Does anyone count housework as excersise?
Replies
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If I feel like the house work is making me break a sweat, I count it.
^^this^^
In addition, when I feel my heart rate increase and sustain that increase for longer than 15 minutes I count it.0 -
I count it...I have 2500sq feet to clean, hardwood floors, two staircases to climb with a mop bucket...0
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were you cleaning before you made a lifestyle change? If the answer is yes, then no you shouldn't. Depends of course on what your cleaning involves - I have such a small apartment and I do clean, but I wouldn't say it's that straining or anything...
Under that same logic though. You were eating before you made a change, are you going to stop considering that as well in your day to day activities or just stop eating? No, you still log it I guess. Same applies to housework. Regardless if you do it daily, weekly or whatever..... it's still more than doing nothing at all.
I am eating differently. It is just logical - if you waked to work for 30mins a day and were putting on the pounds, why would you suddenly start logging that on MFP? It's a normal daily activity for your body that isn't really strenuous.
Go ahead, eat 200extra cals from all the 'exercise; you get by washing and walking to the garbage bin. I am just trying to be helpful and logical - I have ridden to uni for 20-60mins a day (depends on how many times) and I used to log it but realised it was stupid as all I logged it for was some cheat calories. Log it for a record and just record 1 cal, and not cheat calories then you're in the clear.
That means don't log ANY walking either cause you walk as part of your normal day. If you hang the washing like I do, then you get way more than just 200 cals a day extra. Try closer to 400 easily & that's just the washing. Then do all the other housework like I do & that's at least an extra 200. I don't log it because I know what people would think & unless they KNOW how I'm doing it then they will think I'm lying. Walking to the bin though? Takes all of 2 seconds so not even 1 cal gone. If you rode each day as much as you said then it's classed as exercise, regardless if you did it before or not. It's still exercise. Anything ABOVE doing NOTHING is some form of exercise.
BTW I walk about 30km a day at least, nice even walk, nice pace. Because it's not strenuous I guess it's not exercise...... even though I never walked that far at all when I was fat. Oh well, guess then those extra 1000 calories I burn off each day wont count.
um so you say you never walked like that before?.. 30km is about 6 hours straight of walking a day. That surprises me a little but I'll trust you on that, nice work! But that is my point - if you didn't do it AT ALL before and are starting to do it NOW then then yes I think you should log it. Anyway I'm not really trying to start an argument - I honestly want what is best for other MFP users.
Yep my Fitbit stats dont lie. People on my friends list know how much I do each day. I'm very very active even when sick. I walked 23km to get some mascara, took me 5 hours. I didn't stop once. I do over 20,000 steps a day...that's my minimum I've set.
Thing is though..... I walked before I got here on MFP early last year...not as much but I did, so that means going by others I should not count my walking still cause it's what I did before.
Same as housework. Daily done, but I do it different now so I DO get a workout from it. PLace your washing basket as far from the line as possible. Then take a long route to the line, with only ONE item at a time. One sock, then back to basket empty handed, another sock..... take the longest way to the line you can. It'll take you ages to do it, but you are walking while doing it. I rack up about 5000-6000 steps doing a full basket.0 -
I'd say if you are sweating then yes. If not then no
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Personally, I don't as it's just a day to day chore for me and I don't do anything spectacular to rack up more calories (unlike the lady with her epic laundry routes - nice one!). However, I did count a day of gardening I did recently as that was fairly intense lifting, digging, carrying for a sustained period and I was sweating like a lamb in a kebab shop.
You could count it for a few weeks but if you aren't losing, then you can always cut it out (the counting, not the cleaning!) and see if it makes a difference.0 -
hmm, I'm not sure I would like to spend half an hour hanging out washing just so I can have a few more steps.0
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I would set your MFP to "lightly active" at least. I Initially had mine set at sedentary too and it was too low for my allowed calories in my opinion. Plus I was starving all the time and I was losing several pounds per week. When I bumped it up to "lightly active", it gave me some extra calories which made me less starved. Sedentary should be used (in my opinion) only if you are confined to a bed all day.
As far as counting calories for housework, some say it's not true cardio yada yada but you are still burning calories. I count my calories burned when I walk the dog. I do this because I *know* it burns calories. When we first got this pup, I dropped 4 pounds just due to the added excercise 5 times a day.
All the best on your fitness journey.0 -
MFP is weird so at sedentary it gave me a calorie goal of 1200 and then yesterday i changed it to active and gave me a calorie goal of 13100
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If I want to justify an extra glass of wine on the weekend, I may plug in some housework.
This! Only when I need a few extra calories. :laugh:0 -
This is the best comment! True to life! lol (I've done that too) lol0
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I log housework when I'm doing some serious cleaning for an hour or more.0
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Logging anything other than actual legitimate exercise as exercise leads to improper understanding of how the site's system is supposed to work. As a general rule of thumb you shouldn't log anything you didn't have to change into your training/running shoes for (unless you exercise barefoot of course) as exercise.0
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Yeah, if I'm doing heavy duty cleaning, It last longer than an hr and if Iv'e broke a good sweat. I don't count everyday cleaning, like dishes. 0
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In my experience, anything based on a lie is going to have faulty results. Be honest with yourself and others, including MFO.
On a side note, I don't count normal daily cleaning, but if I am doing extra work that only gets done once or twice a year and I get my heart pumping for more than 10 minutes I will count those 10 minutes or so. I won't count my entire time cleaning though.0 -
I set my activity level at sedentary could I put cleaning In my calculation of calories burned? I'm not sedentary at all I work out 6 days a week with cardio 7 days a week please help any advice!
Sedentary refers to how you spend the bulk of your day. For example, I am a history information specialist and database records manager. I spend 90% of my day from 7am-3:30pm sitting down. I have a second job as a writer, which also requires me to sit down. So even though I do laundry and walk around the the house, and go up and down the stairs, and clean the house, I am considered sedentary. Housework should NOT be counted in your exercise calories because it is a normal condition which is accounted for under all types of lifestyles. The only type of cleaning or normal activity that counts is, for example, say by cleaning you mean you are cleaning out your garage which requires heavy lifting, etc. Normal cleaning does not require this.
The fact is that you should not count any activity as exercise that does not cause your heart rate to become "in the zone" because you are not actually burning excess calories. If you wear an HRM and your heart rate is 111, you might burn 2-3 excess calories over what you would have without cleaning your house over the course of 30 minutes. By counting the calories you burn while doing normal activities, you will probably gain weight or at least thwart your efforts to lose weight.
As a general rule of thumb, I never count any calories that I burned when my heart rate was under 125 unless I'm in a genuine workout setting where it might dip below for 2 minutes while I do intervals.0 -
were you cleaning before you made a lifestyle change? If the answer is yes, then no you shouldn't. Depends of course on what your cleaning involves - I have such a small apartment and I do clean, but I wouldn't say it's that straining or anything...
Under that same logic though. You were eating before you made a change, are you going to stop considering that as well in your day to day activities or just stop eating? No, you still log it I guess. Same applies to housework. Regardless if you do it daily, weekly or whatever..... it's still more than doing nothing at all.
I am eating differently. It is just logical - if you waked to work for 30mins a day and were putting on the pounds, why would you suddenly start logging that on MFP? It's a normal daily activity for your body that isn't really strenuous.
Go ahead, eat 200extra cals from all the 'exercise; you get by washing and walking to the garbage bin. I am just trying to be helpful and logical - I have ridden to uni for 20-60mins a day (depends on how many times) and I used to log it but realised it was stupid as all I logged it for was some cheat calories. Log it for a record and just record 1 cal, and not cheat calories then you're in the clear.
That means don't log ANY walking either cause you walk as part of your normal day. If you hang the washing like I do, then you get way more than just 200 cals a day extra. Try closer to 400 easily & that's just the washing. Then do all the other housework like I do & that's at least an extra 200. I don't log it because I know what people would think & unless they KNOW how I'm doing it then they will think I'm lying. Walking to the bin though? Takes all of 2 seconds so not even 1 cal gone. If you rode each day as much as you said then it's classed as exercise, regardless if you did it before or not. It's still exercise. Anything ABOVE doing NOTHING is some form of exercise.
BTW I walk about 30km a day at least, nice even walk, nice pace. Because it's not strenuous I guess it's not exercise...... even though I never walked that far at all when I was fat. Oh well, guess then those extra 1000 calories I burn off each day wont count.
um so you say you never walked like that before?.. 30km is about 6 hours straight of walking a day. That surprises me a little but I'll trust you on that, nice work! But that is my point - if you didn't do it AT ALL before and are starting to do it NOW then then yes I think you should log it. Anyway I'm not really trying to start an argument - I honestly want what is best for other MFP users.
Yep my Fitbit stats dont lie. People on my friends list know how much I do each day. I'm very very active even when sick. I walked 23km to get some mascara, took me 5 hours. I didn't stop once. I do over 20,000 steps a day...that's my minimum I've set.
Thing is though..... I walked before I got here on MFP early last year...not as much but I did, so that means going by others I should not count my walking still cause it's what I did before.
Same as housework. Daily done, but I do it different now so I DO get a workout from it. PLace your washing basket as far from the line as possible. Then take a long route to the line, with only ONE item at a time. One sock, then back to basket empty handed, another sock..... take the longest way to the line you can. It'll take you ages to do it, but you are walking while doing it. I rack up about 5000-6000 steps doing a full basket.
well I don't think the OP is doing 5000 steps putting out washing... you are in a special situation here doing what you do. I was trying to talk about the general population who puts out washing in 10 minutes. I am not digging what YOU do, but obviously it is unique and not really logical then to assume others get the same kind of work out that you do.
I never said you shouldn't log walking. Please read what I said - you may have walked a little before, and if you are walking now then YES log the extra walking!
For goodness sakes, I give up on trying to be coherent on MFP/internet in general. Everything is always so skewed and illogical0 -
I don't log my house work to begin with even though it consist going up and down 3 flights of stars ! Never stated I did.0
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yep.0
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I'd only count cleaning if it really makes you work up a sweat.0
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I definitely can work up a sweat cleaning. Especially when it's the days that I mop the floors, wash windows, vacuum stairs, do and put away laundry, etc. BUT, i don't log it as exercise. It's part of every day life. Just like walking my dogs. I don't log that either(unless it is when I take them for a hike, than I log that). I did these things when I was obese and it didn't contribute to any weight loss, so that is why I don't log it now. It's just part of my daily routine.0
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Since I rarely do housework, I count it.
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Depending on if it "feels" like I am working out yes. A vaccum/mopping/shaking rug day can get pretty intense If anything I will log it just to see how much it helps to be productive and not just sitting on the couch. Makes me want to move more, two birds with one stone! 0
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I log my housework but I also wear my HRM. But I only do it when I'm doing extensive cleaning such as cleaning all of the baseboards (2-story home), vacuuming, mopping floors, unpacking/cleaning out the garage, yard work, etc.0
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I have mine set as sedentary too. The calories needed is based on calories burned doing nothing. So I absolutely count house cleaning! If I find myself standing all day more than usual, I count that too. There is a website other than this one that includes almost everything on how many calories are burned during certain activities. It' s easier for me to keep track of how much to eat. If I have an off day or easy day at home, I don't want to overeat. So I understand why you set it that way. I only eat my calories back if I feel weak or extra hungry though...0
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People can be rude! I don't think it matters what you did before you started logging. You have it set at sedentary. That means that anything you do other than sit or lay down can be counted. Good Luck Girl! If you notice yourself gaining weight then you know what to do...right? What's with the rude people anyway...Unless I'm taking it wrong...Just so you know, I lost 25lbs before doing it this way..I since went through some things and lost sight of my goals but now I'm back to do it again! Feel free to add me if you want...I don't log my house work to begin with even though it consist going up and down 3 flights of stars ! Never stated I did.0 -
I think if you have to ask... I don't think anyone has asked if running 5 miles counts as exercise.
LOL!!!! This ^^^
I would say that the activity level being accurate is the first big thing. I see that you've said you changed those settings. Secondly I would say that if you're going to rely on MFP to set your calorie goals then you should take into account everything you do REGULARLY that is not INTENTIONAL exercise and use that to determine what your actual activity level is. There's no guarantee, but if you use the most accurate and honest information to start with, it's at least a good place to start. Lastly, I would say that intentional exercise would be something you do specifically to improve your fitness level through a workout; whether it be low intensity like yoga or walking, or high intensity like running or heavy lifting. With all of that being said you have to be true and honest to yourself and not worry so much about what other people do/say. If you feel like you've gotten a workout in then log it, if you don't then don't. I don't log housework, but I'm in the process of completely gutting and renovating my basement and garage and I am counting that activity per my HRM because I am doing intense labor & lifting and it is providing a workout.
**edited to add: I do basically agree with the theory that since cleaning didn't help me reach any of my health/fitness goals before there's no logical reason it would now. Meaning I'm not going to take credit for cleaning my house when I've always done it, and I'm certainly not going to eat additional calories for doing it. Whether or not I do certain things "more intensely" while completing my chores or not it's still not exercise IMO. I also park at the end of the parking lot to walk further to the market and so forth, I don't count that as exercise either... Lots of different rules of thumb you've gotten on this post...0 -
People can be rude! I don't think it matters what you did before you started logging. You have it set at sedentary. That means that anything you do other than sit or lay down can be counted. Good Luck Girl! If you notice yourself gaining weight then you know what to do...right? What's with the rude people anyway...Unless I'm taking it wrong...Just so you know, I lost 25lbs before doing it this way..I since went through some things and lost sight of my goals but now I'm back to do it again! Feel free to add me if you want...I don't log my house work to begin with even though it consist going up and down 3 flights of stars ! Never stated I did.
I've lost 24 lbs yes people can def be rude I don't get it at all what do people get out of it idk0 -
People can be rude! I don't think it matters what you did before you started logging. You have it set at sedentary. That means that anything you do other than sit or lay down can be counted. Good Luck Girl! If you notice yourself gaining weight then you know what to do...right? What's with the rude people anyway...Unless I'm taking it wrong...Just so you know, I lost 25lbs before doing it this way..I since went through some things and lost sight of my goals but now I'm back to do it again! Feel free to add me if you want...I don't log my house work to begin with even though it consist going up and down 3 flights of stars ! Never stated I did.
So people giving their opinions to the question asked is "rude"...
...but you calling out other people for your interpretation of their responses isn't?
Interesting. Very interesting.0 -
I don't count anything I do on a regular basis. If it's a FULL bi-weekly or monthly scrub down or something out of the ordinary, yes I'll count it. I always just count it as light though, regardless of what I'm doing and I don't normally put the full time down. Today for example, did 'out of the ordinary' cleaning for almost 3 hours. I logged it as 1 1/2 hrs instead of the full thing.0
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yes and no... on a daily basis i dont BUT once- twice a week i do a top to bottom clean that takes 3-4 hours . i usually end up hot tired and sweaty and on those days i chart anwhere from 1-2 hours.. i only chart half of the time i spent and i chart it as slow pace.. when you think about it, heck yeah its a work out! your moving and lifting heavy clothes hampers and mop bucket from place to place. moving junk, tables, & couches while sweeping, vacuuming, and mopping ( sometimes scrubbing) the floors. you move from on your knees to on your toes, from standing to walking to walking fast to get things done quickly from one room to another. i definitely feel like i get a workout when i clean from top to bottom about once or twice a week.0
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