Stop counting cleaning, walking to the mail box, etc.

LazSommer
LazSommer Posts: 1,851 Member
Why do people complain about not losing as fast as they'd like and then count cleaning (vigorous effort) as exercise? Unless cleaning is dragging a 300 lb porcelain tub out of a two story building, you did not burn 300 calories.

Seriously, stop.
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Replies

  • Kate7294
    Kate7294 Posts: 783 Member
    Bump
  • anaconda469
    anaconda469 Posts: 3,479 Member
    Bump
    ^this (in it for the pictures)
  • It is a mile round-trip to my mail box and depending on traffic I do it in 15-20 min. You better believe I count it.
  • brianpperkins
    brianpperkins Posts: 6,124 Member
    It is a mile round-trip to my mail box and depending on traffic I do it in 15-20 min. You better believe I count it.

    That's about 60 net calories for a 200 pound human.
  • It is a mile round-trip to my mail box and depending on traffic I do it in 15-20 min. You better believe I count it.

    Oh, since when I weighed yesterday I was 128.7 lbs, I don't believe it is hurting my progress at all!!
  • Serah87
    Serah87 Posts: 5,481 Member
    images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS6biUFtbpDpZLrE43HdxfAjyXM1GhYVLYxsL2eMTE_sU4RMcWT
  • meshashesha2012
    meshashesha2012 Posts: 8,329 Member
    It is a mile round-trip to my mail box and depending on traffic I do it in 15-20 min. You better believe I count it.

    That's about 60 net calories for a 200 pound human.

    yet somehow she still reached her weight loss goal by counting.

    in any case, you dont need to exercise to lose weight, so it doesnt really matter what people log or dont log, especially considering that MFP starts most people's base calories off lower than needed
  • BrienJD
    BrienJD Posts: 541 Member
    But, But, But...If I don't count cleaning and walking to the mailbox I'll never see a deficit!!!! Oh cruel world:sad:

    Fitbit counts every single step. what's wrong with counting it on your totals as long as you don't abuse it?
  • crys39
    crys39 Posts: 40 Member
    bump
  • To me vigorous cleaning involves doing outside chores, like pushing the lawn mower for 30 minutes, hand cleaning the gutters, hand scrubbing off your patio, not a vacuum through the living room that doesn't involve you not moving heavy furniture.
  • ihad
    ihad Posts: 7,463 Member
    You really don't know what's appropriate for someone unless you understand their situation and assumptions. Some people build an assumed level of activity into their targets, and some set a very low base and add calories as they are more active than their assumptions. If it's working for them, great. If not, they need to examine a number of assumptions, not just how they handle exercise, but also their food logging practices.
  • Noogynoogs
    Noogynoogs Posts: 1,028 Member
    I log going into my kitchen to open the fridge door for food. This had got to be a 300 cal burn right?
  • Fat2Fit_imready
    Fat2Fit_imready Posts: 363 Member
    But, But, But...If I don't count cleaning and walking to the mailbox I'll never see a deficit!!!! Oh cruel world:sad:

    Fitbit counts every single step. what's wrong with counting it on your totals as long as you don't abuse it?


    :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
  • It is a mile round-trip to my mail box and depending on traffic I do it in 15-20 min. You better believe I count it.

    That's about 60 net calories for a 200 pound human.

    I believe MFP counts it as 64 cal at 3mph and 74 cal at 4 mph. So net you pretty are likely pretty close. I do not eat back the calories unless I do Zumba or something like that.

    I have not had a problem with weight loss, but before I went on vacation (past 2 weeks) I weighed everything.
  • Fat2Fit_imready
    Fat2Fit_imready Posts: 363 Member
    I log going into my kitchen to open the fridge door for food. This had got to be a 300 cal burn right?

    UUUM YOUR OVER CALCULATING HUN, its more like 200!!
  • JelloJerrika
    JelloJerrika Posts: 6 Member
    Hahahaha you go girl!
  • brianpperkins
    brianpperkins Posts: 6,124 Member
    It is a mile round-trip to my mail box and depending on traffic I do it in 15-20 min. You better believe I count it.

    That's about 60 net calories for a 200 pound human.

    yet somehow she still reached her weight loss goal by counting.

    in any case, you dont need to exercise to lose weight, so it doesnt really matter what people log or dont log, especially considering that MFP starts most people's base calories off lower than needed

    Apparently she doesn't check her mail very often according to her diary with only one walk logged in the month of July ... and that with the typical MFP overage of 114 cals for 30 minutes at 3mph ... when she netted about half of that.
  • It is a mile round-trip to my mail box and depending on traffic I do it in 15-20 min. You better believe I count it.

    That's about 60 net calories for a 200 pound human.

    yet somehow she still reached her weight loss goal by counting.

    in any case, you dont need to exercise to lose weight, so it doesnt really matter what people log or dont log, especially considering that MFP starts most people's base calories off lower than needed

    Thank you. I have had a failed back surgery and many times walking is what I can do. So that is what I do. On good days I do Zumba. And was meticulous with my counting until I went on vacation for 2 weeks, and ate out almost every day (mostly making sensible food choices)... but also walked 2 miles a day. I lost 3.5 lbs... so in reality I should have eaten foods higher in calories.
  • Howdoyoufeeltoday
    Howdoyoufeeltoday Posts: 481 Member
    I don't reall care what people log. If it's working for them then awesome. Only they know what's exercise to them.

    Now Jesse and Walter White from Breaking Bad...they deserve to add cleaning to their exercise log..

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  • It is a mile round-trip to my mail box and depending on traffic I do it in 15-20 min. You better believe I count it.

    That's about 60 net calories for a 200 pound human.

    yet somehow she still reached her weight loss goal by counting.

    in any case, you dont need to exercise to lose weight, so it doesnt really matter what people log or dont log, especially considering that MFP starts most people's base calories off lower than needed

    Apparently she doesn't check her mail very often according to her diary with only one walk logged in the month of July ... and that with the typical MFP overage of 114 cals for 30 minutes at 3mph ... when she netted about half of that.

    I was on vacation for 2 weeks... and yes, I really didn't bother to log. And it didn't hurt me either.
  • GingerLolita
    GingerLolita Posts: 738 Member
    I use a fitbit and between walking around my neighborhood running errands, cleaning my apartment, and doing laundry around the corner, I burned 200+ over lightly active. So yes, people can actually burn calories doing these activities. I do recommend a fitbit though because I feel like it's hard to estimate how vigorous your cleaning was.
  • abyt42
    abyt42 Posts: 1,358 Member
    Oh. Apparently I'm living my life wrong. Huh.

    Thank you for your wise and encouraging words of support and wisdom.

    I now see the error of my ways and will never be so foolish as to think I actually have a sense of when an endeavor is more strenuous than what's normal or average for me.
  • Can we log clicking on forum topics? Its gotta burn something for us consta-lurkers! :P
  • imaginaryplant
    imaginaryplant Posts: 93 Member
    Some busy parents don't have time to have dedicated workout times.

    I'm thinking people who log cleaning, walking to the mailbox, they probably do it in a more cardiovascular/aerobic way.

    The big question is...Why do you care?

    Seriously, if it's that upsetting that people do that, delete them off of your friends list.

    Simple as that.
  • Galatea_Stone
    Galatea_Stone Posts: 2,037 Member
    Why do you care, OP? How is what someone else is doing impacting your weight loss or fitness goals or whatever you're doing? Your ticker says you need to lose almost 10,000 pounds, which is clearly incorrect, but seriously, what does it have to do with your goals?

    You do you and let others worry about themselves. If someone specifically asks for advice as to why they aren't losing, then sure, it might be a factor. But until then, I couldn't care less how people get in their calorie burns. Randomly creating threads to complain that other people are doing it wrong isn't helping anyone.
  • It is a mile round-trip to my mail box and depending on traffic I do it in 15-20 min. You better believe I count it.

    That's about 60 net calories for a 200 pound human.

    yet somehow she still reached her weight loss goal by counting.

    in any case, you dont need to exercise to lose weight, so it doesnt really matter what people log or dont log, especially considering that MFP starts most people's base calories off lower than needed

    Apparently she doesn't check her mail very often according to her diary with only one walk logged in the month of July ... and that with the typical MFP overage of 114 cals for 30 minutes at 3mph ... when she netted about half of that.

    Wow, evidently you didn't view the entire month, because there were 3 walks recorded (the 2nd, 5th and the 14th)... not to mention many 700+ BodyMedia adjustments. Since I was out of town for a total of 18 days of the month (this includes going out of town for July 4th weekend) not too damn bad!!
  • wizzybeth
    wizzybeth Posts: 3,578 Member
    I think the OP is bothered by the people who whine about not losing weight quickly enough and then log points for doing very low impact mundane "activities." I do have a step counter in my phone and half the time I do not log the calories it says I burned - I figure, if I did burn that much great, but I'm not going to eat that back, simply because I don't trust it. And I'll just use them as "extra insurance" for the day :)

    For many people the walk to the mailbox takes less than a minute, to be fair to the OP.

    A bunch of little activities do add up over the course of the day for sure. For instance, I sell real estate and sometimes am showing 10-20 houses a day. I used my step counter on my phone the other day out of curiosity. I showed about 16 houses. According to the app, I "stepped" the equivalent of 1.5 miles - going up sets of stairs to get to the front door for at least 10 - 12 houses (a lot of our homes are on raised foundations and have 10 steps at least to get inside), walking around the main floor, going up to the top floor, down to the basement, back up to the main floor, back down the steps and sometimes up or down a steep driveway. Wash, rinse, repeat 16 times. So sure, that added up...but I didn't trust the calories burned since I never really worked up a sweat or increased my heart rate too much (I did get out of breath on steps, but that's why I'm at MFP to lose weight, lol) so I took 60% of the total.

    Unless you know the person it's hard to say what they should count. But yeah, if you're whining about not losing weight, maybe ya gotta re-think what you are counting and eating back...
  • LITtlerMeCO
    LITtlerMeCO Posts: 130 Member
    My mailbox is four blocks away from my house if I got through a neighbor's back yard, five if I go the long way--so eight to 10 blocks depending on which way I go. I never considered counting this towards my exercise goal, maybe I will now, it still won't be any of your business or remotely your problem.

    In the middle of June I counted house cleaning as part of my exercise. I moved furniture, took boxes up and down stairs, helped paint two rooms in my parents' house, took down/cleaned/rehung curtains, did yard work, cleaned out cupboards/drawers/closets/pantries. I broke a sweat every day for nine days and counted it. BTW, I lost six pounds in that two week period. It's still not your business nor your problem.

    If you don't like someone's posts block them. That's what I do.
  • shmerek
    shmerek Posts: 963 Member
    Especially when they wear a HRM (which are notoriously wrong unless you are doing steady state cardio) and clock 600 calories burned for cleaning the house for 45 minutes and then wonder why they aren't losing weight.
  • rowlandsw
    rowlandsw Posts: 1,166 Member
    Some busy parents don't have time to have dedicated workout times.

    I'm thinking people who log cleaning, walking to the mailbox, they probably do it in a more cardiovascular/aerobic way.

    The big question is...Why do you care?

    Seriously, if it's that upsetting that people do that, delete them off of your friends list.

    Simple as that.

    This. I don't see why people think it's their job to tell others how to do things. If i do something that i don't normally do or do once a month like shopping or heavy cleaning I count it. If you don't like people doing it just ignore them.
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