Do you count housework towards your daily cals.

Susantuti

Once a month I deep clean the house, ceilings, baseboards, fans, on my hands and knees waxing the floor, etc. Would you count this as an activity? Trust me at the end of the day I hurt.

I do not count my daily cleaning sweeping, dusting, straightening up. I know I sound a wee bit anal, but we have 5 dogs

I don't count the everyday cleaning but if it's a once a month big cleaning or a once in a while big project i do count that.

lizziebeth1028

I wouldn't log it. Call it a bonus workout and treat yourself to an ice cream cone :flowerforyou:

Amberonamission

I log everything. From what I eat, drink to what activity I do. What excercise I do to what household chore I do.

I only eat my extra calories if I do heavy cardio as doing the dishes does not really work up my heartbeat very much.

I eat as per the Canadian Food Guide and as organic as I can get.

That has got me down 12 lbs and 5 1/2 inches in almost 3 months.

Good luck to you on your weightloss journey:)

Don't call it a journey. The know it all's will sure pounce on you for that one.

pastryari

I could agree more with tmatzk2! Thank goodness I have a thick skin, but others may not. I simply wanted to know if deep cleaning, cleaning ceilings, windows, fans (taking apart and cleaning), up and down on a ladder, scrubbing floors on hands and knees should be counted as it is outside my daily cleaning. For someone new to the site I cannot believe how ugly some people can get. I will not be posting anymore questions or ask for advice. I thought the message boards were for encouragement and feedback in a respectful manner, not necessarily positive but respectful. Apparently I was incorrect. As soon as I can figure it out I will be deleting this topic.

In other words, you didn't get the answer you wanted so everyone who didn't give you that answer is a bully.

In other words, you and a few others cannot leave it as a simple no and feel the need to belittle people. I don't know why. This is supposed to be a place for people to go and feel encouraged, not make them feel stupid.

Please refer back to page 1, last post. OH! Would you look at that, it's a post by none other than ME. OH! OH! It also has only one word written and that word was a simple NO.

Maybe so for your first post but you keep coming back to keep adding your two cents in and making sure people feel stupid for asking this question, then making a total mock of it in a troll thread. Again, not what I would expect from a site that is supposed to be encouraging to others.

I'm glad that you're deciding what I'm attempting to make people feel. So you've now made up two instances that are incorrect. Great job.

TrailRunner61

No, and it annoys me when people do.

Why do you even care what other people log. Does it affect your weight loss? No..

Fairysoul

I do not log normal cleaning but when I do extra not ordinary cleaning I will log it.

micheleld73

Maintenance cleaning - NO. But the deep spring cleaning where you are going the extra mile to move the furniture, climb the ladder, etc. for an extend period of time - for sure.

Valera0466

If your activity level is set to sedentary and you are doing non-sedentary things for at least 30 minutes, log it. Obviously, you don't want to log the walk from your front door to your car, but serious deep cleaning is a whole different animal. However, if you are set to lightly active, it's already figured in for you.

Another way to figure out whether you should log it: Are you currently losing weight? If you are, you know you are in a calorie deficit. Add in your deep cleaning for a month or so. If you stall out, you probably don't need to log it. But if you continue to lose weight, feel free to add it in.

Adding EVERYTHING that is out of the norm is a good idea, because you have a record you can go back to and say, "Well, last month I lost a bunch of weight, but this month I lost none. But last month I was doing a lot more [insert activity], so I probably need to get in a little more exercise."

This is a good post. I don't include my heavy cleaning personally. Not because I shouldn't but because I don't really care to as I don't usually eat back my calories but I have no problem with people who do. many of my friends add their cleaning.

People on MFP can be extremely judgmental, it's something you just have to get used too. If a friend is giving you a hard time remember you can always unfriend them but do what is right and works for you. Heavy cleaning gets my heart rate up more than my strength training but I include that. Not all exercise is aerobic. Good luck, you will quickly learn to weed through the troll posts.

karinefitness

I don't count it. I believe I counted it when I moved since I was carrying heavy boxes up the stairs for hours, but that's basically it. And it honestly was just to make me feel a little better about not hitting the gym because I was too busy moving

BananaCat83

I can understand the daily cleaning, but when I deep clean it takes a full day (8 - 10 hrs). I also use a toothbrush on baseboards and the shower tile. Lord I cannot seem to keep that tile clean. And how is it that is only in my husbands bathroom?

It might be his soap! My husband uses Irish Spring bar soap and I use Olay body wash...I find that his soap leaves a LOT more soap scum/reside in the shower than mine.

cloza12

You could get a hrm and that will tell you how many calories you've burned. With all the mixed opinions here I think that would be your best bet.

Skyfire23

This whole debate about is or isn't housework exercise is ridiculous. It is movement, and if it works to count it, there's no reason not to.

I could write a whole article about this, but I'll try to keep it short.

Try it. If you count it and eat those calories back, and you don't lose that week, you'll know you shouldn't count it. If you still lose, then you'll know it was a good idea to count it. You might think you don't want to risk not losing for a week; that's understandable, but think about this long term. In the long term, logging one day of cleaning a month isn't going to change your numbers all that much.

I don't count cleaning as exercise, but I don't do marathon cleaning sessions.

DoomCakes

No.. nor do I count strolling to the park with my kids, walking around the lake throwing rocks in the water, washing the car, painting my spare bedroom, cooking, doing laundry, dancing at a wedding..... I agree with the previous poster who said that is life, not exercise.

This

It also allows for room for error in case something had more calories than actuality, or if the exercise you actually did (running, weights etc) was over exagerrated on MFP.

I personally think it's silly when people add "moderate cleaning" or "prepping food" to their work out. Yea, yuo're moving, but you move from the time you get out of bed, till the time you go back to bed unless you're a vegetable or physically incapable of it.

catbyrd

I would say yes, count it. It is not something that you do on a normal everyday basis, so that is extra exercise for your body. I wouldn't eat back all of the calories burned, but logging even the little things that you do on a daily basis can be encouraging when you are first starting. Especially if you do not have time to go to the gym everyday. It makes you realize that you are doing more than you think you are everyday. Don;t eat back all of the points earned for the little things, but think of them as a bonus to yourself and pat yourself on the back for getting up off of the couch and doing something. Godd luck!!

ladyonaquest

I usually don't count it but out of curiousity this past Sunday I wore my HRM while I did laundry, folded clothes and ironed, in 2 hours I burned 421 calories!!! I still didn't log it as a workout but I was very pleased to know that I burned that on top of what I burned from Zumba that day!!

fattypattybinger

Just curious. If you say you can't log housework in your daily calories, then can you log steps in you are doing the 10,000 steps. Just curious.

PriceK01

Nope, I only count actual workouts. I feel like trying to count things that I would be doing anyway is shooting myself in the foot.

TR0berts

I can understand the daily cleaning, but when I deep clean it takes a full day (8 - 10 hrs). I also use a toothbrush on baseboards and the shower tile. Lord I cannot seem to keep that tile clean. And how is it that is only in my husbands bathroom?

Do you do housecalls?

:flowerforyou:

yoovie

5 pages of No's from the successful people, just saying.

Mokey41

5 pages of No's from the successful people, just saying.

That's what I was thinking. From looking at pics and tickers, the successful people who are at or near goal are the ones arguing in the no camp.

tami101

When I first joined MFP I didn't have enough stamina for really large calorie burns and I had my goal set to lose 2lbs a week and I was HUNGRY! So when I discovered that cleaning counted as exercise, you bet I logged it! Since then I have lowered my goal to 1lb. a week and have learned to eat better foods, which enables me to stay withing my calorie goal. So I no longer log housework. It probably depends on how physically out of shape you are, but I did lose weight eating back those housecleaning calories. But to answer your actual question, I do sometimes still log the really deep cleaning, but it's just for fun. I don't eat the calories back anymore.

bearkisses

No

nope

Becky388

My BMF counts it, as does everymove.com. Since I already have trouble eating enough calories and having a huge deficit, I have to count it otherwise I'd be in an even bigger hole. I do not log it here but I do count those calories when it comes to eating them back. I do log it on everymove.com to get the points.

sammyneb

Oh this threads just make me laugh. It is a great way to entertain myself. I do not log cleaning...never really thought of it. But I fully intend on logging shoveling out of a blizzard. As that is out of my normal activity. If you deep clean on a regular basis and have your activity level set to anything beyond sedentary..I probably wouldn't log it. But that is just my opinion.

LoosingMyLast15

if you live in a two story, 4 bed, 2 bath home and you scrub it from top to bottom which means moving all the furniture around, flipping mattresses, getting out the ladder to clean ceiling fans, lights, tops of kitchen cabinets, inside kitchen cabinets (this involves removing every item out of the cabinet to clean entire inside of cabinet), dusting, scrubbing kitchen/bathroom floors, scrubbing showers, washing windows (inside and out), washing baseboards and crown molding, moving kitchen appliances to clean behind plus laundry appliances, sweeping, vacuuming, dusting and finally scrubbing toilets inside and out i don't care who you are but you work up a sweat and you get your heart rate up.

these things are not normal everyday cleaning tasks (okay maybe vacuuming, sweeping, dusting are everyday tasks)

for someone that lives in a small apartment you probably will not work up a good sweat even doing all these things but if you live in a big home you must certainly will sweat. if you are like me and also include the garage when "spring/winter" cleaning so that's sweeping, cleaning windows, doors and ledge, climbing the ladder to retrieve storage bins, sorting storage bins and returning storage bins to shelving.

when i do this - i log it as exercise.

MicheleNaame

I definitely count it. I do heavy duty housecleaning once a week for about 4 hours and get quite the workout.

Miss_Chievous_wechange

No

sdereski

Nope.
I live in a 2 story house - 3 baths, 3 bedrooms and keep it clean.

I never log housework, even when I am doing heavy cleaning - I scrub 3000 square feet of floors on my hands and knees.
Never considered it exercise before, do not now when I am counting cals.

EmilyOfTheSun

I do not, that way it gives me some bounce room for errors on logging.

I don't do a lot of cleaning, LOL. But the above response sounds good!

twinketta

Nope. Consider it bonus calories burned.

I agree with this post