extended period, then it's cardio! The dust finally leaving the shelves and the "disappearance" of the unnecessary files, papers, crap-ola, etc. is a bonus.

LilRiver

I've burned a heck of a lot more calories doing a half a day of spring cleaning than, say, a ten minute walk (which I tend to assume is folks taking their dog out). But I don't think anyone would question walking.

I absolutely count it. It's not counted in my sedentary lifestyle, so if I burn em, I count em. If I don't count them, it seems dishonest. But I also count every thing I eat - whether it's a half a cracker or a full serving.

is the burning of calories exercise??

Lets rephrase, if you burn a ton of calories using your fatty acid energy system as the primary driver, do you consider that more exercise than less calories burned from doing cardio based energy system movement?

I don't know that I would consider cleaning an exercise - but I do believe that if I am doing something which burns significantly more calories than sitting on my butt in front of the computer that I should record it. Otherwise, my record is incomplete. So, let's say that I hadn't recorded all that cleaning and box moving. A couple months from now when I'm stuck in a plateau and reviewing my previous logs to find patterns or whatever, I would see this massive loss with no explanation. "hmmm is it because I ate more carbs? maybe it was my water intake - hmmm, that must be it, I was better about my water!" I'd be wrong in that assumption because I actually burned thousands of calories cleaning and moving that I didn't record because it wasn't some definition of exercise.

And, yes, that is an extreme example. It's like comparing running a marathon with walking the dog. I wouldn't begrudge someone recording walking the dog, so why should I begrudge someone spending 45 minutes vacuuming the house and carrying loads of laundry from the upstairs to the basement and back again. (though if they're set at an active lifestyle - they may be screwing themselves over, but I am set at sedentary)

CarleyLovesPets

I don't log anything that I am doing other then the stuff I go out of my way to do solely for exercising.
Cleaning, sex, shopping, ect... Are just daily things - not exercise.

That's just me though.
If someone wants too, completely up to them.

Shelgirl001

And I diffidently agree with what all you are saying. But I am saying as the aspect of using as an excuse though. Because I know people personally who do it, why I brought it up in the first place. I know when you sleep your burning calories, your burn calories no matter what you do.

I also believe in pushing people to their hardest. It has helped my friends out tons of time. And if SOME people have the mind set that all they have to do is clean everyday to get that 200 to 600 calories then they will be just fine I disagree.

IMO, people log the calories burned during housework, child care, and yard work because they are, in fact, burning calories. I would not dream of passing judgement on someone--implying that they are using their cleaning activities as an excuse for not formally exercising. Yes, one can get in shape with eating a healthy diet, walking, cleaning, gardening, playing with kids, etc., without ever stepping into a gym or using an exercise video. In fact, when you think about it--exercising in a gym appears to be a fairly recent phenomenon. Our ancestors who most likely made their living doing manual labor had no need for "exercise".

I totally agree with this. I just think that more modern times are certainly set up differently than humans are really meant to live, and that people should live more actively, as in during their everyday lives. Too many people just don't stop to think that even 50 years ago, the exercise was gotten from everyday life, just traveling and working. Some people still live this way. I so often travel by bicycle and walk all over whenever possible. I also expend a lot of calories cleaning and dealing with my kids, but I also swim and try to find time to add a "Workout" to my daily life. Sometimes it's not easy for people to spend time at a gym. If people would learn to eat more healthy and realize that daily movement really is the exercise they need in order to be healthy, we would all be and sty healthy.

The other day I saw a man who was heavy, ride a 4-wheeler a block to go from one place to another(about a block apart). This is where he should have really just gotten some exercise. Make use of those legs when you can people. And make sure to realize this really is exercise. Daily stuff or not. I live about 800 feet from my family and I so rarely drive there when I go. I either walk or ride my bike. It expends energy and stretches my legs.

lwagnitz

When I log my cleaning calories, it's when I'm doing my "spring style" cleaning as I'd like to put it. Takes me the majority of the day and I really really reallyyy clean. I do this about 1-2 times a month, and I break a pretty good sweat. However, when I log it, I usually only log it as 45 minutes of light cleaning, however it's usually pretty rigorous all day work lol. But, I don't use it as an excuse not to go to the gym. I'm actually "crippled" right now... severe SI joint pain and sciatica, which is also tagged with torn cartilage. I have good days and bad days, some days I can go to the gym, and others I can't. I wouldn't be so quick to judge people who aren't jumping to go to the gym and log other things as a work out instead, because those could be their only option. Also, those people most likely put there goals as "sedentary" therefore, this WOULD be considered part of their physical activity for the day.

sissyr75

I have only used it a couple of times as my form of exercise. However, I only used it when I did some heavy cleaning. I pulled things out from under the bed or closet, dusted, moved furniture, stood up and down on a stool. One day I cleaned for 3 hrs. But I only logged in that I did an hour. But I figure because I in some form or other worked by arms, my butt and legs, and worked up a sweat and had to use my core to stay balance without getting injured, then to me that counted as a workout.