How Many Calories did you burn "Cleaning House" last week?

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  • SCtolulu
    SCtolulu Posts: 154 Member
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    No I don't count cleaning as exercise or shopping or sleeping. :)
  • peleroja
    peleroja Posts: 3,979 Member
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    I only log exercise if it raises my heart rate to my cardio target, generally 140-160 bpm.
  • moodyshannon15
    moodyshannon15 Posts: 39 Member
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    If I'm doing some heavy cleaning and work up a sweat I count it. If it's just light stuff I don't.
  • AmberleyAngel
    AmberleyAngel Posts: 160 Member
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    I think it's very personal and different for every individual. I get a little frustrated by people judging someone as being silly for logging things like housework. For a sedentary person getting up and putting in 1/2 hour is a momentous step and one they should be proud of (as a progression on a journey and not as a end goal). We don't know every person's life here so I don't think it's fair to poo-poo them for logging household/everyday living things. Okay, was a little of a rant, but it's bothered me for a while - some of the comments I've read on MFP about this subject can be quite condemning.

    OK, so my story -

    I was quite sedentary, than October 2012 I spent 2.5 weeks in hospital and then was virtually immobile for 3 months afterwards. When I finally could do something - making dinner - I counted it as exercise. It was a huge effort, taking me 3 times as long as what it would have a year ago. It was motivation to improve and encouragement that I was making progress. I never eat my exercise calories so for me it does not matter whether it's "true" exercise or not. Once I was able to do a short walk then I stopped logging cooking. Now I just log pure exercise - dedicated exercise walking, Zumba.......

    And to answer your second question - I didn't burn any housework calories last week. I'm still rehabilitating so my husband does 95% of it. :love:


    So log it/don't log it... I think it's fair game. Oh, and happy cleaning. :happy:
  • koshkasmum
    koshkasmum Posts: 276 Member
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    Ameberley, there is no such thing as happy cleaning - unless your spouse does it.......
  • michelle7673
    michelle7673 Posts: 370 Member
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    1. I only log heavy yardwork. For example, I spent several hours each day this weekend raking, hauling brush, running a big mulching leaf vacuum (not the handheld kind), turning over garden beds, and digging holes. On each day I logged it as 30 or 45 minutes of raking (in other words, between 10 and 20% of the actual time). I was so exhausted that I was out like a light by 9 both nights.

    2. I'm surprised and a little disappointed at the tone of some of these responses. I find myself wondering why it's necessary?
  • SanteMulberry
    SanteMulberry Posts: 3,202 Member
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    I don't do cleaning "sessions'. I hate cleaning so I do it in putter around mode - a bit here, a bit there in passing. Clean a sink, mop a floor, dust some furniture, clean the range hood, strip beds, laundry as I see it needs it. I am retired so I just fit it in here and there around the rest of my life.

    By the way, I object to the fitness afficionados who figure if it isn't extreme, doesn't involve a gym, weights , special workout gear or cardio equipment, its not exercise. For thousands of years life was exercise. Walking a couple of miles to town and carrying back 20 punds of groceries was exercise, garden work, house cleaning etc. was exercise. Our grandparents and great grandparents were fit without ever using a gym or running (without being chased!). Active is active. (Not athletic perhaps, not fitness model ripped, but healthy.)

    ^^^THIS^^^ Our current sedentary lifestyle is likely half of the problem in the "obesity epidemic". The other half is our bad diets (our ancestors ate 5 pounds of sugar per capita per year--we eat 150 pound of sugar per capita per year). Interestingly, our thin ancestors ate almost as much fat as we do. The dietary difference is sugar and the rise in sugar consumption tracks perfectly with the obesity figures.
  • Louiseisme
    Louiseisme Posts: 73
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    I have a job that I work full time plus (40-55 hrs 6-7 days per week) that requires me to sit on my rear in front of a computer, I am a single mom to an 11 yr old son and a Cat. I don't count everyday cooking and picking up that must be done to maintain proper living conditions. I will log a couple of times a month when I have the time to Thoroughly clean, scrub, mop, dust and vacuum the entire house in a matter of hours. I will also log the 2 hours it take per week during the spring-fall that it takes me to Mow, Trim, edge, and clean up the yard. These activities are out side of my "normal" day.
  • Bailey532
    Bailey532 Posts: 65 Member
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    I figure that I got fat while cleaning, so....... no, I don't log it.
  • citycowgirls
    citycowgirls Posts: 3
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    i log heavy cleaning meaning i move all the furniture, wash the windows, baseboards and floors by hand (yes, i scrub on my hands and knees).. i have wood floors so when i do this type of scrubbing, i treat it like a light workout routine at Curves.
  • Cherity7852
    Cherity7852 Posts: 37
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    I clean everyday and it hasn't helped me to lose weight so I don't log it
  • SanteMulberry
    SanteMulberry Posts: 3,202 Member
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    i log heavy cleaning meaning i move all the furniture, wash the windows, baseboards and floors by hand (yes, i scrub on my hands and knees).. i have wood floors so when i do this type of scrubbing, i treat it like a light workout routine at Curves.

    LOL--you sound like my mother-in-law. She never saw the inside of a gym but she was slim and trim her whole life (she died at 93). She would devotedly scrub and clean and wash her somewhat large house until it sparkled all the time. Of course, she wasn't a big eater either (had a small appetite).
  • cordianet
    cordianet Posts: 534 Member
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    Cleaning your house is just living life, not exercising. The trend I have noticed is that people who are fat try to count everything as exercise to make an excuse for why they didn't get on a treadmill or lift weights. I deal with diabetic patients who try to play this card on me all the time and they're still going to die from complications of their diabetes.... Even though they did the laundry. People who are fit realize that cleaning up is just part of their day and should be included in their daily caloric expenditure.

    I disagree with the premise here that "fat" people are making excuses by logging such things. I think whether or not you log calories for cleaning, yard work, etc. depend on where you're at on your fitness journey. Someone that has basically been completely sedentary and works up a sweat doing work they perhaps used to pay someone to do should certainly log that activity if it helps motivate them be more active. Alternately, if this is normal activity, and/or if you and more fit and routinely have a more structured workout program, logging such things may be pushing the envelope.

    What I don't understand is the belief that the only time you burn calories is if you go to a gym. That seems totally odd to my way of thinking. Some of us NEVER go to gyms. Activity is activity. If, for example, I go out and chop wood on my property, I guarantee you I expend more energy than half the people on this site that go to the gym and go round and round on the little "hamster wheels" you call exercise machines.
  • ChristyRunStarr
    ChristyRunStarr Posts: 1,600 Member
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    I don't count them either cause (in my mind) it's all in a days work :laugh:
  • Jelaine56
    Jelaine56 Posts: 88 Member
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    Am I the only person who doesnt log these sort of calories?
    Neither do i log long walks.

    I lost 33 lbs. doing long walks...
  • TrailRunner61
    TrailRunner61 Posts: 2,505 Member
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    Spring/fall cleaning, YES. Loading the dishwasher, vacuuming, making beds, laundry.. NO.
    Yardwork YES Gardening YES, I burned nearly 1,000 cals transplanting over 700 strawberry plants last week! Shoveling snow YES Cleaning my pool NO, sweeping my driveway YES, but only because it's super long and takes me over an hour.
    Scubbing floors, trim, light fixtures YES Painting YES Cleaning toilets, sinks, tubs NO, but I should since I have 3 bathrooms!

    Basically if it's everyday stuff that takes pretty much no effort, I won't bother logging it, because I do it all the time. If I'm going to break a sweat for at least an hour, hell yeah. Sometimes I even plan to do major 'housework' on the days I don't run/lift, just so I use different muscles.
  • tenajh
    tenajh Posts: 208 Member
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    I did not read each reply, but I did log in cleaning last week because for 2 days straight, I washed walls, cleaned light fixtures, organized, cleaned the garage, etc. We had 70+ people over and I did my spring cleaning, I spent over 16 hrs with the clean and logged in 2 hrs. I have MS and do need to keep track of what stresses out my body and that clean sure did : ) ...that being said, no I don't log in the weekly chores
  • Cre8veLifeR
    Cre8veLifeR Posts: 1,062 Member
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    I counted them last week because I missed my gym workouts because we were moving, and moving is cleaning house and I worked my butt off!
  • TrailRunner61
    TrailRunner61 Posts: 2,505 Member
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    Am I the only person who doesnt log these sort of calories?
    Neither do i log long walks.

    I lost 33 lbs. doing long walks...
    Good for you! I lost 40lbs in 4 mths just by walking! It is exercise!
  • watchhillgirl
    watchhillgirl Posts: 597 Member
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    I don't clean my house.....my husband does all that! Yep lucky me!!!

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