Can I count housework as a workout?
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It all depends whether or not you've already accounted for it in your activity level. If you haven't selected activity level to include chores, then count calories burned but keep in mind mfp estimates higher so a heart rate monitor would be a good buy, and only eat back two thirds of your calories.
If you're not planning on eating back the calories, it doesn't matter.
Your body doesn't know if your workout came from pilates or walking or vacuuming the entire house. If your movement burns calories, it counts. Exercise basically replaces all the work we would be doing if we didn't have modern conveniences, so as long as you're not eating back cleaning calories twice, you're good to go.0 -
Since you've got your daily level sent to sedentary I don't see why you shouldn't log it. Just my opinion!
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I don't track regular housecleaning. Once when getting ready for an event I spent over 3 hours straight doing a deep clean that involved a good deal of physical labor and I tracked it as "1 hour of light housework" which I felt was fair.0
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If you have your activity level set to sedentary then log it but if you are even set to lightly active I wouldn't. I wouldn't even know how to begin to log that stuff, so I set my level to lightly active. If you have kids you are definitely lightly active. Change your activity level and don't sweat logging the things we all do every day.0
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It is up to you.
If it is something I always do then I do not log it. I am a sedentary person and consider most housework accounted for in my activity level. If I did heavy duty all day cleaning I might log some of it.0 -
If you listed your activity level as Sedentary, you can count your housework as exercise. If you listed your activity level as higher, then some of this background activity is already figured in to your calorie budget.
Another vote for logging if you are set as Sedentary.
Some of you may not have realized there are several options for cleaning already in the system:
- Cleaning, light, moderate effort
- Cleaning, heavy, vigorous effort0 -
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.
I have only ever counted housework as exercise once or twice since I started here in February, and only when I spent a full hour or more doing it. In one case I was unpacking boxes, washing and hanging to dry everything in the boxes (bedding, clothes etc. ... storage = dust mites), giving the place a good clean before I put stuff from the boxes away, etc. etc. On my feet, lifting, carrying, and generally moving for the whole evening.
If I do the "commercial hop"* I don't count it.
Sweat means nothing. You can sweat buckets sitting still on a hot humid day but it doesn't mean you've burned any calories.
*Commercial hop -- when the commercial comes on, I get up and unload the dishwasher. Then return to the sofa for the show. Next commercial, I get up and load the dishwasher and get it going. Then return to the sofa. Next commercial I get up and put in a load of laundry. Then return to the sofa ... etc. etc. all evening.
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I have commented already but...let me put it this way...
Has doing housework ever helped you with your weight before? If so then count it...if not...well...0 -
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I know people that clean once every 4-5 years...no joke...ick. Now when if I ever help them clean I might count that...*shivers* because I will be wearing a hazmat suit...0 -
I don't know about logging it. But it is actually healthier to get your exercise through housework, gardening, and other everyday life activities. 150 years ago nobody "exercised". They got all the action they needed through just living every day. We would all be better off if we got more of our exercise in that fashion.
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I consider housework as normal daily activity.0
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kshama2001 wrote: »If you listed your activity level as Sedentary, you can count your housework as exercise. If you listed your activity level as higher, then some of this background activity is already figured in to your calorie budget.
Another vote for logging if you are set as Sedentary.
Some of you may not have realized there are several options for cleaning already in the system:
- Cleaning, light, moderate effort
- Cleaning, heavy, vigorous effort
Yeah well, cooking is in there too. Standing and chopping and stirring are all better than sitting and watching TV, but how athletic is it?0 -
wanttobefit300 wrote: »I don't know about logging it. But it is actually healthier to get your exercise through housework, gardening, and other everyday life activities. 150 years ago nobody "exercised". They got all the action they needed through just living every day. We would all be better off if we got more of our exercise in that fashion.
Ya, my mom is actually a little too skinny and gets tons of exercise from gardening, scraping and painting the house, and doing things the hard way like not having a clothes dryer and hanging clothes out on the line.
She also walks and does yoga. She's always moving.
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barbecuesauce wrote: »kshama2001 wrote: »If you listed your activity level as Sedentary, you can count your housework as exercise. If you listed your activity level as higher, then some of this background activity is already figured in to your calorie budget.
Another vote for logging if you are set as Sedentary.
Some of you may not have realized there are several options for cleaning already in the system:
- Cleaning, light, moderate effort
- Cleaning, heavy, vigorous effort
Yeah well, cooking is in there too. Standing and chopping and stirring are all better than sitting and watching TV, but how athletic is it?
I've been logging cooking and cleaning and am losing a pound a week.
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kshama2001 wrote: »barbecuesauce wrote: »kshama2001 wrote: »If you listed your activity level as Sedentary, you can count your housework as exercise. If you listed your activity level as higher, then some of this background activity is already figured in to your calorie budget.
Another vote for logging if you are set as Sedentary.
Some of you may not have realized there are several options for cleaning already in the system:
- Cleaning, light, moderate effort
- Cleaning, heavy, vigorous effort
Yeah well, cooking is in there too. Standing and chopping and stirring are all better than sitting and watching TV, but how athletic is it?
I've been logging cooking and cleaning and am losing a pound a week.
Those aren't mutually exclusive. There are several explanations for why you would still see a good rate of loss while logging these activities (you burn more calories than the average person in your height/weight bracket, you don't eat all of your calories back, you consistently overestimate intake, etc). It's just that a person who logs these activities--and eats those calories back--is more likely to maintain/lose less quickly than lose consistently.0 -
You forgot 'eating clean'
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Hmmm.
And I only log workouts where my soul intent was to workout. Running 60 min. Going for a 90 min walk.
All the rest of my activities are gravy.0 -
I just keep my pedometer on and it counts towards my daily steps. As for baby on the back, I regularly have either my 11kg or 14kg children on my back while walking, I just think of it as an added bonus, it'd be pretty impossible to calculate calories for that.0
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I don't log housework, but movement is still good for your body. You're right that it's better than sitting around watching Netflix. You could say I kind of give myself a mental pat on the back for getting up and being active (I'm talking vigorous, thorough cleaning of the whole house).0
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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.
Fine.
What about a Cheetoh?0 -
I do0
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barbecuesauce wrote: »kshama2001 wrote: »If you listed your activity level as Sedentary, you can count your housework as exercise. If you listed your activity level as higher, then some of this background activity is already figured in to your calorie budget.
Another vote for logging if you are set as Sedentary.
Some of you may not have realized there are several options for cleaning already in the system:
- Cleaning, light, moderate effort
- Cleaning, heavy, vigorous effort
Yeah well, cooking is in there too. Standing and chopping and stirring are all better than sitting and watching TV, but how athletic is it?
Depends on what you are doing and how you cook. It may not be athletic like a marathon but it could be somewhat physical.
You could spend very little time and effort cooking and so it wouldn't be worth logging to you.
Maybe someoneone else is a different kind of cook. Kneading dough, beating something by hand, stirring, climbing up and down getting heavy containers off shelves, chopping a lot of food, carrying heavy full pots, standing and walking back and forward for hours. It could happen.0 -
Ya, if I were simply throwing something in the microwave, I wouldn't log that as cooking.
My cooking also entails going down to the garden and getting fresh herbs, and pulling a few weeds while I'm down there.0 -
I clean 12 hrs per day. It's my job. Then I come home and clean my own house. I don't log any of it. It's built into my daily activity level.
You'll be double dipping if you log it .
Of course it burns more then just sitting around but it's not possible to accurately account for it. It's not steady state cardio, So it's going to be very hard to try to estimate calories burnt for it.
I wouldn't log it at all.0 -
Nope, I never log any kind of cleaning.0
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AmazonMayan wrote: »
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.
Yes, this. I would ask what your objective is. For me, I was very sick for a long time and sedentary. I mean very little movement at all. So, I may log housecleaning if my heart rate is going. Not so much for calories to put down that I burned but to see how much movement I am adding. There were days I could barely stand up being sick, so seeing I could do an hour of heavy duty cleaning would be nice for me to acknowledge.
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atypicalsmith wrote: »jennifer_417 wrote: »Some people get all up in arms about it, but I say calories burnt are calories burnt!
so that means I can count the sex I have...Yah.
No I don't count house work @MrM27 which I do every week btw...including down on my hands and knees scrubbing the bathroom floor.
I don't count my gardening either or the wood in the fall or painting a room or crack filling or moving my Sister in law and her 3 friends...purposeful exercise only.
I think if someone's house is dirty enough that they burn tonnes of calories their punishment should be not being able to count them.
That, I like that
My dog cleans my house for me, so I don't have to count it.
Your poor dog
Keeps the kitchen floor clean, anyway, even though I usually manage to wipe up the occasional drip here and there . . .0
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