Can I count housework as a workout?
loseitall150
Posts: 12 Member
vigorus housework such as: sweeping, mopping, dancing, washing dishes while having my 27lb 12 month old daughter on my back.
I'll be sweating the whole time because I live in a old home and central air doesn't work good in the kitchen.
I'll be sweating the whole time because I live in a old home and central air doesn't work good in the kitchen.
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Replies
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Um, hell yeah. I always count it – I work hard when I am cleaning, and I feel it!0
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Some do, some don't. I don't personally think it is necessary to log and I try to only log exercise that is actually exercise. Since it would be tough to determine calorie burn anyway, you may be shooting yourself in the foot if you decide to log it and eat the calories back.0
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First off, sweating heavily because it's hot doesn't mean you're burning more calories. Second, I would not personally count your every day activities as exercise.0
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I account for general activity in my activity level. I do housework pretty routinely...I work in my yard pretty routinely, etc. It is for this reason that I set my activity level to light active even though I have a desk job. When I get home, I'm always working on something...I sit around and do nothing like pretty much never.0
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I would not log it. But some people disagree. My thinking is you really don't burn that many calories, certainly not enough where your body can't get the nutrition it needs from the food you already eat. If you don't log things like that, all that happens is you will lose a little more than expected every week. That doesn't seem like a terrible outcome. Another way to look at it, if you are underestimating the calories you are eating a bit, this will help offset that so you still lose.
Also, just because the room is warm and you are sweating does not mean it is a good work out. I can sweat while sitting still if the room is too warm or it is humid.0 -
Some do, some don't. I don't personally think it is necessary to log and I try to only log exercise that is actually exercise. Since it would be tough to determine calorie burn anyway, you may be shooting yourself in the foot if you decide to log it and eat the calories back.
I live a sedentary lifestyle, moving heavy furniture, dusting, lifting heavy objects will make my body think that I'm working out.
It should be better than laying down and watching Netflix. Lol
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This is not considered steady state cardio exercise... I personally do not log it feel that I would be cheating the system to log it..
If want to log exercise, go outside and go for a brisk or vigorus walk..
the house cleaning is part of your normal activities such as washing laundry, washing dishes, taking a shower, going to work, etc..
But you can do what ever feels right to you..
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loseitall150 wrote: »Some do, some don't. I don't personally think it is necessary to log and I try to only log exercise that is actually exercise. Since it would be tough to determine calorie burn anyway, you may be shooting yourself in the foot if you decide to log it and eat the calories back.
I live a sedentary lifestyle, moving heavy furniture, dusting, lifting heavy objects will make my body think that I'm working out.
It should be better than laying down and watching Netflix. Lol
I don't disagree that you won't burn any extra calories doing it, but figuring out how many is nearly impossible. If you overestimate the burn, you will be shooting yourself in the foot. Since I don't think the calorie number would be all that high, I wouldn't add it.
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Sure, you have to do it like this!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moGFeRtLqHk 0 -
I watched a BBC documentary about calories where they got three families to do different activities for the morning. One family had a personal training session, another just sat about all morning and the others did housework. They found that (after controlling for BMR and such) the people doing housework burned a substantial amount of calories in comparison to the sedentary people. The only problem is that it's really hard to estimate - the BBC used heart rate monitors. If you're going to track it, maybe look it up on Google and see what sort of figures you can find, then when you log it, seriously underestimate it because if you eat your exercise calories back, there's too large a margin of error to be able to eat all of them and still maintain the same overall deficit.
For me personally, I find it to be too much hassle so I just wear my Fitbit and let it count my steps and that's all I sync to MFP. The estimated burn will be almost definitely wrong but if I am working hard, it'll be very low in comparison to actual calories burnt and it just means my deficit might be larger that day.0 -
daaaaaanielle wrote: »I watched a BBC documentary about calories where they got three families to do different activities for the morning. One family had a personal training session, another just sat about all morning and the others did housework. They found that (after controlling for BMR and such) the people doing housework burned a substantial amount of calories in comparison to the sedentary people. The only problem is that it's really hard to estimate - the BBC used heart rate monitors. If you're going to track it, maybe look it up on Google and see what sort of figures you can find, then when you log it, seriously underestimate it because if you eat your exercise calories back, there's too large a margin of error to be able to eat all of them and still maintain the same overall deficit.
For me personally, I find it to be too much hassle so I just wear my Fitbit and let it count my steps and that's all I sync to MFP. The estimated burn will be almost definitely wrong but if I am working hard, it'll be very low in comparison to actual calories burnt and it just means my deficit might be larger that day.
Since a HRM wouldn't be even remotely accurate to measure calories for being sedentary and especially for house cleaning, that kinda renders that test on BBC pointless. They are known to overestimate "intervally" type workouts which I feel that house cleaning would fall into.
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It really depends on what the housework is whether I personally would log it. Regular cleaning is a nope for me. Sometimes I am doing something different that is much more labor intensive (non-stop movement and lots of lifting and carrying things for sustained times) I count it but never for tons of calories - I log low.
In the very beginning I logged some regular housework - as long as I was on my feet moving - just because it was an added movement for me since I'd been unable to do much of anything previously due to health/injuries. I had also lowered my calorie intake slightly since I was very sedentary.0 -
460mustang wrote: »Sure, you have to do it like this!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moGFeRtLqHk
I think i got more amusement out of this than I should have lol0 -
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No...housework is not exercise.
If you're serious about trying to lose weight, you'll recognize that as such.
Otherwise, you're only trying to fool yourself into being able to eat more calories just because you 'exercised'.0 -
I used to, but want to ensure I'm within the margin for error and stopped tracking this. I do the same with elliptical and just use the fitbit adjustment to ensure I'm not eating back too many calories.0
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loseitall150 wrote: »vigorus housework such as: sweeping, mopping, dancing, washing dishes while having my 27lb 12 month old daughter on my back.
I'll be sweating the whole time because I live in a old home and central air doesn't work good in the kitchen.
Wait a minute...wut???0 -
You shouldn't log it, since you're already accounting for it in your normal daily activity that you input on MFP ("lightly active", etc.) Logging it is double-counting it.
Only count deliberate workouts.0 -
no, it's not exercise, it's housework, you've always done housework, did you ever used to wash up and use it as an excuse to eat a sandwich?
i mean what? washing up is not gonna burn worthwhile calories, nor will washing clothes, or sweeping up. potentially mopping, but still you probably wouldn't even push 100 for the whole house. and chances are you don't have woodfloors all through.0 -
ceoverturf wrote: »No...housework is not exercise.
If you're serious about trying to lose weight, you'll recognize that as such.
Otherwise, you're only trying to fool yourself into being able to eat more calories just because you 'exercised'.
^this.
I not only clean my house daily , I also do it as a part time job. Hefting trash bags, vacuuming, going up and down stairs.
I kept one straight amount and if I was losing too aggressively, I added about 100 calories the next week and kept that, adjusting until my rate of loss was reasonable. Adding some arbitrary number for cleaning will most likely lead to frustration when you've stalled your losses from over accounting for it.
Make it as easy as possible and don't add too many things that will make it a quagmire to adjust intake with.0 -
i dont because i see it as my life style just like a daily job.
However an exercise is when your heart rate is up for a certain amount of time due to moving.....So this means that i who garden a bit everyday dont count that but hauling stones from one side of the garden to the other side, for some time.....i count for sure. lol and lose 3.5 pound overnight when i did.
So normal house work like vacuuming mopping floors cleaning windows nope My heart rate doesn't go up enough.
But dragging boxes up and down, unpacking ( we moved not long ago) and re-organizing rooms and make me sweat and get a bit out of breath for longer than 15 minutes yes i count.
I can see all of this on my heart rate monitor.
Of course it is different for every person. When i rake my garden ( fast) my heart rate doesn't go up anymore...was different when i was 90 pounds heavier and not doing anything at all.
So different for each person
I chose it to see it as my life style and when i really do heavy heavy work my heart rate goes up and a start sweating i will count it.
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460mustang wrote: »Sure, you have to do it like this!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moGFeRtLqHk
I think i got more amusement out of this than I should have lol
roflllll
aldo i think it is *kitten* funny...i also never want to get so obsessed like that
whahahahahaha
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Depends on activity level set and how hard you're working, and whether or not you are going to eat them back... I'm set at sedentary, so if I do 2 hours of hard core housework and then have no time for a "real" workout, I'll count it, manually set calories burned waaaay lower than MFP, and don't eat them back... But then, I guess, what's the point??? I guess it makes me feel less bad about missing a workout?
Do whatever works for you, but I'd caution against eating them back!0 -
ceoverturf wrote: »loseitall150 wrote: »vigorus housework such as: sweeping, mopping, dancing, washing dishes while having my 27lb 12 month old daughter on my back.
I'll be sweating the whole time because I live in a old home and central air doesn't work good in the kitchen.
Wait a minute...wut???
Do you not dance around with mops attached to your feet?
Anyway, I only counted it when I helped someone clean her house after a very long illness/before guests came because it was a solid week of scrubbing filth and missed workouts. Even then I only input half the time.
Sweat =/= large increase in calorie expenditure. There will be a slight increase because your body is regulating its temperature, but you're not logging the slight increase you get when you spend two hours in a chilly movie theater, are you?
Count the activity in your MFP settings (unless you're only doing this 1-2 days a week). I do not recommend considering housework calories as part of your exercise calories.0 -
Out of the ordinary housework, such as cleaning out the garage (non stop lifting and moving boxes/heavy items) I will log half the amount of time I spent. I only eat back exercise calories if I'm STARVING though.0
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daaaaaanielle wrote: »I watched a BBC documentary about calories where they got three families to do different activities for the morning. One family had a personal training session, another just sat about all morning and the others did housework. They found that (after controlling for BMR and such) the people doing housework burned a substantial amount of calories in comparison to the sedentary people. The only problem is that it's really hard to estimate - the BBC used heart rate monitors. If you're going to track it, maybe look it up on Google and see what sort of figures you can find, then when you log it, seriously underestimate it because if you eat your exercise calories back, there's too large a margin of error to be able to eat all of them and still maintain the same overall deficit.
For me personally, I find it to be too much hassle so I just wear my Fitbit and let it count my steps and that's all I sync to MFP. The estimated burn will be almost definitely wrong but if I am working hard, it'll be very low in comparison to actual calories burnt and it just means my deficit might be larger that day.
Since a HRM wouldn't be even remotely accurate to measure calories for being sedentary and especially for house cleaning, that kinda renders that test on BBC pointless. They are known to overestimate "intervally" type workouts which I feel that house cleaning would fall into.
I think it is still pretty obvious though that you're going to burn more calories moving around, cleaning, lifting stuff around, etc than siting on the couch all day. Depending on what kind of cleaning you're doing, there could be a reasonable burn involved (I don't mean reasonable as in comparable to deliberate exercise, but reasonable in the sense that it would be more than just walking around the house). I don't personally see much value in recording it, as I said, but that's why I said OP should severely underestimate the calories should they choose to track it at all because of the difficulty in getting a remotely accurate read of the burn involved even with HRMs (I didn't say the HRMs are accurate to the calorie, just that they indicated that their heart rate was increased significantly enough to show they were burning more calories than the sedentary people - for whom they pretty much just used the BMR I think).
Unless you're saying that you don't burn more calories moving around than you do sitting down, it seems you're just picking on semantics here really.0 -
daaaaaanielle wrote: »daaaaaanielle wrote: »I watched a BBC documentary about calories where they got three families to do different activities for the morning. One family had a personal training session, another just sat about all morning and the others did housework. They found that (after controlling for BMR and such) the people doing housework burned a substantial amount of calories in comparison to the sedentary people. The only problem is that it's really hard to estimate - the BBC used heart rate monitors. If you're going to track it, maybe look it up on Google and see what sort of figures you can find, then when you log it, seriously underestimate it because if you eat your exercise calories back, there's too large a margin of error to be able to eat all of them and still maintain the same overall deficit.
For me personally, I find it to be too much hassle so I just wear my Fitbit and let it count my steps and that's all I sync to MFP. The estimated burn will be almost definitely wrong but if I am working hard, it'll be very low in comparison to actual calories burnt and it just means my deficit might be larger that day.
Since a HRM wouldn't be even remotely accurate to measure calories for being sedentary and especially for house cleaning, that kinda renders that test on BBC pointless. They are known to overestimate "intervally" type workouts which I feel that house cleaning would fall into.
I think it is still pretty obvious though that you're going to burn more calories moving around, cleaning, lifting stuff around, etc than siting on the couch all day. Depending on what kind of cleaning you're doing, there could be a reasonable burn involved (I don't mean reasonable as in comparable to deliberate exercise, but reasonable in the sense that it would be more than just walking around the house). I don't personally see much value in recording it, as I said, but that's why I said OP should severely underestimate the calories should they choose to track it at all because of the difficulty in getting a remotely accurate read of the burn involved even with HRMs (I didn't say the HRMs are accurate to the calorie, just that they indicated that their heart rate was increased significantly enough to show they were burning more calories than the sedentary people - for whom they pretty much just used the BMR I think).
Unless you're saying that you don't burn more calories moving around than you do sitting down, it seems you're just picking on semantics here really.
The problem with HRMs and intervals (and since scrubbing varies in intensity, it counts) is that your heart rate remains elevated even after you start performing at a slow pace or sitting down.
Do you burn more calories doing housework than sitting down? Obviously. Do you earn enough to earn extra calories? I'm not sure about that.
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daaaaaanielle wrote: »daaaaaanielle wrote: »I watched a BBC documentary about calories where they got three families to do different activities for the morning. One family had a personal training session, another just sat about all morning and the others did housework. They found that (after controlling for BMR and such) the people doing housework burned a substantial amount of calories in comparison to the sedentary people. The only problem is that it's really hard to estimate - the BBC used heart rate monitors. If you're going to track it, maybe look it up on Google and see what sort of figures you can find, then when you log it, seriously underestimate it because if you eat your exercise calories back, there's too large a margin of error to be able to eat all of them and still maintain the same overall deficit.
For me personally, I find it to be too much hassle so I just wear my Fitbit and let it count my steps and that's all I sync to MFP. The estimated burn will be almost definitely wrong but if I am working hard, it'll be very low in comparison to actual calories burnt and it just means my deficit might be larger that day.
Since a HRM wouldn't be even remotely accurate to measure calories for being sedentary and especially for house cleaning, that kinda renders that test on BBC pointless. They are known to overestimate "intervally" type workouts which I feel that house cleaning would fall into.
I think it is still pretty obvious though that you're going to burn more calories moving around, cleaning, lifting stuff around, etc than siting on the couch all day. Depending on what kind of cleaning you're doing, there could be a reasonable burn involved (I don't mean reasonable as in comparable to deliberate exercise, but reasonable in the sense that it would be more than just walking around the house). I don't personally see much value in recording it, as I said, but that's why I said OP should severely underestimate the calories should they choose to track it at all because of the difficulty in getting a remotely accurate read of the burn involved even with HRMs (I didn't say the HRMs are accurate to the calorie, just that they indicated that their heart rate was increased significantly enough to show they were burning more calories than the sedentary people - for whom they pretty much just used the BMR I think).
Unless you're saying that you don't burn more calories moving around than you do sitting down, it seems you're just picking on semantics here really.
Not picking on semantics. Not even sure how my post could be considered picking at all, honestly. It's a discussion.
You would obviously burn more calories cleaning than doing nothing. I was just referencing that you said that the BBC show used HRMs as if they are accurate. HRMs are somewhat accurate for steady state cardio, but are not even remotely accurate for much else. An HRM was never designed to give calorie estimations for activities such as this. Increased HR does not directly correlate to calories burned which is why an HRM would give over inflated numbers for things like house cleaning.
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I don't count cleaning as exercise for a lot of the reasons above. I do count push mowing my lawn though. It takes 2 hours to mow and it's all at a considerable incline (20°-30°) because I live on a spine of a foothill.0
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