Housework as an activity

I don't track housework

It's under "cleaning."
Personally, I don't track my regular housework, like laundry and cleaning bathrooms and stuff because that's already included in my calorie goal, but if I've done something very strenuous that happens to be housework, I might log it. I've done it after an entire afternoon spent vigorously scrubbing floors. Also, I have friends with limited mobility and energy. They log cleaning simply because it is a physical victory for them some days.

Log it if you like. Just know that it probably doesn't burn as many calories as you think and adjust your calories accordingly.

It's not clear to me how the burn for any housework activity, however vigorous, was determined and by whom. My confidence in its approximation is about the same as closing my eyes and picking any exercises' calorie burn at random.

I only log housework (cleaning) when it's out of my routine. Things I do daily, like cooking (there is a food prep option) or whatever, I don't log.

Personally I don't track housework as its part of my usual routine, the house still needed cleaning when I was bigger and nothings changed!
But saying you really felt you worked hard, of course feel free to log it, cleaning is there in the exercise section. Its a personal decision. If I logged it I would feel I could eat more, and believe me I don't NEED to eat any more than I do already lol

what settings are you set at on MFP? sedentary? lightly active? if its the latter then the housework would pretty much be included in that and you will have more allotted calories per day anyway. Hope this helps

I think what she means is that you probably originally calculated an activity level (e.g. sedentary, lightly active, whatever) and regular housework is assumed in that. But I'd think you could log 1.5 hours of going mad with the steam cleaner as exercise, because presumably you don't go mad with the steam cleaner every day.

In terms of logging housework, I do what I gather a lot of people do -- namely, I don't log regular everyday stuff that's just part of life (like cooking or putting away dishes or walking to the corner store for eggs), but if I do a sustained amount of out-of-the-ordinary work, like a day I spent shifting boxes and re-arranging the spare room, I'll log it under "cleaning" or something else that makes sense. (Scroll through the options. It's weirdly fun to see what's been "calculated.")

I logged some holiday cooking because I was darned well on my feet for hours on end, kneading and mixing and so on. Which is not at all my everyday cooking! But I didn't count every single minute because c'mon.

So it's a judgment call. But I'd say you could log it as exercise.

stevew_68 wrote: »

I wouldnt stick doing the dishes or filling washing mashine and stuff like that. I was meaning 'out of the ordinary stuff' and stuff where I work unusually hard, maybes even break into a sweat doing it.

I had to put my lifestyle as sedentary as I have a chronic back issue that severly limits what I can and cannot do at present, so stuff that some people find normal, could potentailly be a huge deal for me. Thats the only reason I am asking. Thanks for everyones advice though. I know everyone will have different opinions on this, which I appreciate.

I do think then you should log your heavy duty cleaning...its nice to know you've earned those calories sorry to hear you have back issues hope that improves for you!

You can log it or not. The problem that I see with it is the reason you want to log it is so you can feel justified in eating more (i.e. eat back the calories). If you are chronically miscalculating (and I don't see how anyone could not) and you eat back all those alleged calories, you are going to gain weight, not lose it. If you are not going to eat them back, why bother logging them and just have the satisfaction you are most likely in deficit (assuming you are logging your intake correctly).