So, is housework considered exercise or is it not?
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It is my understanding that burning calories with 'exercise' requires getting your heart rate up. It is therefore very personal and depends on your current fitness level.
Before I started mfp, I had become very lazy and did barely any exercise AT ALL. So as a beginner I listed myself as 'sedentary' and claimed light housework as exercise because at first it actually raised my heart rate and made me sweat just a little! I only claimed half the time I ever spent doing housework.
After the first month housework a few times a week didn't get my heart rate up anymore so I stopped claiming it as exercise. I started using my treadmill and doing work out videos on my Wii to get my heart rate up.
These are my thoughts on the subject. Some people may agree. Some may not.
Totally agree!0 -
I have seen somebody log 1900 (yes nineteen hundred) calories per day for housework, they then added this to their exercise diary and proceeded to eat all calories back, they did this day in, day out. They lost 2lbs in the year.
I am going to do two hours worth of ironing shortly, will I log it? No, I bloody will not, standing there moving my arm backwards and forwards and walking to and from the hook to hang the clothes up does not constitute exercise to me, it is just doing day to day stuff.
1900 for housework is an obscene amount and they're just kidding themselves. However, that does not mean it doesn't burn more than sitting down. And I stand by my original premise. If you've entered your activity level as sedentary, then 2 hours of ironing is more activity than you would get in 2 hours of sitting down. Do log it, don't log it, I don't care. Exercise or not, I don't care.
Housework burns calories, not a lot, but it does, just like standing and walking. Even, standing UP burns calories. I wouldn't log every time I did it, but if stood up and sat down continuously for an hour, then hell yes I would log it.0 -
Window washing, carpet cleaning, gutter cleaning, mowing the lawn - yes
Vacuuming, loading the dishwasher, folding clothes, dusting - no0 -
Oooh, little miss confrontational!I only really log "housework friday" when I lift and wash all the rugs, hoover and mop all the floors, change the bedding, clean the bathroom from top to bottom and so on. I don't log doing the daily dishes or picking up the dog toys. I would take with a pinch of salt what MFP says about the calorie burn, though. I log about half the hours that I actually do.
I don't log "ironing" because a) I don't do ironing and b) I already told you that I log "hours" of housework, not independent activities, so you lose points for not reading my post.
On housework friday, I clean off and on all day, but take breaks so probably get about 4 hours of proper work in. I will log 1 or 1.5 because MFP notoriously overestimates. So, that would give me 212 calories an hour. Considering that my heart rate monitor says I get 353 for an hour of walking, I would say that that is a fair number.
Now, it's time for YOU to do some thinking and answer a question. Do you honestly think that standing up and ironing for 30 minutes doesn't burn more calories than sitting down watching the telly? Can you hand on heart tell me that vacuuming for 10 minutes does not burn more calories than sitting down?
Have you read about NEAT or are you just in the mood to be contrary?
Housework may not be "exercise" but it burns calories, just like everything else.
I have just explained about the ironing and I do not consider fitting to log everything I do when moving about, unless I want to fool myself that is.
Ironing burns 150 calories per hour, HOWEVER, take off 80 calories - why take off 80 calories you may ask - because 80 calories are what I would burn anyway sitting about.
Don't get sarky with me please, I am putting my opinion forward, you don't like it, perhaps that is because I have hit a nerve. I do not need to ask your permission to write my own opinion and I certainly am not obliged to agree with yours.
Our posts are crossing over, obviously. I do get sarky when people take a tone with me, sorry. Try not to be so confrontational if you don't want people to bite.0 -
I have seen somebody log 1900 (yes nineteen hundred) calories per day for housework, they then added this to their exercise diary and proceeded to eat all calories back, they did this day in, day out. They lost 2lbs in the year.
I am going to do two hours worth of ironing shortly, will I log it? No, I bloody will not, standing there moving my arm backwards and forwards and walking to and from the hook to hang the clothes up does not constitute exercise to me, it is just doing day to day stuff.
1900 for housework is an obscene amount and they're just kidding themselves. However, that does not mean it doesn't burn more than sitting down. And I stand by my original premise. If you've entered your activity level as sedentary, then 2 hours of ironing is more activity than you would get in 2 hours of sitting down. Do log it, don't log it, I don't care. Exercise or not, I don't care.
Housework burns calories, not a lot, but it does, just like standing and walking. Even, standing UP burns calories. I wouldn't log every time I did it, but if stood up and sat down continuously for an hour, then hell yes I would log it.
Absolutely they were kidding themselves, it was a damn shame actually, because the person I am talking about worked really hard to try and get her weight down, but it was never going to happen because of what she was logging.
I am still not gonna log it though
pmsl I am not really angry :flowerforyou: 0 -
Our posts are crossing over, obviously. I do get sarky when people take a tone with me, sorry. Try not to be so confrontational if you don't want people to bite.
:laugh: don't apologise, there is no need, I do that ALL the time on these forums, it gets me into all sorts of trouble, but 99% of the time it is because posts cross as you just said.
:flowerforyou: :flowerforyou:0 -
I have seen somebody log 1900 (yes nineteen hundred) calories per day for housework, they then added this to their exercise diary and proceeded to eat all calories back, they did this day in, day out. They lost 2lbs in the year.
I am going to do two hours worth of ironing shortly, will I log it? No, I bloody will not, standing there moving my arm backwards and forwards and walking to and from the hook to hang the clothes up does not constitute exercise to me, it is just doing day to day stuff.
1900 for housework is an obscene amount and they're just kidding themselves. However, that does not mean it doesn't burn more than sitting down. And I stand by my original premise. If you've entered your activity level as sedentary, then 2 hours of ironing is more activity than you would get in 2 hours of sitting down. Do log it, don't log it, I don't care. Exercise or not, I don't care.
Housework burns calories, not a lot, but it does, just like standing and walking. Even, standing UP burns calories. I wouldn't log every time I did it, but if stood up and sat down continuously for an hour, then hell yes I would log it.
Absolutely they were kidding themselves, it was a damn shame actually, because the person I am talking about worked really hard to try and get her weight down, but it was never going to happen because of what she was logging.
I am still not gonna log it though pmsl I am not really angry :flowerforyou:
Lol well, then it's free calories to build a buffer
I think the biggest problem with losing weight for some is that it's too easy to lie to yourself and not log everything you eat or overlog your activity, and that's a perfect example of it. 0 -
Only count it if I'm hoovering, dusting, scrubbing walls and floors and washing windows top to bottom. We have a 3 storey house so that's a lot of work!
Just little bits here and there, no because I do it all the time!0 -
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There are metabolic equivency tables for almost all activities, MET. Cancer.gov is one of the best sites I have found for METs. I ran a search for housework and found the following METs:
Table 3: Summary MET values for most Major Categories in ATUS (Occupation and Traveling excepted) Major Category General Category Specific Category Summary MET value
02 Household Activities 01 Housework 01 Interior Cleaning 3.01
02 Household Activities 01 Housework 02 Laundry 2.07
02 Household Activities 01 Housework 03 Sewing, repairing, and maintaining textiles 1.50
02 Household Activities 01 Housework 04 Storing interior HH items, including food 3.39
02 Household Activities 01 Housework 99 Housework, n.e.c. 2.51
04 Caring for and Helping nonHH Members 05 Helping nonHH Adults 01 Housework, cooking, and shopping assistance for nonhh adults 2.38
METs are based on a person having a resting oxygen intake of 3.5ml per minute. People doing these activites have their oxygen intake monitored (actually how much cardon dioxide they expel) and the MET is essentially a multiplier for oxygen consumption. The equation is pretty simple:
Minutes spent in an activity X {(MET value X 3.5 [oxygen constant] X weight [kilograms])/200}
To get kilograms divide pounds by 2.2. A person weighing 220 pounds would be 100 kilos and a person weighing 110 pounds would be 50 kilos.
You can search for various activites at Cancer.gov using this page:
http://riskfactor.cancer.gov/tools/atus-met/met.php?major[]=02&keywords=&metval_min=&metval_max=#search_tables0 -
No, I don't count it. I consider it bonus points, like walking around the office more in a day than normal. Any way to keep moving burns calories, but it all doesn't count as a workout. When I scrub my tub once a month, I count that because I'm sore the next day (we have hard water so I REALLY have to get in there and scrub hard) and I'm sweating more than a normal workout. I wouldn't count "regular" housework such as dusting, vacuuming, laundry, etc.
Good luck!
Just to add to what I'd written, even the days I scrub my tub, its not my workout for the day. I still get up and move like TAEBO or go for a walk. Exercise is NEVER considered my workout for the day.0 -
Nope. I don't count house work, playing at the park with my kids, or anything like that. I only count intentional exercise.
this0 -
Sure, if while wearing your heart rate monitor you maintained your heart rate at 70% of higher for at least 20 minutes, otherwise no.:huh:0
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I've cleaned very intensely (sweating almost all the time) for about six hours, and I went ahead and logged 45 minutes of it. I don't want to cheat myself by logging every little thing, but at the same time, that was more intense than any workout I do.0
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Nope, part of your daily activity.0
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Just in case you weren't aware of this feature, when you go to the message boards section, there is a button called search and you can type in a keyword/phrase (ex: cleaning exercise) and you can see the threads that have already been created on the topic. Good luck! :flowerforyou:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1041514-lots-of-anti-clean-eating-sentiment-on-the-boards-today?hl=cleaning#posts-15986965
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/702245-house-cleaning-exercise?hl=cleaning+exercise#posts-10298910
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1032915-does-house-cleaning-count-as-exercise?hl=cleaning+exercise&page=1#posts-15843048
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1032915-does-house-cleaning-count-as-exercise?hl=cleaning+exercise&page=2#posts-15905777
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1033292-does-house-work-count-as-exercise?hl=cleaning+exercise#posts-15848154
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1028251-legit-question-housework-exercise-or-no?hl=cleaning+exercise&page=6#posts-15781174
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1025696-confused-about-what-counts-as-exercise?hl=cleaning+exercise#posts-15744129
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1025992-house-work-cleaning?hl=cleaning+exercise#posts-15736716
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/319326-does-grocery-shopping-count-as-exercise?hl=cleaning+exercise&page=4#posts-15722407
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/966255-do-you-count-house-yard-work-or-shopping-as-exercising?hl=cleaning+exercise&page=6#posts-15685009
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1020622-logging-cleaning?hl=cleaning+exercise&page=2#posts-15646395
Message boards are supposed to be social. Searching takes the fun out of them.0 -
No. :noway:0
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I happen to be in such sad shape that housework is exercise for me and I log it if I feel the duration is long enough to matter. This has worked for me so far.0
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How much or if you sweat does not equate to a workout. Your body is hot and is trying to cool itself. If you clean a house where the temperature is 80 degrees you will sweat more than a house where the tempt is 68. To burn more calories your muscles have to work harder, your heart rate has to beat faster and your breathing has to pick up. It's like if you go into a sauna and sit, you sweat a but ton, but you did nothing. You will lose weight on the scale, but as soon as you drink water, the weight comes back.
The extra moving you did while cleaning was a nice little help but it does not constitute a workout.0 -
Just in case you weren't aware of this feature, when you go to the message boards section, there is a button called search and you can type in a keyword/phrase (ex: cleaning exercise) and you can see the threads that have already been created on the topic. Good luck! :flowerforyou:
Thank you! I know you weren't trying to be sarcastic in educating those of us who did not know how to do this, so thank you for that. So many times I've seen a newbie shut down verbally because she asked a question that's been done to death and that's so counterproductive. You taught us something valuable today.0 -
I put my pedometer on so all the walking I do while cleaning/gardening is counted but thats about it0
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Wait, you guys all SCRUB your WALLS?! Why????? I've never cleaned a wall in my life.0
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I count it if it's outside my usual routine and I build up a sweat/get my heart rate going.
I don't use it just to score extra calories.
When it comes to shopping I count that in my steps/walking (I wouldn't normally every night be walking 2-3 hours). I may not count it all but I do count some.
I think it's down to personal preferrence and physical activity levels. What's good for one might not be for another.0 -
I don't count housework. It was something I did before I started my weight loss journey and its something I have to do every day. Its part of my normal daily expenditure of calories. I only count extra exercise such as bike rides and walks in the park.0
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I just think of it as an added bonus, I wouldn't log it.0
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I don't. I have a sedentary job so those are calories that I should have been burning anyways. I only log actual exercises.0
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Try putting on some Latin music and dancing around while dusting/vacuuming/making freezer jam/picking up the house etc. As long as you work up a sweat and your heart rate is elevated, you can count it. I set my activity level as "Sedentary" because I work full time at an office job, commute 2 hours (each way) to school at least once a week and spend a good chunk of my "free" time reading for school. "Sedentary" asummes far less daily activity as "normal". Don't claim it if it's just light housework/normal dishes. I also count yard work (push mower, hedge trimming, etc) because it's a good chunk of time (1/2 to a whole Saturday usually) and it wears me out.0
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Routine housework is routine. Heavy housework is exercise. Cleaning carpets, washing walls,moving furniture, that's exercise. You dont do it everyday unlless that is the job you earn your living at.0
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Well, a recent study shows that a drop in housework has contributed to the rise in obesity in women...
"A new study adds yet more evidence that the decline in physical activity is contributing to the rise in obesity in the U.S. This study, however, is bound to cause some controversy, as researchers found the increase in obesity in women is tied to a falloff in the amount of housework they currently do compared with days gone by.
Published in PLoS One, the study shows that women were doing far less housework in 2010 than they were in 1965, and this has led to burning about 360 less calories per day. In 1965, women cooked, cleaned, and did laundry, among other household work, an average of 26 hours per week. In 2010, the amount of time spent doing the same work declined to 13 hours per week."
http://women.webmd.com/news/20130304/housework-women-obesity0
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