Let's make a pact: Cleaning house IS NOT AN EXERCISE

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  • Sarahbear83
    Sarahbear83 Posts: 110 Member
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    The logic that it shouldn't be logged because it's something you do daily is a bit...flawed. If that's the case, and someone burns 400 calories doing an exercise DVD every day or 600 calories running several miles, they shouldn't log it because it's something they do every single day. They should, instead, bump their activity level up and only log things that are out of the ordinary.

    Fact is, we all do different things on a daily basis. Our activity levels and routines are vastly different. For you, cleaning house may not be any extra calories. For the person who sits behind a computer all day at work 5 days a week, but comes home on weekends and shampoos their carpets and repaints the basement, that's extra calories that aren't typically burned and need to be logged so they're able to keep their net calories above 1200.
  • SabrinaJL
    SabrinaJL Posts: 1,579 Member
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    I hardcore clean one day a week for at least 4 or 5 hours. Bet your *kitten* I'm counting it!

    Same here. Every Friday is sweeping, mopping, dusting, vacuuming, cleaning the bathrooms, changing the sheets, 3 -4 loads of laundry (which requires a lot of up and down the stairs), etc... I don't do it every day and I sure as heck sweat while doing it so I'll call it exercise. Except I don't trust MFP counts so I just log it as 30-60 minutes of light cleaning. lol
  • Azuleelan
    Azuleelan Posts: 218
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    So people are reaching 600 calorie "workouts" in part because they "cleaned the house"... wtf??? Should I add "Run to catch the bus" or "jump to reach the mustard"?? We are tryin to lose weight here, let's be honest! Who's in?

    May I ask exactly where your mustard is that you must jump for it? That sounds like a bigger problem to me than figuring out your calorie burn. It's a great condiment! LOL!! :)

    Wow! finally, a noon-defensive comment!! Awesome!! It's super cool that you can laugh instead of getting all touchy, like somebody else stuffed our faces for us, lol!

    Ps. My mustard reserve, I shoul have said, is in the very top shelf of my very high cabinet! I'm loggin that in as plyo!
  • meggiemaye
    meggiemaye Posts: 117
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    Wow! finally, a noon-defensive comment!! Awesome!! It's super cool that you can laugh instead of getting all touchy, like somebody else stuffed our faces for us, lol!

    I'm really sorry that you feel we all came off that way. I'm sure none of us meant it like that. I think we were just concerned about why it is that your focus is on what you see as inadequacies in others instead of on your own journey.

    We all just want to support you and each other!
  • Azuleelan
    Azuleelan Posts: 218
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    hahaaha exactly!

    The weight comes off a lot easier when excuses aren't apart of your mindset. Overestimate calories consumed & underestimate activity calories burned. I guarentee you'll see results.

    Awesome!! Another replier with ANY sense of humor... and REALITY I might add. MORE POWER TO YOU! :D
  • meggiemaye
    meggiemaye Posts: 117
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    Awesome!! Another replier with ANY sense of humor... and REALITY I might add.

    Speaking of defensiveness. You're being quite rude, it seems to me.

    I'm tempted to stop visiting this thread for fear of catching the negativity but I just want to add, once more, that no one comes to this site to be down on anyone else. We're all just here to find a community of support. If you don't feel like that's a good match for you and your goals, I'm really sorry.
  • torregro
    torregro Posts: 307
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    Well, my mustard isn't up high, but my spices are and a couple of years ago, I set my sweater on fire by reaching up on my tippy toes to that little cupboard over the stove and you can BET your *kitten*, I would have logged those calories, as I leaped around the kitchen, throwing off my sweater and stomping out the fire! LOL Of course..........it would have been only a few minutes, but still!
  • Azuleelan
    Azuleelan Posts: 218
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    So, I'm sorry all!
    The entire thing was meant to be funny and the delusional me even thought it could be inspirational! (even though it was bit tough, a la Jillian Michaels) Of course we burn calories when we clean our house, but I thought we all were in sync here to force us to do MORE, to do that extra effort and PUSH ourselves.

    I'm sorry most of you took it sooo bad, I tend to overestimate the resilience of people (though I do recommend also improving that, it's part of self-confidence)

    Happy cleaning to all!
  • jmhigg1020
    jmhigg1020 Posts: 51 Member
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    Well, my mustard isn't up high, but my spices are and a couple of years ago, I set my sweater on fire by reaching up on my tippy toes to that little cupboard over the stove and you can BET your *kitten*, I would have logged those calories, as I leaped around the kitchen, throwing off my sweater and stomping out the fire! LOL Of course..........it would have been only a few minutes, but still!


    HAHAHAHA! Great story! Thanks, and I bet you lost about 20 pounds in fear that day! ;)
  • jmhigg1020
    jmhigg1020 Posts: 51 Member
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    So people are reaching 600 calorie "workouts" in part because they "cleaned the house"... wtf??? Should I add "Run to catch the bus" or "jump to reach the mustard"?? We are tryin to lose weight here, let's be honest! Who's in?

    May I ask exactly where your mustard is that you must jump for it? That sounds like a bigger problem to me than figuring out your calorie burn. It's a great condiment! LOL!! :)

    Wow! finally, a noon-defensive comment!! Awesome!! It's super cool that you can laugh instead of getting all touchy, like somebody else stuffed our faces for us, lol!

    Ps. My mustard reserve, I shoul have said, is in the very top shelf of my very high cabinet! I'm loggin that in as plyo!

    Nicely done.
  • angisnee
    angisnee Posts: 236 Member
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    So, I'm sorry all!
    The entire thing was meant to be funny and the delusional me even thought it could be inspirational! (even though it was bit tough, a la Jillian Michaels) Of course we burn calories when we clean our house, but I thought we all were in sync here to force us to do MORE, to do that extra effort and PUSH ourselves.

    I'm sorry most of you took it sooo bad, I tend to overestimate the resilience of people (though I do recommend also improving that, it's part of self-confidence)

    Happy cleaning to all!

    It is interesting how type-written things are interpreted when there's no voice inflection and body language to go along with the words. Depending on the mood someone is in, your original post could come off as very harsh, not funny. "Let's be honest." An implication that people that log house cleaning as exercise aren't being honest with themselves. But you have no idea what that person did to warrant logging those calories, whether they were being honest or not. When I clean hard, I log it as exercise. Honestly. I had a friend who used to log "sitting, reading newspaper, 8 hours" and get around 1200 calories added back for that. Made me sad. Maybe he's not being honest with himself, but that is part of his journey. And judging is not going to be helpful or inspirational to him at all.

    The passive-aggressiveness on these threads really gets to me sometimes. I know coming out and saying what you think of someone isn't allowed (for good reason), but the whole insiuation that someone that disagrees with you has no resilience or self-confidence is the same thing really. Potentially good threads go downhill from there. And people like me, who usually don't reply to threads like this, get discouraged and frustrated. I guess that's why I decided to reply in the first place, to defend those that do log cleaning. I think that shows a lot of self-confidence.
  • Azuleelan
    Azuleelan Posts: 218
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    So, I'm sorry all!
    The entire thing was meant to be funny and the delusional me even thought it could be inspirational! (even though it was bit tough, a la Jillian Michaels) Of course we burn calories when we clean our house, but I thought we all were in sync here to force us to do MORE, to do that extra effort and PUSH ourselves.

    I'm sorry most of you took it sooo bad, I tend to overestimate the resilience of people (though I do recommend also improving that, it's part of self-confidence)

    Happy cleaning to all!

    It is interesting how type-written things are interpreted when there's no voice inflection and body language to go along with the words. Depending on the mood someone is in, your original post could come off as very harsh, not funny. "Let's be honest." An implication that people that log house cleaning as exercise aren't being honest with themselves. But you have no idea what that person did to warrant logging those calories, whether they were being honest or not. When I clean hard, I log it as exercise. Honestly. I had a friend who used to log "sitting, reading newspaper, 8 hours" and get around 1200 calories added back for that. Made me sad. Maybe he's not being honest with himself, but that is part of his journey. And judging is not going to be helpful or inspirational to him at all.

    The passive-aggressiveness on these threads really gets to me sometimes. I know coming out and saying what you think of someone isn't allowed (for good reason), but the whole insiuation that someone that disagrees with you has no resilience or self-confidence is the same thing really. Potentially good threads go downhill from there. And people like me, who usually don't reply to threads like this, get discouraged and frustrated. I guess that's why I decided to reply in the first place, to defend those that do log cleaning. I think that shows a lot of self-confidence.

    A lovely lady made a joke of me and my mustard-jumping WHILE stating that she does log in her house cleaning. That is resilience. The rest is defensiveness... which is of course a choice. Sad one though.
  • angisnee
    angisnee Posts: 236 Member
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    I'm going to start logging "posting in forums" as an exercise. :tongue:
  • Azuleelan
    Azuleelan Posts: 218
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    Awesome!! See, that's a fun and ligh-hearted post!
    I think I lost like 5 pounds on this thread!
  • Limeinthecoconut
    Limeinthecoconut Posts: 234 Member
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    Argh! You guys make me want to eat a PB sandwich. I did vacuum today, after all...

    :laugh:


    You mean I CAN'T just add things that I usually do in order to eat more!?

    .......:grumble:


    :wink:
  • gertrude13
    gertrude13 Posts: 64
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    I avoid this problem by not doing any cleaning :tongue:

    HAHAHHAAHA this made my day :))
  • MissTomGettingThin
    MissTomGettingThin Posts: 776 Member
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    I avoid this problem by not doing any cleaning :tongue:

    :drinker:
  • Azuleelan
    Azuleelan Posts: 218
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    Argh! You guys make me want to eat a PB sandwich. I did vacuum today, after all...

    :laugh:


    You mean I CAN'T just add things that I usually do in order to eat more!?

    .......:grumble:


    :wink:

    Gosh, did I really say that??? lol! I'm sorry woman, by all means, log-in dusting and eat up! :drinker:
  • JunkFoodJane
    JunkFoodJane Posts: 150 Member
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    I have logged house cleaning once- I skipped my workout to seriously overhaul my kitchen for hours. As others have said, I worked up a sweat.

    On a normal day I don't log dish washing, oven wiping, counter scrubbing, cooking etc. :)
  • Mightytaco84
    Mightytaco84 Posts: 76 Member
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    Not me! I don't do a lot of strenuous cleaning on a daily basis, and my activity level is set to sedentary. If I work up a good sweat, you bet I'm gonna log it! My HRM agrees I did indeed burn extra calories that day, so I'm going to enjoy eating back at least some of those well-deserved calories!

    If some choose not to, that's their choice. For me, after losing 40 pounds, I realized my daily calorie deficit was too big and hindering my weight loss. I need to eat extra on days I clean hard! :)

    If you do it on a daily basis, then you don't live a sedentary life.
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