Can I count housework as a workout?

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  • afatpersonwholikesfood
    afatpersonwholikesfood Posts: 577 Member
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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).
  • Alluminati
    Alluminati Posts: 6,208 Member
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    Gel_W91 wrote: »
    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?
  • haibu
    haibu Posts: 67 Member
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    I do
  • Alluminati
    Alluminati Posts: 6,208 Member
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    haibu wrote: »
    I do

    Do you eat back those calories?
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,426 Member
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    barbecuesauce wrote: »
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    funchords 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.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,973 Member
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    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.
  • zoeysasha37
    zoeysasha37 Posts: 7,089 Member
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    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.
  • tracie_minus100
    tracie_minus100 Posts: 465 Member
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    Nope, I never log any kind of cleaning.
  • bbontheb
    bbontheb Posts: 718 Member
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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.


  • atypicalsmith
    atypicalsmith Posts: 2,742 Member
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    MrM27 wrote: »
    atypicalsmith wrote: »
    MrM27 wrote: »
    SezxyStef 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 . . .
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,943 Member
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    I_Will_End_You wrote: »
    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.

    This.
  • SlimBride2Be
    SlimBride2Be Posts: 315 Member
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    I just wear my phone so it logs the steps and count them. It's probably much the same effort as a moderate walk
  • loseitall150
    loseitall150 Posts: 12 Member
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    Logged it
  • auntyp147
    auntyp147 Posts: 38 Member
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    Up to you. I don't though. I also clean my dishes at work, wipe down my desk and even vacuum the floor in my office at work. It's a regular routine but not something I ever considered as exercise and as others have previously said, it's not easy to measure how many cals you've burnt by doing housework. My activity level is set at sedentary because I work in a desk bound job. Atleast your active, which is the main thing :)
  • segacs
    segacs Posts: 4,599 Member
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    This sort of faux-debate is exactly why I use TDEE instead of NEAT. Movement is movement, whether or not I think of it as "exercise" or "normal daily activity". I don't make the distinction because it just seems so arbitrary. Which is to say, I don't log any exercise; I just build an average amount of it into my calorie goal.

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