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

NO! and i dont know why, but when i see it logged, it really bothers me... issues i guess... lol

I don't count it. I only count workouts – be it gym, running, walking, biking or yoga. Sure, I can exert myself with house cleaning or lawn mowing but I don't want to get into the habit of letting myself off the hook with my focused workouts by crediting myself with chores. Those are just bonus calories burnt and, if they add up to extra pounds lost when I weigh in, then it's a pleasant surprise.

If I sweat from the activity, then yes; otherwise no. Spring and fall yard clean-up definitely count. Shoveling snow this winter has counted.

if it doesn't make you sweat, it's not exercise.

If I'm shoveling manure, digging holes for trees - yes. If I'm raking. no

I disagree. You can go for a 2 hour walk, not sweat, and that is definitely still exercise because you would still have burned a large amount of calories.

I think you would personally know if you should consider something as exercise or not.
If I went to the grocery store and walked around for 20 minutes - no I wouldn't consider that exercise - just normal walking/daily activity.
If I went to large mall and walked around for 2 to 3 hours, I would consider that exercise - because it is above and beyond the walking I would do in an average/normal day.

When I spend 4 hours outside mowing and gardening, you better believe I'm going to count it. It takes the place of a "regular" workout. I sure don't have the strength, energy, or time to do both.

This!

Only if its heavy work that gets me sweating!

I generally don't count house cleaning or shopping. I guess I could strap on my pedometer at Target and log the miles but nah. However, these last few days I've been uprooting some decrepit and unhealthy landscaping and it involved some serious use of the mattock removing tree stumps, and I did count that, although I was conservative as I logged in one hour of "gardening" when I was probably spending 3 hours doing it.

Otherwise, I just count deliberate exercise. That way, I am in the clear when it comes to calories in and calories exerted. If I lose some extra weight that week then yay!

I do not count anything that is not an actual workout. If I do not wear my HRM...it doesn't get counted. I used to count yard work but no longer do that.
I installed a pond set up including moving around heavy rock slates last week then Gardened etc - for most of last week and was sweating and exhausted..I prob. should of worn it just to see what the burn was! LOL

Yard work is generally not an everyday / week thing so in theory it should be counted I guess. Shopping and house work is either a weekly or daily thing for me so I never count it.

I don't count anything but actual exercise as exercise. Boot Camp, Zumba, Walking for fitness, all of that I count as exercise. Taking the stairs at work (I'm on the 5th floor) - I don't count it as exercise. I figure all of the "extras" add up to a nice additional calorie burn, but I don't call it "exercise", per se.

This is tricky, and each opinion will vary.

My take is this:

I think if you did some HEAVY DUTY cleaning, I am talking hours and hours, crazy stuff like washing walls or scrubbing floors by hand, NOT 5 minutes with a Swiffer Duster, while *I* would not log it, I think a person should keep in mind they did have a 'tad' extra movement than usual, certainly this movement being a bit more strenuous than say ... washing dishes.

Yard work, again tricky. I think if you mowed (by hand, not riding mower) for hours or did something like dig ditches (ok, joke) *I* personally would not log it, but a person again should keep in a mind certain yard work tasks are more difficult or intense than say ... doing laundry.

It's not exercise per se, but it is a little bit more movement than a typical day I guess.

I personally think EXERCISE and EXERCISE. Not walking around the grocery store, not folding clothes, not doing dishes, not hanging laundry, not walking to your mailbox, etc.

But, that's just me.
ANY movement, is good movement honestly, but some shouldn't be counted as your only form of exercise.

I don't normally. On Saturday's 1000 calorie burn challenge I did BUT I did work up a sweat by doing jumping jacks and lunges as well as other exercises while cleaning... I needed all the help I could get! LOL

I for sure count gardening as work. Every summer spend two hours every day in the hot sun digging, weeding, raking, hauling mulch etc. Between that and walking the dog I lose 5-10lbs and a pant size compared to winter around xmas time. Clearly, that is good exercise.

Also, I am very sweaty from working like crazy. That should give you a clue as to whether you count it or not.

I wear my Bodymedia fit so it all gets counted.. I notice that regular housework doesn't really give me a bigger number for the day but if I'm doing some really heavy duty cleaning or raking leaves, pulling weeds, that kind of stuff.. it can give me 400-600 more calories burned for the day.

Yes! It does count! Housecleaning and yardwork burns a surprising amount of calories.