is hanging up laundry considered exercise?

joolywooly33

NO - any activity that is classed as normal behavioural activities that you did before embarking on you health and fitness regime (i.e. cleaning, cutting the grass, having sex!! lol) should not be included. Exercise is something you do over and above general day to day chores...

LittleMissDover

Everyone saying it counts as exercise, you are right BUT ONLY if you have activity level set to sedentary, otherwise what do you think 'lightly active' means? That includes every day tasks such as cleaning, the school run, hanging washing out etc.

OP, simple answer:

If you are set as sedentary, count it.
If you are set as lightly active, don't.

claudie1981

This is only my Second week and some people who have been here for " ages " know more then i do, to mock me when im at least asking the question is rude.... I log my cleaning because i do get hot and sweaty and i do mop and sweep and vacuum quite vigorously. Anyone who has kids knows how quickly and messy houses can get. I would hate to see some of your houses, I dont see how scoffing at my question is funny i looked through the exercise database and cleaning is there so is sitting on your bum playing guitar or piano....im not sure how much exercise that is.

I know not all of you's made a joke of it. I thank the ones who answered me seriously!

tigersword

If there is one thing that these kinds of threads always prove, it's that people have no idea what "sedentary" actually means in an activity level. Sedentary does NOT mean that you never move. It does not mean that you don't go check the mailbox. It does not mean that you don't cook dinner. It does not mean that you don't do laundry or clean your house. What sedentary means is that for your day job, you spend the majority of it seated at a desk. Your BMR is the number that tells you your calorie burn if you never moved, and if you really wanted to log every little move you make throughout the day, then you would start with your BMR, not with a "sedentary" TDEE.

It is if you put the washing basket as far from the washing line as possible & hang one item up at a time per trip. Takes me about an hour to hang the washing. I then take it down the same way. With my fitbit I can get about 5-6 thousand steps just doing it each time..... enough that I do work up a sweat cause I'm going so fast. I just had to hang my stuff up inside cause it's raining.... washing at one end of the house...clotheshorse at the other...ONE item at a time. Took me 4000 steps to do half, I'm talking ONE sock, ONE underwear, ONE tshirt, ONE pair of pants..... per trip. So grab ONE...walk to line....hang...walk back empty handed....grab one...walk to line..... you get it now?


ANYTHING can be classed as exercise if you do it right..... you should see me clean the floors.


DO NOT LISTEN to those people who do NOT class it as exercise...... if you do it like I do then it's a bloody workout in itself. I didn't hang washing like that when I was fat.

Ugh, this is so ridiculous. You're not getting a workout because you're hanging laundry. You're getting a workout by walking, while you are hanging laundry. I can put a load of clothes in the washer, do several sets of back squats, deadlifts, and bench presses while the washer runs, and then change the clothes over to my dryer, and go back to lifting, then bring the laundry upstairs. Did I get such a great workout from doing laundry? Hell no, I got a great workout because I exercised while I was doing laundry. Two separate activities, that I happened to do at the same time.

claudie1981

Im a cashier, so i spend some of the day on my feet and some on my *kitten*, to answer the question.

sarantonio

I'm seriously jealous that you're in South Africa...

dad106

This is only my Second week and some people who have been here for " ages " know more then i do, to mock me when im at least asking the question is rude.... I log my cleaning because i do get hot and sweaty and i do mop and sweep and vacuum quite vigorously. Anyone who has kids knows how quickly and messy houses can get. I would hate to see some of your houses, I dont see how scoffing at my question is funny i looked through the exercise database and cleaning is there so is sitting on your bum playing guitar or piano....im not sure how much exercise that is.

I know not all of you's made a joke of it. I thank the ones who answered me seriously!

Just because you get hot and sweaty, does not mean it's exercise.

When I vacuum and mop, I do it vigorously too.. but it takes me what? All of 5 minutes if that because I live by myself and generally only have to clean a room.

Exercise is things you purposefully do outside of your normally routine IE running, lifting weights, etc. Not things you normally do but suddenly became exercise because you want them to be.

kuger4119

Short answer - yes. Doing anything active is a form of exercise, and you are entitled to log it and eat it...

BUT - Unless you are talking about very heavy laundry or a very long walk to get to the line, its not going to be that many calories. I would consider this task to be closer to weight lifting than cardio work, and a gym session of dedicated weight lifting burns somethign like 200KCal per hour. So if you are hanging up washing for 15 minutes and you are working at a lower effort than dedicated wight lifting you are talking less than 50 KCals - probably 20 or 30.

Probably the right way to look at it. Unless you are hanging a ridiculous amount of heavy clothes, doing laundry is only going to burn 20-30 calories. If you want to log it....fine. If you don't, same thing. It isn't a big picture item worth stressing about either way. For those that say don't eat back your exercise calories.....you're wrong. As long as you are eating a reasonable amount of food, it doesn't matter if you don't eat back your exercise calories, but the science (which works for the vast majority of people) says that you should be looking at net calories each day.

DawnieB1977

I wouldn't say it's exercise as such, but I guess if you hang up enough clothes then it'll do your arms some good! We live in a flat so have a tumble dryer, but when I stay at my parents' I hang the washing up. With 2 young kids we get through a lot of clothes! My arms start to ache a bit after the third load of washing!

I'm very active every day looking after my kids, but I wouldn't log it as exercise unless I've ran around a soft play place for 2 hours, or been for a long seafront walk.

amyosullivan124

I completely agree - I log my cleaning as I do 2 major cleans a week for at least an hour!! Don't listen to all the negative people. I understand not putting in 5 steps walking to the washing line etc but at the end of the day its your diary and your weight loss mission.

You will know if you are cheating yourself by putting things like that in. Furthermore, if you put it in and lose weight then keep track of it. Any calorie burnt is a calorie burnt!

The most frustrating part of exercising.. a mile run burns about 130 calories which I could eat in about 2 seconds! Sigh!

JessHealthKick

nothing to do here... *runs*

keithmustloseweight

You log standing up?...

The bus is moving and swaying around so it's resistance training

claudie1981

I havent got a small 1 room place my kitchen is about 172 square feet My lounge and bathroom together are even bigger.... I dont live in one room by myself, i have a family too. lol

RllyGudTweetr

How many pieces of laundry do you hang up at a time? Are they in a basket at your feet, or a table from which you need to turn in order to put them on the line?

Would you consider that number of toe-touches, or that number of waist twists, exercise?

kristen6022

No. And neither is shopping. If you want to log a calorie burn actually set aside time to "work out". Cleaning, Laundry, Cooking, and Shopping don't count. Now, if you garden, shovel snow, detail your car or something else outside of your normal day to day routine I think that's perfectly acceptable to log.

mikeyrp

IThe most frustrating part of exercising.. a mile run burns about 130 calories which I could eat in about 2 seconds! Sigh!

Positive approach: Running 1 mile takes 7-12 minutes for most people depending on your fitness level (To put that in perspective, I do 71/2 minutes per mile for a half marathon, The marathon winners take about 5 minutes per mile). So.. if you run 6 miles (10k) at a 10 minute mile, that's ~800 calories AND an hour in which you aren't eating anything

Also, 130 calories is a small amount of full fat cheese but a heck of a lot of fresh crunchy vegetables

brokenjawedmuse

No - think of it this way - were you hanging up laundry or cleaning while you were stacking on the weight - if you were it did not stop you from getting fat - so how on earth are those same activities now helping you drop the weight?

I'd disagree with this completely. Gaining fat, for normal healthy people (meaning no thyroid problems, PCOS, etc), is a matter of eating in excess of your calories burned. You could run 3 hours daily and then go home and eat twice the calories you burned and gain weight, despite the fact that you were exercising quite a bit.

Rockstar_JILL

No - think of it this way - were you hanging up laundry or cleaning while you were stacking on the weight - if you were it did not stop you from getting fat - so how on earth are those same activities now helping you drop the weight?

^^smart post.

I AGREE!

dad106

You log standing up?...

The bus is moving and swaying around so it's resistance training

Alright, now I've heard it all.

Guess I better log all that standing I do at work as resistance training because otherwise I'm just cheating my self out of calories.

kr1stadee

What does it matter who logs what as exercise? If you do, and eat some or all of the calories, and lose, great!!
If you log it, eat some or all, and you don't lose, change it up!

And you should eat at least half of your exercise calories - MFP tends to over-exaggerate the burns.

lizzynewm

unless it gets your heart rate going and you're sweating and it's physically a push, then no, i wouldn't consider it exercise but that goes for anything. my buddy goes to the gym and just wanders around and doesn't do anything and i don't consider that exercise either lol. to me, the activity doesn't matter, it's how hard you exert yourself within that activity.

RllyGudTweetr

unless it gets your heart rate going and you're sweating and it's physically a push, then no, i wouldn't consider it exercise but that goes for anything. my buddy goes to the gym and just wanders around and doesn't do anything and i don't consider that exercise either lol. to me, the activity doesn't matter, it's how hard you exert yourself within that activity.

Again with folks insisting it's all about sweating. I apparently need to stop logging 2-hour-long walks with a full pack, and any work I do on a Gazelle Glider, because they don't make the sweat pour from my brow.

SquidgySquidge

I really don't get logging stuff like this - surely you used to do washing before you started eating properly?
In my opinion you should only log stuff that you actually need to change your clothes or shoes for, something you planned to do for the specific goal of burning calories.

Contrarian

I once saw someone log "Food Preparation - 3 minutes". I don't think glopping a can of Chef-Boyardee into a bowl and putting in the microwave really qualifies as exercise, but whatever makes you happy, right?

KristysLosing

NO, what is wrong with people here.

Lol. Can I log making dinner???

People actually do...

I once saw someone log driving. She had gone on a trip and spent the day in the car, and logged cals burned. I couldn't believe it!

babydiego87

I once saw someone log "Food Preparation - 3 minutes". I don't think glopping a can of Chef-Boyardee into a bowl and putting in the microwave really qualifies as exercise, but whatever makes you happy, right?

:laugh:

i have to laugh because really, youre only cheating yourself

AuntieKT

i think i'm going to sound really harsh here but...

i suspect your mindset is off and you're cheating yourself, kidding yourself that normal chores count as exercise, if you're really honest with yourself, is it a way to make yourself feel better about not doing enough real exercise? a way to convince yourself that you've earned that extra scoop at dinner?

if so, it'll make you feel better in the short term by making your log look lighter, but in the long term it will make you miserable by holding back your weight loss.

LOL on "extra scoop"!

claudie1981

I wouldnt log preparing supper or doing dishes but but lifting up and carry 2 55 Pound baskets of laundry to the washing line about 100 feet away and then hanging it all up sounds like exercise to me. Ive never logged it in as such. Thats why i asked the question. and for those that say if you used to do it before and put on weight, y would you count it as exercise ... I used to also not count my calories or track my food when i put on weight, and they count.

PhearlessPhreaks

okay thanks just was curious. Its not on the database. well this is week 2 for me, i didnt even realise i was eating my exercise calories till one of my friends told me not to eat them up I do put cleaning as work out even a light one cause i clean a room in my house a day. Its still moving....but shoo carrying those heavy washing baskets out to the line i could feel my heart beating. lol

Those activities should be considered when putting in your daily activity level. Virtually no one who isn't bedridden is actually sedentary- if you cook or do chores on a regular basis, you are, at the very least, lightly active. As such, things like cooking and cleaning shouldn't be counted as "exercise". Things you don't do on a regular basis, like heavy duty "spring cleaning" i think are ok, but I personally don't count it. I only count real workouts, not shopping, not cooking, not cleaning (and my laundry room is in the basement- those stairs are a workout for a pregnant lady!).

Rule of thumb: if you did it regularly while gaining weight or before attempting to lose weight, don't log it as exercise.

dovetail22uk

I wouldnt log preparing supper or doing dishes but but lifting up and carry 2 55 Pound baskets of laundry to the washing line about 100 feet away and then hanging it all up sounds like exercise to me. Ive never logged it in as such. Thats why i asked the question. and for those that say if you used to do it before and put on weight, y would you count it as exercise ... I used to also not count my calories or track my food when i put on weight, and they count.

Can't you think of it as a bonus?