Cleaning as Exercise?

If you're using your fatty acid energy system to do work, then is NOT exercise. Me sitting here typing to you is burning calories. but it's not exercise as it's not intense enough to move out of the fatty acid energy system. It doesn't matter if it's routine or not. Just cause it's out of your routine, does NOT mean the body will be like zomg, I've never done this before, i'll switch into exercise mode..

Activity != exercise.

Sure you can log it, but don't make the mistake that just cause your body is moving, you're exercising.

If I'm doing something that's really active — cleaning the garage, spring cleaning the house for hours at a time, rearranging furniture, carrying heavy boxes to help someone move, etc, I will log it. Otherwise I just consider cleaning a part of my everyday chores.

So far, I have not been logging cleaning as an exercise if it is part of normal daily activity. But the extra deep-cleaning projects that I do, I definitely log those because they do get my heart rate up. I'm even sore from them the next day. That should count.

It's better than sitting but it's not an excuse to not challenge your body with real exercise.

I so do not agree with this statement. Real exercise is what gets your heart rate up and strengthens your muscles. If you have ever scrubbed floors on your hands and knees, washed walls and woodwork, raked leaves, or turned over a garden without a roto-tiller, you have experienced "real" exercise.

I will concede that if you are a body builder, you may need to do the type of heavy lifting not provided by the activities I just mentioned.

I definitely agree with you. I'd be willing to bet these type of daily chores, which people back in the day used to do all day every day without the benefit of of all the time and labor-saving devices we have today, is why people weren't obese at the levels we are today, and all without having to go to the gym.

I do not count cleaning as an exercise. I do housekeeping for a job right now (for the past year) and then I come home and do more cleaning.. and I haven't lost ANY weight doing just that. Sure it's hard work, I of all people know that, but as far as counting it as an exercise, no way.

I agree cleaning is not an excercise. Just like I hear that shopping is an excercise How? you walk, you stop, you look. I think these are excuses so we don't feel bad about not being focused on our health goal.

i don't log normal daily cleaning that i do on a regular basis. however we are getting the house ready to be put on the market aug 10 or 17th and that included a super deep clean which i logged. that burns calories, and i often would clean myself into a sweat as a polished the hardwood floor or carried boxes between floors etc.

I believe exercise is exersice and cleaning is cleaning. I do not ever log cleaning even if I am rearranging furniture. When you are changing your lifestyle for a healthier you do you really change your cleaning habbits? I know I didn't. We change our eating habbits and add cardio "workouts" and strength training to our day. My opinion folks!, We are all entitled to it!

I only log mine when Its a Sunday. We do an all out clean most Sundays. Scrubbing. Windows. Floors. Beds. (5 of them) Cabinets, baseboards. garden. bathrooms. Cupboards. desks, Yeah Its a Burn!!!

What does it matter to anyone else what I log anyway? It's my fitness quest, not anyone else's. If I want to log brushing my teeth, I will.

Agrrrreeeeed

Jeeze, it was a question. They didn't ask specically what you log. They just wanted feedback.

I've burned a heck of a lot more calories doing a half a day of spring cleaning than, say, a ten minute walk (which I tend to assume is folks taking their dog out). But I don't think anyone would question walking.

I absolutely count it. It's not counted in my sedentary lifestyle, so if I burn em, I count em. If I don't count them, it seems dishonest. But I also count every thing I eat - whether it's a half a cracker or a full serving.

is the burning of calories exercise??

Lets rephrase, if you burn a ton of calories using your fatty acid energy system as the primary driver, do you consider that more exercise than less calories burned from doing cardio based energy system movement?

I don't log daily things like dishes or folding laundry...however, when I do a major clean, I log it because: I stretch, I bend, I walk, I use muscle to scrub, etc...and I sweat. So I log it. I am on my feet with my job and I don't count that because it's normal daily activity...but for someone who is used to having very little or no activity, I can see how actively cleaning is a workout, especially if just starting out in a new active lifestyle from a very sedentary one.

I've burned a heck of a lot more calories doing a half a day of spring cleaning than, say, a ten minute walk (which I tend to assume is folks taking their dog out). But I don't think anyone would question walking.

I absolutely count it. It's not counted in my sedentary lifestyle, so if I burn em, I count em. If I don't count them, it seems dishonest. But I also count every thing I eat - whether it's a half a cracker or a full serving.

is the burning of calories exercise??

Lets rephrase, if you burn a ton of calories using your fatty acid energy system as the primary driver, do you consider that more exercise than less calories burned from doing cardio based energy system movement?

I don't know that I would consider cleaning an exercise - but I do believe that if I am doing something which burns significantly more calories than sitting on my butt in front of the computer that I should record it. Otherwise, my record is incomplete. So, let's say that I hadn't recorded all that cleaning and box moving. A couple months from now when I'm stuck in a plateau and reviewing my previous logs to find patterns or whatever, I would see this massive loss with no explanation. "hmmm is it because I ate more carbs? maybe it was my water intake - hmmm, that must be it, I was better about my water!" I'd be wrong in that assumption because I actually burned thousands of calories cleaning and moving that I didn't record because it wasn't some definition of exercise.

And, yes, that is an extreme example. It's like comparing running a marathon with walking the dog. I wouldn't begrudge someone recording walking the dog, so why should I begrudge someone spending 45 minutes vacuuming the house and carrying loads of laundry from the upstairs to the basement and back again. (though if they're set at an active lifestyle - they may be screwing themselves over, but I am set at sedentary)

And I diffidently agree with what all you are saying. But I am saying as the aspect of using as an excuse though. Because I know people personally who do it, why I brought it up in the first place. I know when you sleep your burning calories, your burn calories no matter what you do.

I also believe in pushing people to their hardest. It has helped my friends out tons of time. And if SOME people have the mind set that all they have to do is clean everyday to get that 200 to 600 calories then they will be just fine I disagree.

IMO, people log the calories burned during housework, child care, and yard work because they are, in fact, burning calories. I would not dream of passing judgement on someone--implying that they are using their cleaning activities as an excuse for not formally exercising. Yes, one can get in shape with eating a healthy diet, walking, cleaning, gardening, playing with kids, etc., without ever stepping into a gym or using an exercise video. In fact, when you think about it--exercising in a gym appears to be a fairly recent phenomenon. Our ancestors who most likely made their living doing manual labor had no need for "exercise".

I totally agree with this. I just think that more modern times are certainly set up differently than humans are really meant to live, and that people should live more actively, as in during their everyday lives. Too many people just don't stop to think that even 50 years ago, the exercise was gotten from everyday life, just traveling and working. Some people still live this way. I so often travel by bicycle and walk all over whenever possible. I also expend a lot of calories cleaning and dealing with my kids, but I also swim and try to find time to add a "Workout" to my daily life. Sometimes it's not easy for people to spend time at a gym. If people would learn to eat more healthy and realize that daily movement really is the exercise they need in order to be healthy, we would all be and sty healthy.

The other day I saw a man who was heavy, ride a 4-wheeler a block to go from one place to another(about a block apart). This is where he should have really just gotten some exercise. Make use of those legs when you can people. And make sure to realize this really is exercise. Daily stuff or not. I live about 800 feet from my family and I so rarely drive there when I go. I either walk or ride my bike. It expends energy and stretches my legs.

I have only used it a couple of times as my form of exercise. However, I only used it when I did some heavy cleaning. I pulled things out from under the bed or closet, dusted, moved furniture, stood up and down on a stool. One day I cleaned for 3 hrs. But I only logged in that I did an hour. But I figure because I in some form or other worked by arms, my butt and legs, and worked up a sweat and had to use my core to stay balance without getting injured, then to me that counted as a workout.