Does anyone count housework as excersise?

BTW I walk about 30km a day at least, nice even walk, nice pace. Because it's not strenuous I guess it's not exercise...... even though I never walked that far at all when I was fat. Oh well, guess then those extra 1000 calories I burn off each day wont count.

30 kilometers / day ???
That's over 18 miles each day or roughly 40,000 steps. It's definitely exercise.

Nope, cause part of it is while I'm hanging the washing or doing housework. I walk about 2km doing the washing every day. That's just in the yard. Then there is the shopping.... I did that when I was fat so I cant count that either. Then there is just the nice walk along the beach...did that daily as well...cant count that. Then there is just normal walking around the house..... cant count that.

But it IS all exercise.... it's all more than sitting on my *kitten* doing nothing.

were you cleaning before you made a lifestyle change? If the answer is yes, then no you shouldn't. Depends of course on what your cleaning involves - I have such a small apartment and I do clean, but I wouldn't say it's that straining or anything...

Under that same logic though. You were eating before you made a change, are you going to stop considering that as well in your day to day activities or just stop eating? No, you still log it I guess. Same applies to housework. Regardless if you do it daily, weekly or whatever..... it's still more than doing nothing at all.

I am eating differently. It is just logical - if you waked to work for 30mins a day and were putting on the pounds, why would you suddenly start logging that on MFP? It's a normal daily activity for your body that isn't really strenuous.

Go ahead, eat 200extra cals from all the 'exercise; you get by washing and walking to the garbage bin. I am just trying to be helpful and logical - I have ridden to uni for 20-60mins a day (depends on how many times) and I used to log it but realised it was stupid as all I logged it for was some cheat calories. Log it for a record and just record 1 cal, and not cheat calories then you're in the clear.

That means don't log ANY walking either cause you walk as part of your normal day. If you hang the washing like I do, then you get way more than just 200 cals a day extra. Try closer to 400 easily & that's just the washing. Then do all the other housework like I do & that's at least an extra 200. I don't log it because I know what people would think & unless they KNOW how I'm doing it then they will think I'm lying. Walking to the bin though? Takes all of 2 seconds so not even 1 cal gone. If you rode each day as much as you said then it's classed as exercise, regardless if you did it before or not. It's still exercise. Anything ABOVE doing NOTHING is some form of exercise.


BTW I walk about 30km a day at least, nice even walk, nice pace. Because it's not strenuous I guess it's not exercise...... even though I never walked that far at all when I was fat. Oh well, guess then those extra 1000 calories I burn off each day wont count.

um so you say you never walked like that before?.. 30km is about 6 hours straight of walking a day. That surprises me a little but I'll trust you on that, nice work! But that is my point - if you didn't do it AT ALL before and are starting to do it NOW then then yes I think you should log it. Anyway I'm not really trying to start an argument - I honestly want what is best for other MFP users.

It all comes down to how you adjust your cals and what works for you. Logging from MFP for my bicycle riding I was getting 200-600 extra calories a day which is RIDICULOUS now that I have checked with my HRM and it is less than half of that. You need to find what works for your body and listen to your body. If you are really, truly hungry (not just bored) then go and eat some apple and yoghurt or something small because clearly your body is telling you it needs fuel.

I can work hard at the gym doing sprints and lunges on 8-15% on the treadmill and burn about 10cals/minute (185bpm)). So when MFP says I get close to the same burn from a leisurely bike ride for 15 mins (125cals or something with only 130bpm) it is quite ridiculous. People rely too much on what MFP says, like I used to, and hence aren't able to do a true, honest calorie count - this is what I think hindered my progress a lot, as I would log this extra 'exercise' and think 'yay I cycled for 20mins today, that is 200 cals!'. Once you can do a good calorie count - like I can now with my HRM - you can adjust your count and already take into account standard daily activity - like I do for riding my bike to class, walking to the shops etc. Other than that I am completely sedentary.

Anyway, I'm out

edit: you can lie to your diary, but your body isn't fooled. BEING HONEST in your diary is soooo important. If you really do feel like you worked hard putting out the washing, then log it. But if you think "... aww well it did take me 30mins walking a fair bit and all... I'll log it to squeeze in the extra glass of wine" then you're not going about it correctly. If someone wasn't that desperate to add more calories I don't think they would log house work regularly (maybe spring cleaning or something though).

I like to add it just to see what it says, I don't really eat the calories back unless I am extremely hungry that day lol.

I tend to do the majority of my housework on a weekend as I work all work so do rush around like a mad woman to get it done as quickly as I can. I'm sure it does burn off a fair bit of calories as I am shattered afterwards, but I do think that MFP probably over estimates the calorie burn for most people.

Yes, especially if you are cleaning floors.

i have a fitbit that tracks all movement/ intensity of movement throughout the day. so i have my activity level set at sedentary and then anything that i do throughout the day is actually track as exercise, but i find that having fitbit track my activity level is more acurate than saying i am active, because on my 'lazy' days i am not getting credit for being active.

If I feel like the house work is making me break a sweat, I count it.

^^this^^

In addition, when I feel my heart rate increase and sustain that increase for longer than 15 minutes I count it.

were you cleaning before you made a lifestyle change? If the answer is yes, then no you shouldn't. Depends of course on what your cleaning involves - I have such a small apartment and I do clean, but I wouldn't say it's that straining or anything...

Under that same logic though. You were eating before you made a change, are you going to stop considering that as well in your day to day activities or just stop eating? No, you still log it I guess. Same applies to housework. Regardless if you do it daily, weekly or whatever..... it's still more than doing nothing at all.

I am eating differently. It is just logical - if you waked to work for 30mins a day and were putting on the pounds, why would you suddenly start logging that on MFP? It's a normal daily activity for your body that isn't really strenuous.

Go ahead, eat 200extra cals from all the 'exercise; you get by washing and walking to the garbage bin. I am just trying to be helpful and logical - I have ridden to uni for 20-60mins a day (depends on how many times) and I used to log it but realised it was stupid as all I logged it for was some cheat calories. Log it for a record and just record 1 cal, and not cheat calories then you're in the clear.

That means don't log ANY walking either cause you walk as part of your normal day. If you hang the washing like I do, then you get way more than just 200 cals a day extra. Try closer to 400 easily & that's just the washing. Then do all the other housework like I do & that's at least an extra 200. I don't log it because I know what people would think & unless they KNOW how I'm doing it then they will think I'm lying. Walking to the bin though? Takes all of 2 seconds so not even 1 cal gone. If you rode each day as much as you said then it's classed as exercise, regardless if you did it before or not. It's still exercise. Anything ABOVE doing NOTHING is some form of exercise.


BTW I walk about 30km a day at least, nice even walk, nice pace. Because it's not strenuous I guess it's not exercise...... even though I never walked that far at all when I was fat. Oh well, guess then those extra 1000 calories I burn off each day wont count.

um so you say you never walked like that before?.. 30km is about 6 hours straight of walking a day. That surprises me a little but I'll trust you on that, nice work! But that is my point - if you didn't do it AT ALL before and are starting to do it NOW then then yes I think you should log it. Anyway I'm not really trying to start an argument - I honestly want what is best for other MFP users.

Yep my Fitbit stats dont lie. People on my friends list know how much I do each day. I'm very very active even when sick. I walked 23km to get some mascara, took me 5 hours. I didn't stop once. I do over 20,000 steps a day...that's my minimum I've set.


Thing is though..... I walked before I got here on MFP early last year...not as much but I did, so that means going by others I should not count my walking still cause it's what I did before.

Same as housework. Daily done, but I do it different now so I DO get a workout from it. PLace your washing basket as far from the line as possible. Then take a long route to the line, with only ONE item at a time. One sock, then back to basket empty handed, another sock..... take the longest way to the line you can. It'll take you ages to do it, but you are walking while doing it. I rack up about 5000-6000 steps doing a full basket.

Personally, I don't as it's just a day to day chore for me and I don't do anything spectacular to rack up more calories (unlike the lady with her epic laundry routes - nice one!). However, I did count a day of gardening I did recently as that was fairly intense lifting, digging, carrying for a sustained period and I was sweating like a lamb in a kebab shop.

You could count it for a few weeks but if you aren't losing, then you can always cut it out (the counting, not the cleaning!) and see if it makes a difference.

I would set your MFP to "lightly active" at least. I Initially had mine set at sedentary too and it was too low for my allowed calories in my opinion. Plus I was starving all the time and I was losing several pounds per week. When I bumped it up to "lightly active", it gave me some extra calories which made me less starved. Sedentary should be used (in my opinion) only if you are confined to a bed all day.
As far as counting calories for housework, some say it's not true cardio yada yada but you are still burning calories. I count my calories burned when I walk the dog. I do this because I *know* it burns calories. When we first got this pup, I dropped 4 pounds just due to the added excercise 5 times a day.
All the best on your fitness journey.

If I want to justify an extra glass of wine on the weekend, I may plug in some housework.

This! Only when I need a few extra calories. :laugh: