Do you count house/yard work or shopping as exercising??

sunnyhlw77

I don't add cleaning/housework or shopping to my exercise log but I do yardwork, like digging dirt, lawn mowing and snow shovelling. Have no reason why. I guess it's bonus unaccounted for exercise, lol!

pamklass

Big cleans yes, It can sometimes take me 5 hours to do, And I figure lots of people I know hire house cleaners and yard maintenance people and I do my own so I should get credit for that

nettasue35

I only count it if it is out of my normal routine. Like today normally my hubby sweeps and mops, but today I did so I counted it.

needtobefitt

house work -no, yard work -yes
and sometimes i log shopping. but not grocery shopping. Only when im in a mall walking a lot, and trying on a ton of clothes. i will get tired after walking and constantly trying on clothes, so why not log it?
If i do this for around 2 hours, leaving me no time to exercise, i will log it.

katy_trail

when i run around crazy cleaning my house, i estimate how much of that was running up and down my stairs. if that's going on for several hours, then it really adds up. anything else i can think of i wouldn't count, because i did those things when i was fat on a normal basis, so i'm counting what i'm doing beyond what i did before. aside from the stairs bc an hour of stairs is an extremely high number of cals burned.

nczuczu

Cleaning around the house, rarely, unless I am completely cleaning the basement. But general housework, no.

Lawn work, yes. It is above and beyond what I normally do...walking behind the lawn mower, trimming the bushes, hauling the trimmings to the street and raking, I know I am burning a TON of calories

Snow shoveling - yes! but not when I use the snow blower.

RllyGudTweetr

if it doesn't make you sweat, it's not exercise.

If I'm shoveling manure, digging holes for trees - yes. If I'm raking. no

That makes the standing still I did in FL exercise, and eliminates the cardio I do for 45 minutes 3+ times a week from being exercise. Should I stop the cardio and just move?

Rocknut53

There was this one girl on my news feed once that logged driving. I was like WTF? lol

If she lives in one of those high congestion zones, I can see her point. Stop and go traffic with a manual transmission would do it! LOL

Maybe she was a Nascar driver, they typically maintain a heart rate of 130 during the duration of the race, anywhere from 3-5 hours. I would log that for sure.

JessHealthKick

if you always do it anyway don't add it.

I ride my bicycle some days up to 45mins for where I need to go for university, and never count it these days

Lauramh31

It depends. I set my lifestyle as sedentary, so I logged this weekend when I did yardwork (4 hours of weeding, using hedge sheers, etc that caused my mucsles to be sore) and heavy house cleaning (e.g. 2 hours on sunday doing serious cleaning during which I go up and down 3 flights of steps and I broke a sweat).

I don't log for daily things like playing fetch w/ my dog (she exercises, not me), doing dishes, wiping off counters, doing laundry, folding laundry, dusting, prepping food, shopping, etc. becuase I don't get sweaty and my muscles aren't sore later so I figure it can't be much work.

nolanerinbryon

I always count cleaning - a person can really get their heart rate up... probably not with light cleaning (i.e. dusting) but with vaccuming, mopping etc, yes, I definitely count. I also count shopping.... and I typically count about 1/2 the time of actual shopping time to account for standing or not moving. I count yard work as I think that's more active than a lot of other things. I do not count food prep, doing dishes or anything where i'm standing still. I sit at a desk all day...so to me, any movement is calories burned.

Joreanasaurous

Nope. Unless my heartrate is up and I'm working it for at least 20 minutes I'm not going to log it. If I go to the mall or outlets I can shop for hours, but unless I am power walking through it I'm not going to log that either.

n_unocero

I only count deliberate exercise as exercise. Anything that I do above and beyond that is active or physical I just consider a bonus.

Agreed. Cleaning, yard work, shopping, etc. is just part of life.

ShandaLeaS

No I got fat while doing all of those things so I don't expect to get skinny doing them either

RllyGudTweetr

No I got fat while doing all of those things so I don't expect to get skinny doing them either

Please don't stop eating just because you got fat doing that in the first place.

spfldpam

I used to but since joining a gym I don't count shopping or cleaning and stuff like that. I do count yard work like mowing my lawn with a push mower. I have a fitbit one so I do manually put in the yard work and elltipical machine at the gym since I don't think the fit bit counts it very good. Fit Bit will deduct any cals burn that I manually put into MFP anyways. I don't usually ever eat my exercise cals burn anyways but I like to see an accurate record of exercise on my log so I do this. I also put stuff in my exercise notes on MFP too.

dym123

Housework, no. Shopping, no. Yard work/cutting grass/shoveling snow...depends on how long. If the chore doesn't take me very long, less than 30 minutes, then probably won't count it.

_kannnd

I never do, but wonder if it would count or should count?

For the past few weeks, I've been out in my yard raking leaves and doing some heavy yardwork, so yes, I log it when I do (not on MFP, but with my fitbit). Just cleaning my house, no. I do count my steps though if I'm out shopping with my fitbit.

canadianvampyregurl

that is a good rule...i wouldnt count prepping for supper or something like that...vaccuming, dusting, ya i would im gonna go hop on the elliptical now

spfldpam

I also log snow shoveling too!