So, is housework considered exercise or is it not?

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!

Window washing, carpet cleaning, gutter cleaning, mowing the lawn - yes

Vacuuming, loading the dishwasher, folding clothes, dusting - no

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:

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.

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_tables

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.

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:

Nope, part of your daily activity.

No. :noway:

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.

I put my pedometer on so all the walking I do while cleaning/gardening is counted but thats about it

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.

I just think of it as an added bonus, I wouldn't log it.

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.

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-obesity