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

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  • fitplease
    fitplease Posts: 647 Member
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    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
  • Sjenny5891
    Sjenny5891 Posts: 717 Member
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    I never do, but wonder if it would count or should count?

    It depends on how you have your goals set. If you are set on Sedentary, maybe.

    I personally have mine set on Sed because I don't know what I'm doing at work each day and it is easier for me to add in the physical jobs than remembering to subtract the desk job......
    I don't add the 15 minute dishes or food prep, but will add shopping if we are out walking for 2 hours or more ( as half the time we are out though. you have to figure you are not walking for a good portion of the time unless you can do a marathon shopping spree knowing exactly what you are getting)
    Yard work is more physical. I count gardening if I'm pulling weeds or picking. I don't count snapping beans or playing cards.
  • phjorg
    phjorg Posts: 252 Member
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    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
    I drive a standard. there is no exertion difference. the calorie burn is the same as sitting around doing nothing.
  • 5ftnFun
    5ftnFun Posts: 948 Member
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    I only count deliberate exercise as exercise. Anything that I do above and beyond that is active or physical I just consider a bonus.
  • Querian
    Querian Posts: 419 Member
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    If I was doing major yard work (back when I had a yard) I would probably count it. Housecleaning I can't think of anything I do that is taxing enough to warrant me logging it. But I do have a Fitbit which adjusts for all my activity so I guess if I was lightly active while picking up around the house the fitbit would capture it for me. In fqact since I got the fitbit I even stopped logging my walks (and I walk a lot) because it is good at adjusting calories based on steps without me having to enter it.

    But really it's up to you. I know some of the people who log what some might consider silly things have their settings at sedentary when really they are probably more active than that so they need to log those things in order to increase their daily activities to what it should be. :flowerforyou:
  • stumpycow
    stumpycow Posts: 94 Member
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    Yard work, gardening, mowing the lawn- yes; cleaning the house- no! Except scrubbing the bathroom, I hate scrubbing the toilet & tub so yes. It's like a teeny tiny incentive lol
  • Pangea250
    Pangea250 Posts: 965 Member
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    Routine, mundane stuff? No. Working work? Yes. I don't log housework, but I do log mowing the lawn & heavy gardening.
  • kcaffee1
    kcaffee1 Posts: 759 Member
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    If it is a regular part of my daily routine.. no, unless it is just being added in. (like when I first started making my drinks in the evening for the next day. After a couple of weeks, I quite logging that.) However, cleaning I log, because it is not an every day occurrence, same with the yard work I do. Walking around shopping I might or might not log separately, depends on how much I wind up having to add to the cart. If it gets to be heavier than my book bag, then I'll log it, else it gets lumped in with the rest of the general walking I pick up off the pedometer at the end of the day.
  • awake4777
    awake4777 Posts: 190 Member
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    I count ABnormal activity. If I walk around the store for an hour and I normally would do that I wouldn't count it. If I'm doing something in housework that keeps me on my feet for at least 30 minutes and it is abnormal activity I count it. If you don't count it your body may be counting it so pay attention to the scales.

    I'm not a good sweater so I can't go by that, but when I was younger me and a friend would go to a sauna where she'd sweat like a pig and I wouldn't. Both of us just sitting there. Maybe I eat too much salt.

    If you weigh 300 lbs and are not accustomed to being active, I would count everything. I find that the more weight I lose the more active I become. I think you have to pay attention to your body.

    Good luck.
  • Tysonlovesweights
    Tysonlovesweights Posts: 139 Member
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    I would count something like chopping wood, but regular yard work stuff like planting, cutting the grass, raking, etc, takes little energy on my part. I am not a little guy, so pushing the mower is pretty easy :) i might log it if i spent half a day with the wheelbarrow moving soil or planting tress or something of that level.
  • lieselLalor
    lieselLalor Posts: 169 Member
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    I log if I am shoveling snow because that REALLY kicks my butt. I don't really do any other yard work and I'm constantly cleaning so I don't feel like I could log it reasonably. I wish I knew how many calories I burn at work because there are some days I know I've burned at least 500 calories with all the running around I do.
  • tidesong
    tidesong Posts: 451 Member
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    If it's things I do around the house every day, then no. If it's something I don't normally do but work up a good sweat doing so, then sometimes.
  • sarahthin
    sarahthin Posts: 221 Member
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    Housework that brings a sweat or stretches my muscles and joints. Yes. The same with yard work. Having had two knee surgeries, a lot of the movements are about the same as my rehab was. After a while even getting us becomes an exercise.
  • Seachicken84
    Seachicken84 Posts: 98 Member
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    When you set up your profile at MFP it asks what level of activity you have in your life low being a couch potato mid being moderately active and high is pretty self explanatory. Now I may have the exact details wrong but the generalities are accurate. In my opinion non strenuous housework/yard work is already factored into the middle and high ranges. If like some have mentioned you work up a sweat, then count some of that cleaning. But some of it is already calculated into your formula MFP uses to spit out a colorie intake for you.
  • JustJennie1
    JustJennie1 Posts: 3,843 Member
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    When I shoveled for 2 hours in the winter time I absolutely counted that as exercise and if I get roped into doing other stuff outside around the house where I am lifting, straining and breaking a sweat I will count that too.

    House work I count when I do a big clean which takes me 5 hours.
  • RenCara
    RenCara Posts: 300 Member
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    cleaning the house, no. mowing the law, yes. my rule is that if i do something around the house, and should shower afterwards b/c of sweating so much, i count it. on my feed i see all types of stuff that people count...cleaning, food prep, stuff like that. to each his/her own, i guess. for me, if i should shower after, it counts.


    That's a great way to determine if it is worthy of logging. I have never logged cleaning, shopping or food prep. but I do log snow shoveling and the yard work that is extensive.
  • alyssa92982
    alyssa92982 Posts: 1,093 Member
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    Ha! Funny I seen this I just counted mowing the yard today for a calorie burner. I also count shoveling snow. If its something that gets my heart rate up them I wear my monitor and count it for sure.
  • MandaPaigeSparkles88
    MandaPaigeSparkles88 Posts: 1,289 Member
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    Yes I don't care if I am walking around Walmart shopping or cleaning, dusting, and stocking the pop and beer coolers at work if I am walking and moving I count it.
  • ddky
    ddky Posts: 381 Member
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    Nothing gets my heart rate up like a 70% off sale. Two or three hours walking around the malls also counts for something. Sometimes I log it, sometimes not.
  • parias1126
    parias1126 Posts: 64 Member
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    Housework and yardwork don't count as far as I'm concerned since I did those things before I decided to change my lifestyle a year ago.

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