Everyday calorie burn - add or not to add?

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90210UK
90210UK Posts: 81
in Fitness and Exercise
I notice since I joined this that a lot of members add their daily chores as excercise...

I personally dont count cleaning, or walking 10 minutes up the road or even gardening.

Are these calorie burns worth counting|? Especially if you are going to eat them back? I just count it as normal day to day things and if I do more cleaning on some days then otehrs then its a plus for my home not for my calorie burning...

I only log hard core excerise....

In no way am I saying I am right I just want to knwo how others feel about it...

Do you count your household cleaning as excercise or your brisk walk to the corner shop?

L xxxx

Replies

  • Jillk1023
    Jillk1023 Posts: 121 Member
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    no i dont count those things, just the workouts, but its an intresting question.
  • mgreen10
    mgreen10 Posts: 229 Member
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    No, don't log them unless they are out of the ordinary for you. Walking to get your mail or washing dishes is ordinary.
  • Beaukitty
    Beaukitty Posts: 34 Member
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    I only count things like cleaning if I really break a sweat and have been working for over half an hour. Other than that, it's just a simple task that's not worth it to me. I think it's really just about gauging the effort you put into it and deciding if it's outside your usual regimen. :smile:
  • leahsevilla
    leahsevilla Posts: 127 Member
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    I usually do only on the weekends because I have my settings at sedentary since I have a desk job. On the weekends I'm moving around constantly instead of sitting for 8 hrs/day so I'll log a little extra if I clean for a long time etc. Otherwise I just track my gym sessions, runs, and if i go for a fast walk. I think it's a personal preference. If you have your settings set at something higher than, you shouldnt log the extra. etc.
  • jgranger221
    jgranger221 Posts: 48
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    If you don't want to eat them back, you can always enter the activities and then zero out the calories. The main reason to record them is to make yourself aware of what you are doing, which encourages you to do more. (At least that's the way it works for me) I don''t bother recording anything under 20 minutes in duration, otherwise I'd spend all day on MFP :-)
  • 90210UK
    90210UK Posts: 81
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    yes thats what I thought guys... would it not be only fooling yourself??? Especially for those that religiously eat their calories back, they are only then eating excess of their goal...
  • gumonyershoe
    gumonyershoe Posts: 20
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    I put it in when I do a major cleaning binge like more than just cleaning up after myself or whatever. When I have my big weekly (or biweekly) cleaning fest or if I'm doing something more in depth than I usually do. Or if I know that I'm not going to get to go to the gym or do any other working out. It isn't necessarily to give me something to "eat back" as I rarely actually eat my exercise calories back. But if I do end up being hungrier than usual then I will feel like it's OK to eat a little over my normal calorie allotments because I have the exercise calories.

    If I cleaned hard core every day, no, I wouldn't count it probably. But when I do it occasionally it's nice to see that I did have some physical activity other than my sitting at a desk either at work or at home.

    I don't know if it's "right" or "wrong" either, but since MFP gives an option for cleaning, I figure why not?
  • emmyvera
    emmyvera Posts: 599 Member
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    Hey all! :smile:

    I'm one of those people who log in chores and walks. :laugh:

    However, I don't log every day normal stuff. Every day I do dishes, laundry and walk the dog.
    BUT if I take the dog for a really long walk/or he wants to run, or I clean out my car for an hour, spend 2 hours mulching in the yard.... then I log those in. Anything that is out of the ordinary and takes an extended amount of time.
  • sharleengc
    sharleengc Posts: 792 Member
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    I only count it if it's a weekly chore that is time consuming and a workout in itself. For example: mowing the lawn or shoveling snow from the sidewalk. I don't really add inside house chores because I move from one to the other so quickly or back and forth it'd be hard to add
  • ejmcam
    ejmcam Posts: 533 Member
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    I never log that stuff, unless I work up a sweat doing something I hardly ever do (like once a year I help my husband rake up leaves and acorns in the yard and its hard work....that I will log, but will only take credit for like half the calories) and if I go for a longer than usual walk wit the kids, i will log that...but not your day to day stuff. I'm sure i burn calories walking to my mailbox....or chasing my son around the yard when we are playing....but I dont count ot.
  • ktieman
    ktieman Posts: 45 Member
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    For me I am extremely over weight, single mother of two; it's very hard to fit traditional "exercise" into my day. I do count gardening, and heavy duty housecleaning in my calorie burn; not the housecleaning that you are picking up the normal everyday stuff, but the hard at it working up a sweat and actually burning house cleaning. I have tried the treadmill and bikes, and even the gym; but with everything else to do in the day I just kep pushing it to the back burner. Now when I am out in 95 degree heat pulling weeds, digging up and re-planting flowers, mowing the grass, and so on; yes, to me that is worth calculatng into my mfp stats. I am working up a sweat and using my muscles.

    The other side of that is if I were 150 pounds and could actually run on the treadmill with out embarrassment and pain; then you will see more of that documented in my daily exercise.:laugh:
  • SusiB60
    SusiB60 Posts: 104 Member
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    I think it depends on the lifestyle you have set as your default. Ie if you set lifestyle as very sedentary, then walking etc would count as exercise.
    If your default lifestyle is normally active though, your daily calorie allowance would already be higher to reflect that you generally burn more cals.
  • sassenachtiff
    sassenachtiff Posts: 53
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    I only log non-workouts (like cleaning) if I break a sweat.
  • kellyscomeback
    kellyscomeback Posts: 1,369 Member
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    No, don't log them unless they are out of the ordinary for you. Walking to get your mail or washing dishes is ordinary.

    Same here, I don't log things that are my usual. If I was to garden, really knuckle down and clean the house, go for a walk or prep dinners (I cook a months dinners in a week, it's a lot of prep) I will log it. Walking to the mail box, playing with my toddler or folding laundry isn't logged.
  • pyro13g
    pyro13g Posts: 1,127 Member
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    If you use sedentary as your activity level when determining base calories needs, you can add/track all non sedentary activity. So, if I choose sedentary and then work 8 hours putting up a fence, then yeah, it can be counted. if I vacuumed I would count mine since it's a 140 calorie burn for me. But, it can be real time consuming to track all those little things so No thanks.
  • sarah307
    sarah307 Posts: 1,363 Member
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    IT DEPENDS ON WHAT YOUR SETTINGS ARE SET TO.
    if you have them set to "sedentary" but you are not sedentary... then i'd add cleaning and such. (personally, if i do 30 mins of hardcore cleaning - i'll add 10 mins. but I don't count the little stuff)

    but if you have your settings set to "lightly active" or more then those things are already added into your daily burn
  • wonnder1
    wonnder1 Posts: 460
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    Personally, I only count it if I do it with the intention of burning calories. The problem with counting chores etc. is that you don't raise your heart rate. Sorry, I'm a crazy cleaner, and my heart rate is NOT in the 140s no matter what I do. 8 hours gardening, would be a workout-but again, you don't spend the entire time doing it. You take breaks, you sit down etc.

    Everyone is entitled to their own opinion on this, but I think they're lying to themselves a bit.
  • thedreamhazer
    thedreamhazer Posts: 1,156 Member
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    I count walks with a round trip of a mile or more. But, I take a lot of walks as a part of my exercise (my boyfriend and I take hour long walks a few evenings a week).
    I never really count chores, though, unless I'm at it for a few hours. But you better believe that if I'm scrubbing up the kitchen for 3 hours (or worse --- packing and cleaning to move for an entire day) I count some of it! I find the calorie burn on here for those activities a little generous, though, so I multiply by 0.7 for cleaning to make it what I believe is more realistic for me.


    --- EDIT ---
    Also, I try to disclude the breaks. If I'm cleaning from 1pm-4pm on the weekend, I'm probably only actually cleaning for 2 hours of it with all of the breaks!
  • 90210UK
    90210UK Posts: 81
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    everyone seems to be different. I just think I'd be fooling myself tbh....

    MFP seems to be very generous with the calories burned for cleaning etc as when I clean I do so vigorously but no way doenst by heart beat rise enough to burnt that amount of calories....
  • H_82
    H_82 Posts: 418 Member
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    I only count my actual workouts....when I'm sweating & wearing my hrm. I figure everything else is just a bonus (gardening, cleaning, etc)

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