Calories for cleaning?

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DjBliss05
DjBliss05 Posts: 682
in Fitness and Exercise
I feel like I earned them today!

I vote for calories for cooking, too! Anyone ever tried to cut up a butternut squash? Better hope the apple butternut squash soup tastes amazing, heh.

Do you usually count them?

Replies

  • DjBliss05
    DjBliss05 Posts: 682
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    I feel like I earned them today!

    I vote for calories for cooking, too! Anyone ever tried to cut up a butternut squash? Better hope the apple butternut squash soup tastes amazing, heh.

    Do you usually count them?
  • Elizabetnelson
    Elizabetnelson Posts: 71
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    There is a section in the database for Cooking and preperation! It earns you a ton of calories burned!
  • briblue72
    briblue72 Posts: 672 Member
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    I don't count calories for cooking, shopping, or cleaning.

    If I was doing those activities "before" and gaining weight, what makes me think doing them now is somehow helping me lose weight?
  • DjBliss05
    DjBliss05 Posts: 682
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    I don't count calories for cooking, shopping, or cleaning.

    If I was doing those activities "before" and gaining weight, what makes me think doing them now is somehow helping me lose weight?

    That is exactly why I asked. I am kind of torn on it. I think because I did SO much today and was actually out of breath mopping the floors that I will count it this time. But the usual stuff doesn't get counted.

    And thanks for the tip on the cooking calories! Might use that! At least as strength training, lol. My arms feel like jelly right now! :flowerforyou:
  • age1389
    age1389 Posts: 1,160 Member
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    I think if you do more then your usual then I count it. LIke when I do laundry I'm up and down the stairs several times along with bending all that. I usually do my heavy cleaning one day a week so the vacuming,mopping,laundry so thats when i count it. Especially when you said you were out of breath I would count maybe just half the time. Like when I clean it takes me about 2 hrs. I would only count 1hr. If you decide to count it go caloriesperhour.com and you will find the info you need.


    -Adrienne:heart:
  • arewethereyet
    arewethereyet Posts: 18,702 Member
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    I do if I do more than my normal cleaning. You know when you tear everything up and pull all the towels out of the linen closet and refold them. PLEASE tell me I am not the only one who does this!

    Otherwise, I consider it part of my normal calories:flowerforyou:
  • frithir
    frithir Posts: 179 Member
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    Does that mean that the 4 hours I spent today manually tearing up a humongous trash bag full of paper into itty bitty pieces because the motor on the shredder burned out count? :tongue: Being the old-left-over-tree-hugging-save-the-earth-hippie types we are, we save up all the junk mail we get and when we get a big bunch, shred it, mix it with water, lint from the dryer, candle wax and baking soda, press it into molds and when it's dry, use it in the fireplace. It not only actually works pretty well but helps our supply of wood to stretch a lot further and goes a long way in practical recycling. 4 hours of manual tearing and snipping ought to count for SOMETHING other than a stiff neck and sore hands :wink:
  • Losing_It
    Losing_It Posts: 3,271 Member
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    I do if I do more than my normal cleaning. You know when you tear everything up and pull all the towels out of the linen closet and refold them. PLEASE tell me I am not the only one who does this!

    Otherwise, I consider it part of my normal calories:flowerforyou:

    Umm..you are not alone! Hehehe..I thought it was just me! :bigsmile:
  • Ezzie
    Ezzie Posts: 665 Member
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    For me this has evolved....when I started here I counted more of my 'everyday' calories. I think that just using this site I have become more active and have started to count fewer of the laundry/vacuum/cooking calories. Don't misunderstand...I LOVED counting those...and still enjoy using them if I do something out of the ordinary, huge batch of laundry, washing windows etc.

    But now that I feel better, walking up the stairs IS easier, I don't tend to count them as much because they either aren't as difficult or feel less like "work". So, IMHO, log what works for you....if you're just starting your journey and 15 minutes of running the vac leaves you hot, sweaty and needing a rest then LOG IT!!!! All to soon you'll find you did the whole house and are singing along with the radio...and then you can decide you'd rather log the walk you took with the dog, up the big hill and across the field!!! ( OR, the kick boxing class which would have KILLED you two months ago!!)
  • redlion54
    redlion54 Posts: 9
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    There is actually a listing in MFP's Cardiovascular section for cleaning. Just go to where you enter your regular exercise in and type cleaning into the "search our exercise database by name" area. After hitting "Search", it will give you the option for either light or heavy cleaning.

    Most of my cleaning is done on one day. So, for that day, I do enter in my time. If I spend a couple of hours cleaning, then I know I burned some calories. If I don't eat those calories, then I am not giving my body enough energy to function. I have consistently lost weight each week and have been doing it like this for 16 weeks.
  • DjBliss05
    DjBliss05 Posts: 682
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    Thanks for the feedback everybody.

    I'm gonna take it on a case by case basis. Today, I wore myself out! So I'm gonna count an hour of the time I spent cleaning/cooking/grocery shopping.

    :drinker:
  • Fitness_Chick
    Fitness_Chick Posts: 6,648 Member
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    I don't count calories for cooking, shopping, or cleaning.

    If I was doing those activities "before" and gaining weight, what makes me think doing them now is somehow helping me lose weight?

    I agree....I see that as part of my daily activities not part of my workouts:wink:
  • spiralgirl71
    spiralgirl71 Posts: 374 Member
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    I don't count cooking. I count cleaning if it's more than my normal cleaning routine. I also count grocery shopping calories because I shop once every two weeks and it becomes quite a workout.
  • chrissyh
    chrissyh Posts: 8,235 Member
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    I don't count cooking but if I have been cleaning (deep cleaning) working up a sweat - I'll count it. There are many days where I am below my calories and I don't want to be under the 1200 mark so I count it to give me an idea of what I need to be eating.
  • charliesgold
    charliesgold Posts: 235 Member
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    I don't count cooking but do count cleaning when I do a deep house clean ie: bath tub scrubbing, vacuuming stairs etc

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