Should You Really Log Housework?

Every one or two weeks I"ll skip working out to do a few hours of more thorough housecleaning and I log it. It feels great to forego the intense exercise for a day of cleaning. I do a half hour or an hour of some sort of cleaning a day and I don't log that.

It depends on how you have your account set. Since I have a desk job and enjoy many sedentary activities at home, I have my profile set for sedentary. That does not account for anything I'd consider housework. (I'm not talking about something like a couple minutes spend loading the dishwasher, but something like sweeping the downstairs.)

I used to be a bit skeptical about logging such things. But now that I have a Bodybugg it shows me how much I actually burn doing things like housework. It can really add up. My biggest burn day ever, TDEE of 2800 calories, did not include any deliberate exercise. I spent a few hours sweeping, mopping, and cooking for a party. If I hadn't logged any of those calories and only eaten my base of 1280, I'd have had a deficit of nearly 1500 calories. That's way too much since I only need to lose 15 to 20 more pounds. At the stage I'm at now it's important to not have too big of a deficit on a regular basis. So now I log such things more often to keep me on track with a 500 calorie deficit per day.

I got fat doing housework, didn't I? It's not suddenly going to make me skinny just because I'm logging it. It's part of your normal routine. The only way you should log this kind of thing, in my opinion, is if you set your daily burn as zero and also log exercises such as breathing and digesting.

Wow! This post hits the nail right on the head as to why I don't log housework or other activities. I only log an activity if it requires me to put on a sports bra lol. If you look up fishing while sitting on a boat, it calculates me at 600 calories burned for 3 hours of sitting on my duff fishing...um my bf does this every weekend and his belly says otherwise.

I think if you want to track it with a HRM just to see what it burns or something, that's fine, but to log it with the plan to eat the calories back, it seems like you'd be cheating yourself. As others said, its part of your normal routine, and something you'd be doing all along.

I only count exercise where I'm specifically doing something I consider a real work out! Did some heavy duty yardwork (trimming trees and dragging huge heavy branches across about an acre of yard to our fire pit) earlier this year, and I didn't even count that. I just thought of it as a bonus!

I logged it once, when we were moving the triplets from the nursery to the big room and spent the whole day carrying boxes taking downand putting up furniture and fending off 4 excited kids all by myself. I logged half the time it took and felt I deserved it but I did also workout that day!

If I logged housework I'd feel like I was cheating. Its just stuff I do. Its stuff I've always done. My ironing takes 5-6 hours every sunday night and I don't log that either. What next? Office workers logging every walk to the bathroom during the day as miles walked?

I would say 'why?"

The ONLY reason I could see would be if you are desperate to complete your day under-calorie goal and you ABSOLUTELY cannot workout and the housework duties will get you to that goal.

Once in a while I do log house work. But Im doing serious gone crazy cleaning like husband and kids want to go hide cleaning.. moving furniture and totally breaking a sweat

I would say 'why?"

The ONLY reason I could see would be if you are desperate to complete your day under-calorie goal and you ABSOLUTELY cannot workout and the housework duties will get you to that goal.

Some people are very heavy and can't move around very well. If they are counting their housework as exercise, it probably IS exercise to them. When you've been completely sedentary, even a little bit of housework goes a long way towards getting your body moving again.

I guess I just feel like to each their own. If someone wants to count it as their daily exercise, who am *I* to judge? I don't live their life. For some people simple things that the rest of us take for granted are very difficult for them to achieve.

So many people have said, why log something you do every day anyway? well personally I DON'T clean house every day or even every week. I have someone come in twice a month a do deep cleaning, otherwise it's just pick up the crap for me. So if I spend 2-3 hours deep cleaning my house at MY size, then h#ll yes I would log it.

some of you need to realize that not everyone is in the same place in this journey as you. This conversation is very demeaning and demoralizing to those who feel a sense of accomplishment by being able to just get up and move around and push a vacuum or clean a toilet. Have some compassion.

I would say 'why?"

The ONLY reason I could see would be if you are desperate to complete your day under-calorie goal and you ABSOLUTELY cannot workout and the housework duties will get you to that goal.

Some people are very heavy and can't move around very well. If they are counting their housework as exercise, it probably IS exercise to them. When you've been completely sedentary, even a little bit of housework goes a long way towards getting your body moving again.

I guess I just feel like to each their own. If someone wants to count it as their daily exercise, who am *I* to judge? I don't live their life. For some people simple things that the rest of us take for granted are very difficult for them to achieve.

So many people have said, why log something you do every day anyway? well personally I DON'T clean house every day or even every week. I have someone come in twice a month a do deep cleaning, otherwise it's just pick up the crap for me. So if I spend 2-3 hours deep cleaning my house at MY size, then h#ll yes I would log it.

some of you need to realize that not everyone is in the same place in this journey as you. This conversation is very demeaning and demoralizing to those who feel a sense of accomplishment by being able to just get up and move around and push a vacuum or clean a toilet. Have some compassion.

I agree 100%. You never know what is going on in someone else's life. Someone commented earlier in the thread that they did housework and got fat. Well, I know people who go to the gym and workout - yet they are still fat. They are fat because of their food choices. Plain and simple. Anyone will tell you that you can't "work out" a bad diet.

I wouldn't bother getting flaming mad over what someone else is doing. You can send them a polite message asking for their reasoning, or just unfriend them or hide their posts. No need to get your knickers in a twist!

Exactly. I don't understand why people are so "annoyed" by what others log. I have friends who log 15 minute - 45 calorie burned walks and it doesn't annoy me in the least. I don't give them a "wtg!" like I would a 300 calorie burn, but I don't have a problem with them counting it either.

As for me OP, I don't clean daily and if you do, that should be included in your activity level. I tidy up daily but I don't consider that cleaning, but when I do clean, it's usually for a few hours and I'll log it, for sure.