Do you consider this exercise?

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  • ansata
    ansata Posts: 52
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    because my job is related to cleaning and some things I do on here is not listed. I try to log most of my movements just to see If I am actually burning more calories that what I need to burn. A calorie is a calorie is a calorie. By logging everything you can see where you need to burn more.
  • adevereux
    adevereux Posts: 17 Member
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    Can I ask why this is so important to any of us to discuss is depth, unless it's answer a question from someone wanting help or support. We aren't on this site to be judged or accused of cheating...at the end of the day we can only hold ourselves accountable, and if someone wants to count cleaning or anything then why not, it's up them to recognize whether or not they are losing or not and what they need to do differently. I don't want to be preachy, I clicked on the post as I like to give advice where it's asked to anyone wanting support as I think that's why we're all her to give and receive support, was a bit disappointed to see the way the topic carried through. No one here has to defend themselves and I felt badly when I started to see that happening.
  • cryspetstalerson
    cryspetstalerson Posts: 147
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    I have Rheumatoid Arthritis and Fibromyalgia and lost 90lbs in a two year period--yep you guessed it by cleaning and doing daily activities. These are the things I'm physically capable of doing on a paced schedule. I didn't step into a gym or break a sweat! I guess it all depends on the person. You bet I'm going to log that! As long as my two feet are moving and my A&& isn't planted on the couch I KNOW I'm losing!


    Amen! Same with me. I have MS, and there are many days that I cannot get out of bed at all. And oftentimes when I can get about a bit, my feet are so numb I can't tell where they are without looking, and they feel as if they weigh 5000#! I dare someone to tell me that spending 30 minutes putting things away and walking from room to room cleaning (loading dishwasher, switching loads of laundry, cleaning bathroom, etc) isn't exercise! It takes effort to walk when it seems like you're wearing cement loafers. I wouldn't log this every day, but I also don't do this every day. It's a real accomplishment for me to be able to do things like cook for my family and keep the house tidy for a day. I enjoy the sense of accomplishment I get from seeing a list of what I've done. I rarely eat the extra calories I earn from exercise, as I get such a thrill out of closing the day's diary with calories remaining. I just started on this site a few days ago, but I am motivated to keep seeing every night that I am under my calories limit.
    You should not care, much less judge, another because of what they deem is exercise. You never know what kinds of hurdles they have to jump through to get those things accomplished. If you don't think it's exercise, then-- don't log it as exercise on your diary. To each his own.

    That was my point, I have Endometriosis, PCOS and the doctors think I have fibromyalgia. I am in pain amost 24/7. I am lucky to have good weeks let alone good days where I can get up and actually do a major workout. . If I log something as exercise, it is because it isn' t my daily norm.
  • KA29
    KA29 Posts: 54
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    I often log cleaning if I know i am going to be cleaning for more than an hour, which is about 2-3 times a week. This is in addition to my normal workouts, which are 4-6 days a week. I have a toddler so like to make sure our house is clean, especially during flu / cold season and I am always picking up after him each night. When it comes to dishes or folding laundry though, I don't log. Just the dusting, vacuuming, mopping, picking up and putting toys away (nice way to work squats into your routine) I log. Again, only when I know it's going to be a nice clean that will take a while.
  • theoneandonlybrookie
    theoneandonlybrookie Posts: 341 Member
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    I don't count anything I do at work or home as exercise but I will say this. I took a part- time job cocktail waitressing in the fall to earn extra cash. I didn't log it as exercise and I never really broke a sweat but I lost a bunch of weight just from walking lap after lap fetching drinks. While I enjoy doing high intensity workouts that cause me to sweat, and that's what I personally log, I don't think it's the only way to do it. Just moving around will help.
  • cryspetstalerson
    cryspetstalerson Posts: 147
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    I also don't understand the mentality of, "I only count it if it was for 30 minutes or more." So if you went out and ran two 6 minute miles, you wouldn't log that? Come on. That's just ridiculous.


    For me and my medical issues, I will count any cleaning past 10 or 15 minutes, but any running, jogging or all that I do .... every minute counts. Then again, it would be a miracle if I could get up to run a mile in 6 minutes lol. But yeah, everyones body is different so exercise for those bodies will be different as well.
  • jayliospecky
    jayliospecky Posts: 25,022 Member
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    I use to have an *opinion* about things like this. "Grocery shopping? Really? That's exercise now, lazy bones?" But you know what? If that person is achieving their goals, well, um, I will just pat them on the back and say well done. Because that's how I'd like to be treated in return.

    If they ask my opinion, I'll tell them what *I* do and why. Then they can decide for themselves what they want to do. But if they don't ask? Well, they'll figure out, through trial and error, whether it works for them or not. No judgment or evaulation from me needed.

    ...And everybody's happy.

    You win for profile pic that I can't stop staring at today.

    Plus, good points, etc. etc.

    Your off-topic comments are cracking me up! And thanks!

    You're welcome! You've also started a debate in our house as to what the cat's cute little hat is made out of. Do you know the answer?
  • jennmoore3
    jennmoore3 Posts: 1,015 Member
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    I'm sure I'm going to make a big fuss over this but I feel it's something I must share........do you consider cooking, cleaning, walking to and from kitchen, bathroom etc in your house and other daily activities exercise????

    I don't understand that completely.......Anything I have to do/regularly do in a day I don't count as exercise........Cooking myself dinner isn't exercise, I have to eat to live and I'd be doing it anyway.......cleaning my house is something I have to do unless I want mice and ants everywhere and walking to the kitchen and bathroom and back........it just doesn't make sense to me?

    I am here to lose weight, and if I was to count every step I took or every movement I made as exercise I'd be cheating myself......the only time I consider any of those things exercise is when I'm like scrubbing the floor with a brush or shoveling snow because I break a sweat with those...........

    I guess I just needed to put my 2 cents in on the subject.......

    No, I don't. I also laugh at people who log taking out the trash, or cleaning.

    I feel like they're just being lazy, hoping that that'll count towards exercise so they don't actually have to get their *kitten* in gear.


    Breaking a sweat doesn't relate to losing weight all the time. Sweating is just your body's cooling system. If you're wrapped up in a jacket shoveling snow, is your heart rate really over 100? You're just warm b/c you're not sitting still outside in the cold, so your body is cooling itself.

    I hardly sweat at the gym, but I can knock out 600 calories rather quickly

    I count cleaning IF I am totally gutting the kids rooms, moving furniture or doing some serious raking leaves. I do have a HRM, and I wear it if I am in question. For fun one day I wore it to brush my dogs. I have large labs, 93 and 106 pounds. They hate it like some days it takes 2 people to do it. I rarely brush them because of the hassle. Anyways, my HR was in the 150 for 9 minutes, then I gave up on 1 dog. SO, point being sometimes cleaning and doing other things we do not do everyday IS a workout, but I only count it if my HR gets past 140.
  • BeckaT79
    BeckaT79 Posts: 216
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    I actually do... When I clean I usually clean pretty hardcore. A lot of moving stuff around and dancing while I do it. I only usually put it down for half the time I clean. (If I clean two hours I log it as one). To me it is movement that I don't do on a consistent basis (I only clean once a week the rest of the week is straightening) so yes it is exercise and I do sweat. Great question :-)
    I am also a firm believer in if you are logging false information in your journal you are cheating no one but yourself, so if you really didn't work that hard to be considered cleaning you won't have the results you are looking for.
  • PatasDeGallina
    PatasDeGallina Posts: 155 Member
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    I track just about anything I do. I also eat all those calories if I can. All of them. Good lord I love food.

    Cooking dinner (I usually make dinner at least once a night but more often twice), cleaning (some days I might clean for hours doing all sorts of activities), walking (usually in 10 min intervals around campus between classes), and sometimes driving (ok that was a road trip), I have been known to track.

    And I don't feel cheated. And my weightloss is still happening. *knocks on wood* I also track bow chicka wow wow. Even if I'm on bottom. Nope, 78 lbs down, I don't feel cheated. BOO YEAH!!

    Ok, y'all have fun with figuring out what you need to do for yourself and not worrying about anyone else. I'mma go eat something.
  • Symphony6
    Symphony6 Posts: 116 Member
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    About 15 years ago, I started working at a college cleaning dorms on the weekends. It involved a lot of hard work and climbing stairs over and over. It didn't even occur to me that I might lose weight, but I lost 38lbs in 6 months with no other changes. That being said, I don't think a quick clean up really counts. I don't think doing anything for less than 10 minutes is significant enough to be posted, but a sweat-inducing deep clean? Heck yeah. Especially if it's done for hours.
  • Macrocarpa
    Macrocarpa Posts: 121 Member
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    I thought that the premise of MFP measuring resting calories or calories in general was based around the energy used to move an object, even if that object is your body?

    Work (joules) = force (newtons) x distance (metres), right? So all you need is an estimate of the force and distances required to do housework - ie scrubbing, lifting, wiping, etc - and you can work out how many joules per kilogram per hour...which is where the calculation comes from.
  • jennifershoo
    jennifershoo Posts: 3,198 Member
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    I log everything I do because 90% of the time I'm sitting on my *kitten* in front of my laptop (like right now). I log SHOPPING, DRIVING (sometimes), WALKING.

    Every been shopping for 3 hours at a time walking around in circles because the Paper Products are on the complete opposite side of the store than the Hardware section. Or Dairy isn't as close as you would like to the Frozen Food Section. And god forbid you forget someone and end up having to walk all the way back to the back of the store only to realize they are out of stock on that item.

    Maybe that's just me. Still, I don't care if anyone "laughs" at me. Cause the more they laugh at me the more I realize they're spending too much time worrying what I'M doing with MY time. Internet people are just that, INTERNET PEOPLE. I like to pretend they're all mildly intelligent computers programmed to interact with humans.

    Your post is very offending towards ''internet people'' yet you don't want anyone to laugh at you. Ummm. What you describe is called LIFE! People go to the store all the time and guess what? They have to walk around to find what they need! And you log ''driving''. Yeah ok, enough said.
  • cakeums
    cakeums Posts: 231 Member
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    I also don't understand the mentality of, "I only count it if it was for 30 minutes or more." So if you went out and ran two 6 minute miles, you wouldn't log that? Come on. That's just ridiculous.


    For me and my medical issues, I will count any cleaning past 10 or 15 minutes, but any running, jogging or all that I do .... every minute counts. Then again, it would be a miracle if I could get up to run a mile in 6 minutes lol. But yeah, everyones body is different so exercise for those bodies will be different as well.

    I have RA and some other non-RA pain issues, so I totally understand. Some days I feel great and can do things like go walk at a 4.0 pace for an hour, or do an hour of workout videos (cause I can't afford a gym membership), and then some days even just sitting on the couch or laying in bed hurts. I take what I can get. I'm fat because I eat too much. Maybe that's not the case for everyone, but it is for me. If I want to log something as exercise for my own reference, then I will.
  • abax5755
    abax5755 Posts: 3
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    I tend to post all of these things. While I know my calorie burn per day at rest, I also am a restaurant manager, so lifting heavy boxes, and walking for hours and hours a day is something I log to I can make sure I am ingesting the right carbs and proteins into my body so I dont lose the good fat burning muscle I work hard for.
  • msmangin
    msmangin Posts: 13 Member
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    I completely agree and couldn't have said this better.:happy:
  • azlady7
    azlady7 Posts: 471 Member
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    Well let me chime in here. I just deep cleaned my house today. Mopped, vacuumed (including under beds) cleaned all the bathrooms and kitchen. This wasn't the normal, daily picking up that I do but a whole house clean. I wore my HRM while I did this for 4 hours and burned 799 calories. My activity level on here is set to sedentary and I sure as heck was NOT sedentary for those 4 hours. So I back out my existence calories for that time period and it's an extra 605 calories I burned today. You better believe I'm counting THAT.

    Now, I do not count cooking dinner, picking up the house, taking out the trash, doing laundry, but over and above like today? You bet it's exercise.

    this ^
  • mamatoboys6219
    mamatoboys6219 Posts: 75 Member
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    Oh come on guys! We are here to motivate each other, not dig at each other on how we move throughout our day. If your heart is beating in the target range for burning calories, more calories than staying sedentary, then you are good! Stop digging and start motivating! :)
  • HonkyTonks
    HonkyTonks Posts: 1,193 Member
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    I'm sure I'm going to make a big fuss over this but I feel it's something I must share........do you consider cooking, cleaning, walking to and from kitchen, bathroom etc in your house and other daily activities exercise????

    I don't understand that completely.......Anything I have to do/regularly do in a day I don't count as exercise........Cooking myself dinner isn't exercise, I have to eat to live and I'd be doing it anyway.......cleaning my house is something I have to do unless I want mice and ants everywhere and walking to the kitchen and bathroom and back........it just doesn't make sense to me?

    I am here to lose weight, and if I was to count every step I took or every movement I made as exercise I'd be cheating myself......the only time I consider any of those things exercise is when I'm like scrubbing the floor with a brush or shoveling snow because I break a sweat with those...........

    I guess I just needed to put my 2 cents in on the subject.......

    This has been discussed at length already, however, I will add my 2 cents in.

    When you enter in your details to MFP, MFP calculates how many calories you burn on a daily basis based on your activity level (your TDEE). If you are a sedentary person, working a desk job, general pottering around walking to the photocopier, doing the dishes, walking to the shops to get lunch are already accounted for in your TDEE. When you are losing weight, you look to create a deficit by subtracting a number of calories from your TDEE and eating less than what you expend. You can log cleaning etc if you want, but you may impact your weight loss efforts by overestimating your calories out. If you think your cleaning or mowing the lawn or taking the trash out will put you OVER and ABOVE what MFP thinks your TDEE is, then maybe you should add it. Personally, I am already skeptical about overestimating the number of calories I'm burning even at the gym! So I wouldn't even think about adding things like cleaning. If you are very overweight however, and quite sedentary, I think you should probably be OK to log some things in as extra calories burned.
  • BelleHeart
    BelleHeart Posts: 281 Member
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    i think if you are cleaning for a long time really seriously it could be counted as an exercise. Other than than i don't think so!

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