Calorie count for chores

tandabuss
tandabuss Posts: 18 Member
edited November 18 in Fitness and Exercise
I know that MFP overestimates calories burned for treadmill, elliptical etc. But what about things like lawn mowing, cleaning, walking dog etc.? Anyone know?

Replies

  • zoeysasha37
    zoeysasha37 Posts: 7,088 Member
    Those things are things that every person does daily. For example,I worked all day 12 hrs on my feet then I came home and mowed my lawn and cleaned my house. I didn't log any of that because it's already built into my activity level. So I'd be double dipping if I logged those.
    But I've seen many people on here log cleaning and mowing and such. That's your choice and totally up to you. But if you see after a few weeks that your not losing weight, maybe rethink what you log as exercise.
  • IILikeToMoveItMoveIt
    IILikeToMoveItMoveIt Posts: 1,172 Member
    I think if one is sedentary and chores are not the norm, then yeah ad them... Otherwise not.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    tandabuss wrote: »
    I know that MFP overestimates calories burned for treadmill, elliptical etc. But what about things like lawn mowing, cleaning, walking dog etc.? Anyone know?

    considering those would be even harder to estimate, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that they're probably just shy of actually guessing.

    Personally, I do household chores most days of some kind most days...I have two boys, a wife, and a home with an acre to take care of. It's never a dull moment. Even though I have a desk job, I've always set my activity level to light active due to there always being at least a couple hours worth of chores to be done pretty much daily.

    If I were a sedentary individual I would start doing more chores around the house just to move more...and I would include it in my activity level rather than using some best guestimate from the database...I don't know how anyone could get a remotely accurate estimate of calories burned while doing the dishes for example.
  • mlboyer100
    mlboyer100 Posts: 115 Member
    I'm going out on a limb also, but with evidence! I do a lot of gardening. Strenuous type work, including rotilling, raking, carrying heavy bags of mulch, etc. I always thought that MFP over exaggerated the calories burned so I cut my time in half to compensate. Then I decided to wear my HRM while gardening. To my surprise, I was burning more calories then MFP was allowing! Then I wore the HRM while doing light gardening work. It was much closer to the MFP generated amount. I create a custom exercise with the HRM numbers and now it's a piece of "almost accurate" cake. So without wearing the HRM I just enter my time under the custom gardening exercise. Does that make sense? I assume household chores is about the same.
  • cokefloat1
    cokefloat1 Posts: 86 Member
    Interesting, Ive spent 5.5hrs in the garden today and it says I've burned 1800cals. Eaten normally and feel full so not eating them back but it seemed way over. Maybe I'll try wearing the hrm too...
  • brianpperkins
    brianpperkins Posts: 6,124 Member
    HRMs are not accurate for that type of activity.
  • liftingandlipstick
    liftingandlipstick Posts: 1,857 Member
    brianpperkins wrote: »
    HRMs are not accurate for that type of activity.

    . . . neither is the MFP estimate. They're both off, whichever one you choose to go with is fine. Just be aware that it's not 100% accurate.

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