Im new here and have a question.....

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shellybaish
shellybaish Posts: 6
in Health and Weight Loss
I'm new here and new to the dieting world. I have a simple question Im hoping someone can answer for me. Can we use house-cleaning as excersice? If so, how many calories do we calculate as burned, in doind so? Obviously, when vaccuming, dusting, moving furniture, we must burn something, right?

Just trying to get the most out of this program, as I can. I want to do everything possible to be sure I do not fail. This is scary for me, because I never really dieted before and I'm trying to lose 30 lbs.


Thanks for the help !

shellybaish

Replies

  • shellybaish
    shellybaish Posts: 6
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    I'm new here and new to the dieting world. I have a simple question Im hoping someone can answer for me. Can we use house-cleaning as excersice? If so, how many calories do we calculate as burned, in doind so? Obviously, when vaccuming, dusting, moving furniture, we must burn something, right?

    Just trying to get the most out of this program, as I can. I want to do everything possible to be sure I do not fail. This is scary for me, because I never really dieted before and I'm trying to lose 30 lbs.


    Thanks for the help !

    shellybaish
  • Eve23
    Eve23 Posts: 2,352 Member
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    I don't generally use house cleaning as exercise unless its really heavy cleaning that I am doing. However you can find it under the "Exercise" tab then under cardio portion.

    I don't recall the amount but its not difficult to look it up.

    Best of luck Shelly.
  • kkylstad
    kkylstad Posts: 75
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    I'm new here and new to the dieting world. I have a simple question Im hoping someone can answer for me. Can we use house-cleaning as excersice? If so, how many calories do we calculate as burned, in doind so? Obviously, when vaccuming, dusting, moving furniture, we must burn something, right?

    Just trying to get the most out of this program, as I can. I want to do everything possible to be sure I do not fail. This is scary for me, because I never really dieted before and I'm trying to lose 30 lbs.


    Thanks for the help !

    shellybaish
    http://www.caloriesperhour.com/index_burn.php
    go to this website and it will tell you how many calories you burn for pretty much everything. even house cleaning.:happy:
  • shellybaish
    shellybaish Posts: 6
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    Wow!!! Thanks for the website info. There is stuff on there I would have never imagined !
    I'll be sure to put it in my favorites !!
  • lotusfromthemud
    lotusfromthemud Posts: 5,335 Member
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    But, if you clean every single day, you should count it under "activity" and not cardio.

    So, when you set up your goals, instead of sedentary, click "lightly active" (or whatever the next thing up is)

    I have heard a rumour that there are people on the planet who clean every day. I find this as exotic as the continent of Atlantis.:tongue:

    Since I only clean once a week (or sometimes twice) I count it as "housework, moderate effort". It wins you a surprising amount of calories.

    :flowerforyou:
  • catlover
    catlover Posts: 389
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    But, if you clean every single day, you should count it under "activity" and not cardio.

    So, when you set up your goals, instead of sedentary, click "lightly active" (or whatever the next thing up is)

    I have heard a rumour that there are people on the planet who clean every day. I find this as exotic as the continent of Atlantis.:tongue:

    Since I only clean once a week (or sometimes twice) I count it as "housework, moderate effort". It wins you a surprising amount of calories.

    :flowerforyou:

    I so agree with these comments. I used to be a professional housekeeper, you know the kind where people actually pay money for you to do what you do for your family for free only they are more appreciative than your family....:laugh: And I was a waitress at night. YIKES!! :tongue: Now I have a housekeeper that comes every two weeks and tidies things for me and cleans the bathrooms and vacuums. The weeks in between I"m on my own. We've been doing some remodeling and our roommates just moved out yesterday so I have some rearranging and cleaning to do. I do not count dish washing or laundry but I definitely count some of it. I look at it this way, any day I have to carry the vacuum up or down the stairs, I'm probably doing housework, moderate effort, because I'm also moving the furniture around, taking out trash, etc and we have a three story house so I climb a lot of steps when I clean. We have 5 acres, and heat with a wood stove also, so you bet I add the days I chop and stack wood or run the tractor to pick up brush.
  • shellybaish
    shellybaish Posts: 6
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    ok, thx for the help. However, Im still confused. Exactly, where do I find "activity", rather than cardio?
    LOL I feel like such a virgin to this.
  • DianneLynn
    DianneLynn Posts: 156 Member
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    Mine might be the total unpopular comment here...but I always thought exercise was defined by raising your heart rate...and if you can sustain an elevated heart rate while doing normal day to day cleaning, I am cleaning my house the wrong way.:laugh:

    Granted...cleaning your house vs. sitting on the couch watching TV....Cleaning keeps ya moving.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exercise
  • catlover
    catlover Posts: 389
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    I agree with your comment about the heart rate. I don't usually add the regular every day things like making dinner, or walking down to check the mail, doing dishes, folding laundry, grocery shopping, etc. And I don't always add in carrying firewood in to the pile. Some days chores just pile up and everything needs my attention on the same day and I feel like I have to choose between chores and exercise, so I enter the chores to calculate the calories, but only if I'm working up a sweat by chopping a cord of wood or hauling the vacuum up and down the 3 levels. Because of the wood smoke, I move a lot of furniture and it seems like I work at a pretty moderate level. Today, I have to move a steel bedframe to downstairs and put the bed back together, and I have to move a refrigerator and take out some big bags of trash. Even if I don't add in the calories burned as exercise, I might pull them up to see what it is. Occassionally, just for fun, I'll look up everything on the site that I do in a day and see what my real expenditure might be. If I did these things each day, I'd definitely change my settings to a higher level.
  • lotusfromthemud
    lotusfromthemud Posts: 5,335 Member
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    ok, thx for the help. However, Im still confused. Exactly, where do I find "activity", rather than cardio?
    LOL I feel like such a virgin to this.

    When you set your goals, you have to decide how generally active you are, then it adjusts your calories accordingly.

    So, if you are very active during the day, you shouldn't call yourself "sedentary" here. I kept a little notebook "activity diary" for a week and then wore a pedometer for a few days to check. Lots of people with young kids are NOT sedentary, right?

    Just on "my home" click "goals" , "change goals" and "guided" and you can check where you're set there.

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