Do you count household chores as exercise?

hayleyjeanette
hayleyjeanette Posts: 6
edited November 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
Hi all, I'm a bit confused! Do I need to count my housework (I do about 2 hours a day worth cleaning etc) everyday - there is a cleaning option in the exercise tool but I was told not to log it? I don't want to overestimate my calories but at the same time I don't want to underestimate :-) x

Replies

  • williams969
    williams969 Posts: 2,528 Member
    Nope. It's considered part of your "lifestyle" setting (sedentary, lightly active, etc.). If you do that much cleaning, and all the other things people do to keep up their homes, then you're probably "lightly active". Set you level to that, don't add housework as exercise, eat your MFP goal for several weeks, and reevaluate if needed (move up or down an activity level).
  • PeachyCarol
    PeachyCarol Posts: 8,029 Member
    No, I never count housework. It's part of my normal lifestyle that's already included in the average calculations for the base figure.
  • Laurend224
    Laurend224 Posts: 1,748 Member
    Nope, I don't do anymore household chores thin than I do when fat.
  • hayleyjeanette
    hayleyjeanette Posts: 6
    Super thank you :-)
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    Nope

    But my fitbit counts every step I take and housework would help me reach sedentary activity rate so I don't lose calories from my MFP goal
  • gobonas99
    gobonas99 Posts: 1,049 Member
    I NEVER log housework (or gardening, or snow shoveling, etc). I only log intentional exercise. I still cleaned my house when I gained the weight, so it is just part of life.
  • JustinAnimal
    JustinAnimal Posts: 1,335 Member
    I count housework and here's why: it's NOT a regular part of my lifestyle to do intense, clean-like-a-*kitten* style cleaning. So I don't count laundry and dishes... I mean, of course not! But when I'm on my hands and knees, scrubbing like a *kitten*, mopping the whole house, vaccuuming the whole house, sweeping outside, raking leaves and doing that stuff for 2-3 hours at a time, hell yes I count a few calories. I definitely try not to overestimate, though. But it's out of the ordinary, works up a sweat, and especially after hours of raking / sweeping, my abs and obliques actually get a little sore.
  • JustinAnimal
    JustinAnimal Posts: 1,335 Member
    the explitive was b-a-s-t-a-r-d, so no one thinks it was offensive to females. I wasn't cleaning like a female dog, but like a fatherless child.
  • MummyKate85
    MummyKate85 Posts: 154 Member
    No I don't.
  • zyxst
    zyxst Posts: 9,149 Member
    Depends on how hard the cleaning is. I logged cleaning out my shower, which was absolutely filthy so you know now how often I clean. :P
  • Foodiethinking
    Foodiethinking Posts: 240 Member
    JustinAnimal wrote: »
    I count housework and here's why: it's NOT a regular part of my lifestyle to do intense, clean-like-a-*kitten* style cleaning. So I don't count laundry and dishes... I mean, of course not! But when I'm on my hands and knees, scrubbing like a *kitten*, mopping the whole house, vaccuuming the whole house, sweeping outside, raking leaves and doing that stuff for 2-3 hours at a time, hell yes I count a few calories. I definitely try not to overestimate, though. But it's out of the ordinary, works up a sweat, and especially after hours of raking / sweeping, my abs and obliques actually get a little sore.

    I have my goals set to Sedentary and add exercise in when required since I don't do loads, so this.

    I don't clean as vigorously as this, nor do I do it often, but I also break out a sweat and feel it a little while later from scrubbing one thing or another- usually a big clean when I'm having people round at home. But I count it. I count shifting boxes for a couple of hours when I'm moving back and forward between uni at different parts of the year.
  • SergeantSausage
    SergeantSausage Posts: 1,673 Member
    Depends. If I'm downing an 80 year old dead maple in the woodlot, that's every bit as good as lifting in a gym. Slinging 200 and 300 pound rounds for 3 or 4 hours is more of a workout than I've ever had in a gym.

    It's not something normally done but 2 or 3 times a year, so it's outside my daily lifestyle parameters.

    If I'm sweeping the garage floor? Nope.
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
    I use a step counter (Fitbit Zip) and let it decide if I am exercising in the extraordinary range. This morning I have taken the stairs at work four times already. There's lots of intensive work available at home.
  • CorlissaEats
    CorlissaEats Posts: 493 Member
    Sometimes I count it. :) Like when I move all the furniture in order to vacuum every corner and I break into a major sweat. Or when I spend 7 hours at my moms house canning or processing the produce from the garden. (This requires some heavy lifting and stairs in my context.) I don't log shoveling the inch of snow, but the foot of snow I will. However, I don't log the normal parts of my life like everyday cleaning, laundry, cooking, or mopping.

    I think it depends in part on how your diary is set up and how the activity affects your deficit. I try to never have greater than a 500 cal deficit. I don't log these types of activity because they are "exercise" but I do it to account for the calories burned.
  • brightsideofpink
    brightsideofpink Posts: 1,018 Member
    From my observations, those on my newsfeed who log light cleaning every day are the first ones to complain that they aren't losing weight, despite their deficit.
  • Timorous_Beastie
    Timorous_Beastie Posts: 595 Member
    Regular chores, no. Above and beyond normal chores, yes. If I have to shovel 18 inches of snow off my corner lot, if I'm rearranging furniture or painting a room, major yard work (not just planting some tulip bulbs), if it's the kind of deep, behind and under every piece of furniture cleaning I do before the inlaws visit, I'd log that.
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,423 Member
    If it is an activity that you do regularly then don't log it as exercise. That stuff should be part of the activity level you set.
    If one day you do some activity that is a lot more than what you regularly do then you might log it.
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
    I wouldn't count 2 hours of daily housework, but I would count big jobs like cleaning out the garage or attic. I would also include regular chores like chopping/stacking firewood, yard or garden work, etc.
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,626 Member
    i only log intentional exercise. so... cleaning, going to the mall, grocery shopping, normal walking i do associated with life and errands.... nope they dont count for me.
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,267 Member
    I always said if your house is dirty enough that you considering cleaning an exercise not counting the calories is penalty for letting it get that way. Even if you are scrubbing, raking etc...you did all that when you were bigger and not trying to lose weight and it didn't help...so why think it will help now.
  • StaciMarie1974
    StaciMarie1974 Posts: 4,138 Member
    I don't - I'd consider that in setting my activity level.
    hayleyjeanette wrote: »
    Hi all, I'm a bit confused! Do I need to count my housework (I do about 2 hours a day worth cleaning etc) everyday - there is a cleaning option in the exercise tool but I was told not to log it? I don't want to overestimate my calories but at the same time I don't want to underestimate :-) x

  • StaciMarie1974
    StaciMarie1974 Posts: 4,138 Member
    Ps-I think it would be reasonable to log something strenuous like snow shoveling. Though the exact burn would be hard to pinpoint so rounding down/underestimating would be a good idea.
  • AglaeaC
    AglaeaC Posts: 1,974 Member
    Only the unique instances such as moving boxes and furniture.
  • Unknown
    Unknown
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  • lindanewland37
    lindanewland37 Posts: 38 Member
    I have my activity level set as sedentary because I have a chronic pain condition and there are days when I barely move. Additionally I work at home at a sedentary job on the computer and phone all day. I don't count things like doing the dishes or making the bed - but if I am having a good day (meaning minimal pain) and I spend 2 or 3 hours doing house or yard chores, I count a portion of it. I usually count 25% of the actual time I spend because I am a slow mover.
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