A scientific answer to the "does housework count?" debate

My house is 2,000sqft of mostly tile. I have three teenagers and two use power wheelchairs. We live in the desert and believe me when I say the floors get DIRTY!!! When I sweep and mop the whole house it usually takes about an hour or more. I sweat and my heart rate does go up. I don't care what any "study" says, I am working out!!!! Now it might not be like a regular workout but when I'm done, i feel like I just spent an hour on the treadmill. I don't track normal day to day cleaning even if I do bathrooms, but I do track my floor days. I think some people rely on "house cleaning" as their workout, I don't.

So as long as a person sweats than that is the only time they are working out? What about people who just don't sweat. I know a woman who power walked a 5k in the middle of the summer with a high humidity... I was sweating fairly profusely, but they weren't sweating at all... guess they shouldn't be counting that as exercise either as they weren't sweating...

I don't sweat when I'm at my home town because I'm in a semi-arid to arid environment...

As long as people are moving rather than sitting on their butts all day, who cares and why does it matter what they log and how?

I know people that log cooking and cleaning and have lost a considerable amount of weight... why? Because they are being diligent in watching what they eat and getting off their butts. While a bit simplistic, it works for them so why degrade their efforts because it doesn't live up to your (in general) ideal of how someone should lose weight.

So as long as a person sweats than that is the only time they are working out? What about people who just don't sweat. I know a woman who power walked a 5k in the middle of the summer with a high humidity... I was sweating fairly profusely, but they weren't sweating at all... guess they shouldn't be counting that as exercise either as they weren't sweating...

I don't sweat when I'm at my home town because I'm in a semi-arid to arid environment...

As long as people are moving rather than sitting on their butts all day, who cares and why does it matter what they log and how?

I know people that log cooking and cleaning and have lost a considerable amount of weight... why? Because they are being diligent in watching what they eat and getting off their butts. While a bit simplistic, it works for them so why degrade their efforts because it doesn't live up to your (in general) ideal of how someone should lose weight.

Seriously? Semi-arid to arid... omg... fine, then you should log sleeping and eating too. Like, calories burned moving your jaw and add typing as well. I stand by what I said.

Also, why get on someone for counting cooking?? Seriously?! Because it's nonsense, and they are lucky that they are still eating at enough of a deficit to counter act their lack of bearing on what really matters when trying to loose weight.

Counting cooking as calories burned is like counting lettuce when entering a salad.

I know that there is way too much noise out there about how to effectively loose weight.. "tips and tricks" about how to do it better.. but the bottom line is simple. Create a deficit, and you'll loose. Counting miniscule things like cooking is just looking for shortcuts.

Keep it simple and logical, geez.

So as long as a person sweats than that is the only time they are working out? What about people who just don't sweat. I know a woman who power walked a 5k in the middle of the summer with a high humidity... I was sweating fairly profusely, but they weren't sweating at all... guess they shouldn't be counting that as exercise either as they weren't sweating...

I don't sweat when I'm at my home town because I'm in a semi-arid to arid environment...

As long as people are moving rather than sitting on their butts all day, who cares and why does it matter what they log and how?

I know people that log cooking and cleaning and have lost a considerable amount of weight... why? Because they are being diligent in watching what they eat and getting off their butts. While a bit simplistic, it works for them so why degrade their efforts because it doesn't live up to your (in general) ideal of how someone should lose weight.

Seriously? Semi-arid to arid... omg... fine, then you should log sleeping and eating too. Like, calories burned moving your jaw and add typing as well. I stand by what I said.

Also, why get on someone for counting cooking?? Seriously?! Because it's nonsense, and they are lucky that they are still eating at enough of a deficit to counter act their lack of bearing on what really matters when trying to loose weight.

Counting cooking as calories burned is like counting lettuce when entering a salad.

I know that there is way too much noise out there about how to effectively loose weight.. "tips and tricks" about how to do it better.. but the bottom line is simple. Create a deficit, and you'll loose. Counting miniscule things like cooking is just looking for shortcuts.

Keep it simple and logical, geez.

Sure why not... my point is why does it matter what someone else does? Particularly if it works for them? So what if they are creating "shortcuts" if it works for them? I don't personally count cooking, cleaning, and whatnot unless I am using my fitbit and it counts it for me... even if I am working my *kitten* off... but that's just me. But it doesn't bother me one iota that I have a friend that does (and has lost weight doing so) or another that counts her 10 minute walk to work (and again has lost weight doing so)... I don't see why the group of you "knowitall's whose way is obviously the correct way because you don't cease to say so" have to keep bringing this up even though it works for some people... just like IIFYM works for some people while Paleo works for others. Just give it a rest. Just because it's not how you think it should be done or how you would do it doesn't make it absolutely incorrect... again, people who are counting cleaning in their diaries now, even though they got fat while cleaning before, were most likely not paying any attention to their calories in and out.

I log housework.
I work as a house cleaner, and do 1 or 2 houses a day.
It is a complete clean, entire house, upstairs and down. Beds, bathrooms, windows Hoover, mop , dust etc.
No flitting
When I'm done I'm drenched and knackered. I have worn a heart rate monitor and it showed between 250 and 300 calories burned for 3 hours.
I don't log housework etc I do at home, but always log my "work" housework. I only log it as 2 hours though not 3, as mfp shows 466 cals for 3 hours, and I don't think anyone can clean that madly
If you are loosing weight logging cleaning (which luckily i am) then it's obviously working, so keep it up

So does sitting or having a shower...... every activity burns calories... that's not to say you should eat them back.

umm, when I do housework its mopping, vacumming, folding laundry, dusting, flipping the matress and changing the bedding, dishes, prepping for dinner, windows, bathrooms, cleaning the cat area (litter box, food they throw everywhere) etc, I put on some music and dance around while getting it done like every two days. I sure work up a sweat so you bet I count it. I don't care what some study says. Now of course, if its only straighten up and do the dishes and run a vacuum for only like ten minutes which is what I do on the days I don't truly clean, then of course that isn't to be counted but if you have to put on your workout clothes to clean so the sweat don't run off you then yes: its exercise. Sorry I am a debater, had to reply to this. I get sick of people saying cleaning doesn't count.

YOU DO ALL THIS EVERY 2 DAYS!!!!!!!!!! please come over to my house. damn! i flip my mattress twice a year.

FFS. Stop judging people. Why don't you just start working on *you* and leave other people alone? It's really none of your business! You and all the other judgmental people do not know everyone's *story* or reason behind why they log an exercise.

When I cleaned out my pool this spring to open it, I spent 3 hours fishing out leaves and doing strenuous things. That is one of the only times I have logged it as exercise and someone on my FL gripped at me for adding it. It was very strenuous, I was sore the next morning and it was something I didnt typically do on a daily basis, so I counted it!!! If I am washing down walls or cabinets, I will count that too, but its an out of the ordinary routine.

Housework... depends on what it is. I KNOW my heart rate gets up when I get to vacuuming, especially with a shop vac (bending over). It's not to say I log every 5 minutes of it, but if I spend 3 or 4 hours doing something like that, I absolutely do log it. I know this isn't technically housework, but cooking is exhausting too - you know this if you work in a kitchen. I should wear a HRM sometime when I work to see what happens.

But you're right, wiping down a counter is not log-able. Folding clothes, probably not a good idea to log. Cleaning a swimming pool or shop-vaccing for hours, probably is.

I wear a fitbit almost 100% of the time so by way of counting steps I guess I count my house work.

Then I do too not that I'm ever really actively seeking out to clean my house heh.

umm, when I do housework its mopping, vacumming, folding laundry, dusting, flipping the matress and changing the bedding, dishes, prepping for dinner, windows, bathrooms, cleaning the cat area (litter box, food they throw everywhere) etc, I put on some music and dance around while getting it done like every two days. I sure work up a sweat so you bet I count it. I don't care what some study says. Now of course, if its only straighten up and do the dishes and run a vacuum for only like ten minutes which is what I do on the days I don't truly clean, then of course that isn't to be counted but if you have to put on your workout clothes to clean so the sweat don't run off you then yes: its exercise. Sorry I am a debater, had to reply to this. I get sick of people saying cleaning doesn't count.

I agree with you. I don't take the nearly the full calories that MFP puts in---I should really use my HRM when I clean. I don't count daily cleaning. But deep cleaning. When I mop, vacuum, clean the bathrooms---then I do because at that point I'm sweating up a storm and I have to rest!! But that's just me. I do regular exercises at the gym 4-5 days a week, so I know that is where my real results are coming from.

People stayed fit for thousands of years by doing mundane tasks without a gym, gardening, cleaning, chopping, lifting, painting, stacking, scrubbing, hauling, walking. If we still did all those things then we'd not have the levels of obesity we have today, I'd wager. I agree that 20 mins of dishes, or folding a stack of laundry isn't likely to contribute to "fitness". But I also know that when I'm logging any form of gardening/housework its something extra I've motivated myself to do since deciding to get fit like washing all the windows weekly or climbing up and down a ladder for two hours to reorganize the whole kitchen and scrub the shelves, mowing the lawn when I used to just let someone else do it, or digging up a new veggie patch. Heart rate, warmth, sweat...check! I find myself "inventing" physical chores to do where before I'd just stall, delay, avoid. I don't, however, count the things I did before: daily cooking, tidying, etc.

At MO when I started I used to check it out of curiosity but not necessarily record it or eat it back. What I was striving for was getting myself up to a daily level of activity considered average for my age etc. It wasn't that I was lazy at MO but I'd put things off because I was tired and sore. I started to work through all that and I'd get a kick/motivation to do more just to see the numbers at the end of the day. Now I don't look/care because I now know the value of increased activity not so much for physical benefits but mental satisfaction. I think at MO it did contribute some towards weight loss but of course it got to a point where that level became normal and other exercise had more importance for weight loss and composition.