Does anyone else count house work as exercise?

Rae6503

I have a BMF. It tells me how many calories I burn a day. When I work (sit for 8 hours) I burn about 2200 calories a day. When I'm home with the kids cleaning for half the day I burn 2900 calories a day.

ScarletFyre

I dont necesarily count it as cheating...I just don't bother...mainly because i usually dont think to look to see what time i started, so i dont know how long i have dont it for, and can't be bothered trying to figure out intensity etc. :happy:

tami101

When I first joined MFP I logged the houework because I wasn't able to do a lot of cardio and I wanted the extra calories. It motivated me to clean more often and I got to eat a little more. Double win!!!! Now that I have been here a while and make healthier food choices and can easily burn 600 to 800 calories in a workout, I no longer need to log the housework. Some people might think that I was cheating when I logged it, but I lost weight while logging and eating those exercise calories so it worked for me.

rustybago

I just logged housework for the first time today so your post caught my eye. I logged it because what I did today was well above and beyond my normal level of activity. I literally dashed between chores and worked up a sweat, like you do when your in-laws call you from around the corner and want to stop over and the house is trashed because the kids just bathed the dog in the tub using jello... (this happens). I condensed 2 hours of cleaning into one hour and broke a good sweat doing it.

That said, I'm new here so maybe this is the tone of the forums, but it seems a bit unfair and frankly, a bit unkind, to assume that people who log housework are "cheating" or that they haven't cleaned their houses before they started mfp. It's hard to tell from someone's log what their particular situation, activity level, or motivation may be.

Do what's right for you.

zenchild

No. Not only is it everyday activity, but it's not cardio. It's physical movement, which is always a good thing...and you'll burn calories, but it's not part of cardiovascular conditioning, so therefore, I do not count it as exercise. I've seen people who put things like "food preparation" down for their daily "exercise." I kid you not.

You obviously have never seen me cook or clean. Most of the time, I don't log it. When I do, it's because I earned it. There are plenty of weekends when I'll spend a whole day cooking and cleaning. I will make an entire week's worth of dinners and my house will be spotless. I will have 3 or more full pots of soup (cornish hen noodle, turkey chili, black bean soup and sometimes lentils), the floors will all be swept and mopped, blinds and baseboards clean, dogs clean, bathrooms clean, laundry done, dishes done, counters wiped down, refrigerator clean, etc. And if I'm feeling frisky, a batch of cookies done. I get sweaty and my heart rate goes up and I promise I'm burning a lot more calories than an average day spent at my desk. I may not count the entire 8 hours but I'm going to be honest with myself. A sports bra is not required to burn calories.

charlieatl

I have a FitBit and was really surprised when I decided to measure mowing my lawn as an "activity". I don't have a huge yard, about 6,000 square feet, generally flat, but I was really surprised at the result:

2.62 miles walked, 604 calories burned, 1 hour and 5 minutes of activity: mowing, edging and blowing the clippings off of the driveway.

Who knew? Like others though, I have a tough time with the total calories burned; normally it is about 100 per hour when walking and the FitBit is tripling that.

zaithyr

I find it interesting how so many people are quick to bash any kind of activity that doesn't fit into their pretty little definition of "exercise". What might be absolutely no effort for you may be a monstrous effort for someone else. The whole point is to move more, eat a little less, right? When you're just starting out, picking up on your daily activities and putting more effort into them is an achievement. Not everyone starts out running 3 miles on a treadmill or has time to hit a gym every day. Instead of criticizing people for logging their cleaning, high five them for the effort to be active (which will in turn encourage them to reach further and do more). I still lost weight by eating back my exercise calories even when I was logging regular cleaning (because I was still eating healthier and way less than I used to).

ETA: And I still do log my grocery trips. I burn twice as many calories doing my weekly grocery haul than I do going for a jog!

yoovie

If it didnt keep you from gaining weight, it wont help you lose weight.

kluvit

I only count major projects such as cleaning out the closet, reorganizing, packing/moving boxes, etc. beyond regular household chores.

EnchantedEvening

"Sedentary" just means little to no exercise. Sedentary people who sit on their butt at work and in front of the TV most of the time still do things like vacuuming, dusting, washing dishes, and so on. I can't believe MFP has an entry for "folding towels". Seriously? When I fold towels, I sit on the edge of the couch and watch TV or listen to music. When did "folding towels" become a significant calorie burn?

Sure, there are some people who can barely get off the couch because they are so out of shape. For those people, okay. Vacuuming your entire house is probably a huge effort and worthy of logging it. But come on... you can't tell me every person who logs "vacuuming" is in that position. The same people I see logging light housework also log time on the treadmill and elliptical.

I only count cleaning if I'm doing something strenuous, like spring cleaning where we're hauling boxes up and down stairs, moving furniture from room to room, carrying loads to and from the car, climbing ladders to dust the moldings, and so on. Other than that, even if cleaning does burn a few calories, I still don't log it. I just figure those are bonus calories, like parking far away from the store or taking the stairs to the third floor instead of using the elevator.

ccburn5

I know I have replied to a similar topic but I sure do when it comes to an abnormal amount of cleaning (i.e. spring cleaning or moving furniture etc.) but not when its the light up keep (laundry, vaccumming, etc.) I worked for over three hours straight this last weekend all over the house and you're damn right I counted it!

RealWomenLovePitbulls

I only log anything that I do that is outside of my normal routine (like if it's some extreme cleaning, I will log it, but not the regular every day kind) also, if the walking and stair climbing is part of your daily routine - like the steps you walk while working or the stairs you go up and down at home every day, I don't count those either... if you don't do something different, outside of your normal routine, how do you expect anything to change??

nxd10

When I'm running around a cleaning extra hard - like mucking out the attic - absolutely.

Just like when I'm hedge trimming and raking and doing serious work in my vegetable garden I log gardening. But when I'm just wandering out to check the chickens and plucking tomatoes, I don't.

MetamorphosisMe

Obviously you're expending energy (calories) and I have logged it once so far. I mean if I'm just being a cleaning fool for an hour or so - and I mean really cleaning (sweeping, mopping, vacuuming, scrubbing, washing vehicle, etc) yes I would log it. Otherwise, just small things, I just let it go.

TNTwedell

Sure, I clean. I do other activities. Heck, I even walk 4 miles a day to and from work when it doesn't rain (most days a week). I have sex. Good, raucous dirty fast paced sex too. I cook, I scrub floors, flip mattresses etc. I don't log any of it. Why? Because it's part of my lifestyle.

You're only fooling yourself.

I kinda LOVE this answer
:drinker:

nascarbettie

I personally don't log much exercise outside of running or elliptical, etc. For instance, I walk at least a mile a day, to and from the subway, and yet I never log that because I set my activity level to account for that.

I think it's better to underestimate and not log every little piece of activity, bc ultimately, iyou're just racking up a calorie deficit that may not necessarily be true. And then you might get tempted to eat back those calories which may work against your goals.

Now that being said, if your goal is not weight loss, then maybe you want to log for different reasons, and that then is a different story.

I'm with this ^^^^ ... I only log what I do at the gym. The rest I consider a bonus. If I were logging to try to gain weight tho.. I would want to log it so I could be sure to eat back the calories but if you are trying to lose then no.

McBully4

If it didnt keep you from gaining weight, it wont help you lose weight.

exactly what I was going to say.

tbetts23

I HATE house cleaning! If I am going to put in the effort of a good clean, you bet your @ss I'm going to log it! It is NOT something I do every day!

tbetts23

No. Not only is it everyday activity, but it's not cardio. It's physical movement, which is always a good thing...and you'll burn calories, but it's not part of cardiovascular conditioning, so therefore, I do not count it as exercise. I've seen people who put things like "food preparation" down for their daily "exercise." I kid you not.

You obviously have never seen me cook or clean. Most of the time, I don't log it. When I do, it's because I earned it. There are plenty of weekends when I'll spend a whole day cooking and cleaning. I will make an entire week's worth of dinners and my house will be spotless. I will have 3 or more full pots of soup (cornish hen noodle, turkey chili, black bean soup and sometimes lentils), the floors will all be swept and mopped, blinds and baseboards clean, dogs clean, bathrooms clean, laundry done, dishes done, counters wiped down, refrigerator clean, etc. And if I'm feeling frisky, a batch of cookies done. I get sweaty and my heart rate goes up and I promise I'm burning a lot more calories than an average day spent at my desk. I may not count the entire 8 hours but I'm going to be honest with myself. A sports bra is not required to burn calories.
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Like intensely!

smtillman2

If it didnt keep you from gaining weight, it wont help you lose weight.

exactly what I was going to say.

My thoughts exactly.