Do you log cleaning as an exercise?

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HealthyKatty
HealthyKatty Posts: 24 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Basically title. I've seen you can add cleaning as an exercise, but it seems a bit weird to log it as one?
Thoughts would be appreciated.
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Replies

  • ashleyconleche
    ashleyconleche Posts: 78 Member
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    I don't since it's part of my normal daily activities.
  • helpfit1002
    helpfit1002 Posts: 16 Member
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    On the site it determines your daily calories in-take on how active you tell it you are every day and how much / quick you would like to lose. For example: lightly active or active (postman or waitress).

    Presumably you clean every week and calories are not huge either. So it kind of smoothes into "lightly active" or "active".

    However, if you are going to help someone clean out their house before they move and you spend a full day on it sweating and huffing and puffing, you could count it as exercise, because it is incidental and not negligible.
  • HealthyKatty
    HealthyKatty Posts: 24 Member
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    Haha i couldn't imagine logging in all those calories from wiping my electronics! Though I was more thinking of if you did a 3 hour house cleaning session.
  • CharlieBeansmomTracey
    CharlieBeansmomTracey Posts: 7,682 Member
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    maybe if you did spring cleaning and cleaned all day and cleaned from top to bottom,or sorted stuff into boxes and moved the boxes then sure. but if its stuff you do every day or even once a week I would say no dont count it unless you let everything go and do it all once a week lol.
  • mmmpork
    mmmpork Posts: 133 Member
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    I do because I clean every week and spend about an hour working up a pretty good sweat. I give myself 50 calories for it due to stopping and starting. I don't use the calories MFP provides by default for any of my activities and I use the absolute lowest sedentary setting for my base calories. Based on my weight loss trajectory and my food amounts (equated roughly to calories as a heuristic because calories determined this way are inaccurate), I've found at best I can declare 150 calories in physical exercise without blowing my deficit. This includes 30 minutes of front-crawl lap swimming. Seriously, these calorie claims are bald-faced lies. Use the data you can accurately measure, your food intake quantity, your weight, and how long you sustained an activity. You can also use heart rate to gauge intensity if you have a device that accurately measures it. That's about all those fancy pants fitness trackers are actually good at ;) All things being more or less equal, if I eat more than 150 calories on lap swiming or pilates reformer days, esp if they are consecutive, my weight loss trajectory is impacted. Do the same for yourself and be as sciency as possible, and you'll be able to figure out your own ratios!
  • VeronicaA76
    VeronicaA76 Posts: 1,116 Member
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    Only if it's something not part of my normal routine. Things such as cleaning out my garage, or stripping and rewaxing my tile, I log. Normal chores: nope that's part of my activity level.
  • SCoil123
    SCoil123 Posts: 2,108 Member
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    I don't
  • azulvioleta6
    azulvioleta6 Posts: 4,196 Member
    edited September 2017
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    Only if it is super heavy cleaning involving things like moving furniture, shampooing carpets and going up and down lots of stairs. I have sometimes logged my spring and fall deep cleaning, but only if I am working extremely hard.
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
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    I don't, It's part of my normal everyday activty.
    Plus, i live in a normal size house, not a multi room/level mansion that would require hours everyday to keep clean and tidy.
  • EJBarner
    EJBarner Posts: 68 Member
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    Not usually if it's cleaning that's part of my daily routine. However, I've added it a few times for mega-cleaning days where I do considerably more active cleaning than unusual. We had a guest coming to stay this week, which meant me scrubbing the bathroom from top to bottom, emptying out the spare bedroom closet, and getting down on my hands and knees to get every bit of hidden gunk out of the corners of my kitchen. By the end, I'd worked up quite a sweat!

    Even then, though, I try to limit what I log to the really 'active' parts of that cleaning, though. For example, on Saturday I cleaned for at least 5 hours but only put down 1 hour of cleaning to capture just the really intense stuff.
  • spyro88
    spyro88 Posts: 472 Member
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    No, I only log exercise that I do for the sake of exercising. Cleaning is just incidental and I'd have done it anyway.
  • jjpptt2
    jjpptt2 Posts: 5,650 Member
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    I do not. For me, I've noticed that "incidental activity" has very little impact on my overall TDEE. Things like walking, cleaning, etc doesn't mean much in the big picture, so I only log things that I do specifically for exercise and specifically to challenge/better myself.

    But that's me, there are lots of ways to be successful here.
  • ACanadian22
    ACanadian22 Posts: 377 Member
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    I don't log my house cleaning...but I did notice that there is no painting one and that sure seems to move my muscles. I don't have a fitbit so would sure love to know if I am burning while painting
  • jjpptt2
    jjpptt2 Posts: 5,650 Member
    edited September 2017
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    ACanadian22 wrote: »
    I don't log my house cleaning...but I did notice that there is no painting one and that sure seems to move my muscles. I don't have a fitbit so would sure love to know if I am burning while painting

    You're burning constantly, even when you are sitting on the couch watching TV. So it's not a question of whether or not you're burning, it's whether or not you're burning enough to matter. When you think about finances, do you consider the change that fell down between the couch cushions? What about under the seat in your car? It's the same kind of thing.
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,576 Member
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    I would only log it if it was a big job, like cleaning out the garage or attic, or a whole house spring cleaning.
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,627 Member
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    i got fat while cleaning. its not gonna help me lose ....

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