Do you log cleaning as an exercise?

HealthyKatty
HealthyKatty Posts: 24 Member
edited November 21 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
    I don't since it's part of my normal daily activities.
  • helpfit1002
    helpfit1002 Posts: 16 Member
    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
    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
    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
    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
    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: 2,111 Member
    I don't
  • azulvioleta6
    azulvioleta6 Posts: 4,195 Member
    edited September 2017
    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
    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
    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
    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
    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
    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
    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: 13,575 Member
    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: 8,626 Member
    i got fat while cleaning. its not gonna help me lose ....
  • cqbkaju
    cqbkaju Posts: 1,011 Member
    edited September 2017
    No. Cleaning is part of your daily activity level; LOW at best if you put in 2 or 3 hours a day EVERY day.
    It is easy to fall into a trap of logging any exercise as burning far more calories that it actually did.
    Logging mere activity as "exercise" is a different problem.

    If you didn't need to stop to catch your breath occasionally and/or if you could follow a magazine article or TV show while doing it then you are probably not "exercising" hard enough for it to count as such.
  • beerfoamy
    beerfoamy Posts: 1,520 Member
    I log cleaning/gardening if it is a deep clean of 2-3 hours. But I only usually put it in as 60mins whatever it actually took.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    edited September 2017
    If I were employed as a cleaner I'd have a more active daily setting than being employed with a desk job. If I logged back exercise (I use TDEE method) and had a rare crazy cleaning session (cleaning a house all day to put it for sale or something), sure, I might log it and eat back some extra calories.

    Mostly I wouldn't.

    If you use a Fitbit any cleaning will end up being part of your daily calories, though, and I did do that for a while. My guess is that MFP cleaning estimates are overly high.
  • seltzermint555
    seltzermint555 Posts: 10,740 Member
    I assume estimates are pretty high for ALL exercise (and I don't use a fitbit or anything like that). So I always tend to under-log a little bit, unless it's moderate walk/jogs or strenuous hiking and then I do log it with the actual time spent.

    However...I DO log cleaning house. I'm set to sedentary because I have an office job. I don't log things like prepping meals and loading the dishwasher or picking up clutter. I DO log my vacuuming, scrubbing bathrooms, dusting entire rooms & baseboards, or cleaning out my car for an hour and hand detailing it.

    I've been successful with my goals on MFP and have used it for over 4 years. So this has worked well for me. I think it's good to do whatever is working for you.

    But I DO know of people here who log like "burned 900 calories doing 10 minutes of bicycle riding, leisurely" (I made that up of course but it's similar)...and never lose and complain :open_mouth:
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,423 Member
    Unless it is unusual heavy effort I don't log it.
    Unusual to me would be like cleaning a flooded basement.
  • ritzvin
    ritzvin Posts: 2,860 Member
    I would say that several hours and up of spring cleaning for someone set to sedentary would be valid to log. It would at least be akin to a jump in activity level from sedentary (ie desk job) to lightly active (ie teacher/other job that has someone on their feet all day but not doing physical labor) for that day. For an activity level above sedentary, probably not. <1hr of washing the dishes/a little vacuuming/etc, probably not.
  • NEOHgirl
    NEOHgirl Posts: 237 Member
    edited September 2017
    I don't for daily things like washing dishes, but when I do a deeper cleaning, that has me up and moving for an hour or more that I'd normally be sitting down watching tv or reading, I'll count it. I live by myself, so I don't have to do that sort of cleaning more than once a month. It's not part of my daily calorie expenditure. Besides, my body tracks it as activity even if I don't, and I'd rather my diary be closer to accurate later when I use it to analyze my results for the week or month.

    ETA: My normal activity level is set to SEDENTARY. Logging the big cleaning sessions, not the small ones, has helped me to lose 40# since joining MFP 20 months ago. I am very careful with food logging though, and don't eat back all of my exercise calories.
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,267 Member
    edited September 2017
    nope..and I am one of those who doesn't log "out of the ordinary" life tasks either. Like throwing in the wood that I will be doing next weekend.

    I have a fitbit and it does track it and I am glad I never logged those things because it really never amounts to much more than my normal daily activity anyway.

    For example Saturday I typically run errands (take recycling back) get groceries, prep meals and do laundry....

    and if I have time a walk...I got 12444 steps in....next saturday I won't be doing the above I will be throwing wood in...I doubt I will get that many steps in...and I might work my arms a bit more but I can't see it like any cleaning I might do could be any more taxing than that...

    Just my opinion...

  • bobshuckleberry
    bobshuckleberry Posts: 281 Member
    I do when I clean/organize for other people (which is one of the side jobs I picked up) and if I do something out of the ordinary like walls or other heavy cleaning that does increase my heart rate and cause me to sweat.
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,267 Member
    bobshuckleberry wrote: »
    I do when I clean/organize for other people (which is one of the side jobs I picked up) and if I do something out of the ordinary like walls or other heavy cleaning that does increase my heart rate and cause me to sweat.

    sweating is not a good indicator of effort or energy expenditure.

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