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

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  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
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    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 sweat when I am constipated, but I don't log that ...and it takes some serious effort to take a dump when you are backed up ...hell I probably burned 1000 calories and went into starvation mode....
  • shorty458
    shorty458 Posts: 163 Member
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    For myself, it depends on how much walking I would do. Since I work late, and quite hit up the gym I will take nightly walks w/ my dog and husband. Depending on the walk it will be anywhere from 1-3 miles. I figure if I am walking around an outlet mall I would end up burning off the same amount from when I was walking w/ my husband and dog.

    Also - regardless back in the day I worked at the mall at a GAP. So many senior citizens walk around the mall in the morning doing labs getting exercise.
  • missmegan831
    missmegan831 Posts: 824 Member
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    Intense yard work I count since it takes about 3 1/2 hrs to maintain my yard in spring/summer but I dont count housework or shopping to me thats like counting cooking or taking a shower..they are normal daily activites
  • cschiff
    cschiff Posts: 209 Member
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    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 sweat when I am constipated, but I don't log that ...and it takes some serious effort to take a dump when you are backed up ...hell I probably burned 1000 calories and went into starvation mode....


    ^^^^ HAHAHA. I agree, though. TIme spent intentionally exercising = exercise. Time spent doing household stuff we need to do anyway does not = exercise.
  • sarahg148
    sarahg148 Posts: 701 Member
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    Only if it's raking leaves or shoveling snow...where I really breath heavy and break a sweat.
  • GregLeatherman
    GregLeatherman Posts: 28
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    If you break a sweat and are breathing heard, it's exercise, but I wouldn't necessarily track it.
  • Cloud9Momma
    Cloud9Momma Posts: 11 Member
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    It depends on the housework. I have 5 kids so I clean something every day. If I am dusting the whole hoise, sweepeing and mopping and moving furniture to do so and without much stopping it takes most of the day to do my whole house. I may log an hour or slightly more. Yardwork such as howing and mowing I definitely count. Riding mower- never.
  • MizTerry
    MizTerry Posts: 3,763 Member
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    I count yard work because my yard is so bad, I assure you I'm burning some serious cals to get it cleaned up.
  • ladymiseryali
    ladymiseryali Posts: 2,555 Member
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    I count the trek I take to get laundry done, but only because it's not an everyday thing, and it's a pretty long haul.
  • FindingFit127
    FindingFit127 Posts: 69 Member
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    Only if it's raking leaves or shoveling snow...where I really breath heavy and break a sweat.
    This!! raking leaves or shoveling snow are the only things other then deliberate exercise i count as exercise.. i can definitely tell im getting a work out when im shoveling 6" worth of snow or raking the front and back yard for an hour or two!
    but to each their own :)
  • rbsuccess
    rbsuccess Posts: 1 Member
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    Yes! But I let my fitbit zip do the work of figuring out calories burned. :) You'd be amazed at what your burn from just cleaning and yard work, even for 15 minutes. It all adds up. Having a fitbit makes it very accurate. I love how it syncs up with my myfitnesspal acct. I used to struggle so much over trying to figure out calories burned. Now it's not a problem and 5 minutes here of cleaning, 10 minutes there of dancing with my son are all part of what's counted.
  • deb3690
    deb3690 Posts: 59 Member
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    Aerobic yard work...you bet! So that would be more than 12 minutes of some effort...mowing a large yard, pulling weeds, digging, etc. the big stuff. Having an iced tea and organizing seeds...probably not!
  • pinkraynedropjacki
    pinkraynedropjacki Posts: 3,027 Member
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    Yes! But I let my fitbit zip do the work of figuring out calories burned. :) You'd be amazed at what your burn from just cleaning and yard work, even for 15 minutes. It all adds up. Having a fitbit makes it very accurate. I love how it syncs up with my myfitnesspal acct. I used to struggle so much over trying to figure out calories burned. Now it's not a problem and 5 minutes here of cleaning, 10 minutes there of dancing with my son are all part of what's counted.

    Yep this is why I let my Fitbit One do the logging of me walking around the yard with one item of washing at a time to hang. It's ALL counted as exercise.... each & every step you take is more than doing absoutley nothing .......
  • paul_draper
    paul_draper Posts: 91 Member
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    I've got my settings on sedentary as I have a desk job so I log my housework (well anything over 10 minutes) as it's stuff I wouldn't do day to day. I do all my cleaning and ironing and most of my shopping at the weekend so weekends are more active for me even without the cycling and running. It may not be 'working out' but it is exercise.
  • CM9178
    CM9178 Posts: 1,265 Member
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    My "normal" daily activity, about 95% of the time, involves getting out of bed, driving 10 minutes to work, sitting at my desk for 8 hrs (getting up to go to the bathroom about 2 or 3 times), driving 10 minutes home, cooking dinner, watching tv, going upstairs about 2 times to go the bathroom, and then going to bed. I have calculated my TDEE based on a sedentary lifestyle.

    this weekend, I went to a large Outlet shopping center and spent at least 3 hrs walking around shopping.
    Since that was about 100% more activity than I get in a normal day, I counted the calories burned as exercise. (very slow/leisurely walking for 3 hrs - and it was still over 300 calories burned).
  • Tctr
    Tctr Posts: 24 Member
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    My profile is set to sedentary as I have a desk job Monday to Friday. I'm also close to 300lbs (hopefully not for much longer). Getting food ready or housework, that my wife and I split, isn't enough to be considered extra work (imo) since it's a daily/usual non-strenuous thing. However, when I shoveled 2 yards of soil to fix up our lawns or removed and re-sodded our lawns I absolutely counted it. I don't have an HMR so i looked it up on the colariesperhour site and halved what it suggested.

    Shopping? uhhhh, no! as in I don't do shopping unless it's for food. I'm allergic to malls. :)
  • ladymiseryali
    ladymiseryali Posts: 2,555 Member
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    Depends. When I go out for errands, I'm walking so I wear my HRM and record calories burned. As far as cleaning goes though, I don't count it because I do it everyday.
  • lmckillo
    lmckillo Posts: 127 Member
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    Just the yard work, if you sweat, heart rate goes up....add it.
  • 3foldchord
    3foldchord Posts: 2,918 Member
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    No.
    Sometimes if it "above and beyond normal housework/yardwork' I count half of it.

    But day-to-day living, like doing a load of laundry, vacuuming, watering the garden, is not counted by me.
  • TheRunningGuppy
    TheRunningGuppy Posts: 651 Member
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    Yard work yes, for me it involves a heck of a lot of weeding, which is like doing 90,000 squats. And only incredibly intense housework. Like someone else said, if it makes me sweat to the point of needing a shower, then it is counted.

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