am i cheating by counting cooking and cleaning as cardio?

I always add cardio when i work overtime during the day as well. i don't think it should hurt any as we are moving and doing something all the time, i just put in half the calories it says though

On what do you base that they've added for that. MFP certainly doesn't say that. It says "spends most of the day sitting." Do people who pay other people to clean their houses and care for their kids, etc have to deduct those calories, since they didn't burn them? Do they have negative cardio? If MFP adds calories for cleaning etc., they don't indicate it anywhere.

I am set for sedentary. I wear a FitBit that records my calorie burn and automatically adds cardio to account for my regular daily activity. My weight loss is exactly what would be expected if those numbers were accurate.

BMR = basal metabolic rate, the number of calories they would feed you if you were in a coma.

When it asks you if you what your lifestyle is, it is multiplying BMR by a certain factor to determine what your caloric needs are for regular daily life. This is adding in calories for getting up and walking around and eating and going places and doing everything that you do in a day.

These numbers are estimates based on your age, height, weight. Of course if you are wearing a heart rate monitor or fitbit, you have a better idea of what your numbers actually are. All of the calculators, and even the MFP exercise database are estimates.

Yes. But the point is, regardless of if my FitBit adds them for me or I manually add them, I do burn calories when I clean. That was the OPs question, and the answer is yes. Yes, you can count cleaning as exercise because it burns more calories than if tyou were what MFP as set sedentary to account for--you getting out of bed and sitting all day.

Calories burned are calories burned no matter HOW they are burned. YES, they DO count as calories burned. What scientific reason could there be that they didn't count?

Yes, all calories burned count. The question is though is what counts as "regular daily activity", are these calories already accounted for in your settings, and does "sedentary" really mean doing nothing as some posters in this thread seem to imply.

I can only go by what MFP SAYS it means. And they say it means "spend most of the day sitting." It only makes sense to base this on what the people who designed the site say they based it on. And it's not "doing nothing." I t's "spending most of the day sitting."

I am a Stay-at-home-mom. I set my activity level to "sedentary." I figure I spend a lot of day sitting down, just like someone with an office job does. And, someone with an office job does do some housework when they get home. So, I set "sedentary" as my base.

I don't count a lot of my housework - I don't count preparing meals, doing general tidying in the evenings, etc. However, I do a session of intensive cleaning and I count that. I'll try to explain what I do as briefly as possible -

I make up a big to-do list of things to clean. I emphasize things that require a lot of movement (hoovering, cleaning baseboards, making beds) and leave off stuff where you stand mostly still, like washing dishes or folding laundry - those get done at other times, anyway. I make the list deliberately inefficient/strenuous. For example, there are three beds upstairs. I'll put each bed on the list as a separate thing. The point is - I have to go back to the list to cross off one before going back up to make another bed. That's three trips up the stairs instead of one. I make the list so that I'm doing lots of separate trips up the stairs, breaking things up so that I have to go back to the list on the kitchen counter. When I do this session, I make a point of really hustling. I run up the steps two-at-a-time. I move furniture and clean things that probably don't even need to be cleaned. Does my sofa need to be moved for hoovering every day? No. But, I do it, anyway. And, here's the final thing I do so that I can call it exercise: Before I cross anything off the list, I have to do a set of exercises like push-ups, crunches, squats, etc. I keep myself moving as quickly as safely/sanely possible and I'm frequently puffing a bit!

I set a stopwatch app on my phone and I go and run through the list as fast as I can. If I'm interrupted by the phone or doorbell or something, I'll pause the stopwatch until I can resume my routine.

I generally take about 90 minutes to two hours to get through the list.

When I'm all done, I go to a website that lists calories burned for various activities by weight and time. I calculate that. Then, I subtract the calories that I would have burned if I'd been sitting at my computer posting nonsense to MFP, and I subtract that. The difference I enter as calories burned.

I think this makes as much sense as putting on a low-impact aerobics DVD and exercising. It get my house really, really clean and it's not boring like dancing around my living room would be.

I count it. As a Pampered Chef consultant, I often am cooking for 8 hours straight if not longer, preparing food for the party, then cooking at the party, then I unload the car at home and clean up, usually cooking supper afterwards. And I speed walk when grocery shopping because I hate Wal-Mart and want out of there ASAP.

then you should adjust your settings to lightly active....

I don't cook for 8 hours a day on a normal regular basis. Sometimes not even once a week. I'm keeping my settings what they are. It's my life, it's my body. If I want to log the way I do, then I'm gonna. You won't hear me complaining that I'm not losing the way I want to if it doesn't work out the way I want it to, so don't worry about it. Like I said, it's my life, not yours to worry about. Worry about your own life.

Hardcore cleaning is definitely a work-out in and of itself!

If I work hard enough to sweat I log it...be it cleaning, cooking or even sex.

I create exercise as part of my daily routine though, so I am always 'working out' to a greater or lesser extent. Have stairs at home, work, public transit station? Sprint up as fast as you can to the top and then head back down to your floor. 1 min. After I eat I do sprints on the grass unless it is raining...only takes up 1 min of my time. Walk and try to beat your time. Log it.

If you are really concerned, get a heart rate monitor and just log your actual calories after you do something. If you want to log it that is.

I think that a calorie burned is a calorie burned. If you are honest with your numbers then if it keeps you motivated then by all means continue !! )

Sorry didnt read all the posts so if I'm repeating I apologise.

I dont always count it but if I am having a bad patch and i know that going over my cals will just send me into an eating frenzy then I look whatever I can to make my day look better, it has the end result of motivating me to do better the next day and get back on track and thats what its all about. AND of course you are burning cals when cleaning etc especially on those days where I go thru the house like a woman possessed, thats definitely a good cal burn. Mind u (totally different discussion) the place is wrecked again within hours, well at least I feel like I burned cals even if the house was only respectable looking for a few hours ! Best of luck.

You're cheating yourself, yes.

Only you can know that, really. On Saturday I cleaned the whole house (2 levels) switched out all the clothes for our family (5 people) from winter to summer, tons of laundry and climbing up to the attic - I logged it because it took 4 hours (I only counted half the calories it said) and I was WIPED out after, I had exercised.

Now last night, I did the kitchen, but it was 15 minutes and I didn't feel like I had done anything, so I didn't log it. If you honestly feel like you've worked out, log it. If you haven't, don't.

That' s the way I count mine

I don't log anything unless it is intended exercise - such as going to the gym, on a walk, etc. I figure that cleaning is just an everyday lifestyle activity that just has to get done. I did 4 hours of cleaning on Wednesday and did not count a thing - I only logged the gym workout I did afterwards.

But honestly, it's a personal choice. If that keeps you motivated then log it but I agree with someone who said previously, log it if it feels like a workout - you're exhausted afterwards.

Good luck, I hope you're feeling better soon!

I believe it's an independent decision to be made by each person. If you are counting daily activities as calories burned and are consistently losing weight, then i would say you are being successful.

However, for myself (please note) I asked my dietician if I should be counting those acttivities as calories burned and she said no. I had asked her because I would see people logging ironing, cooking, light housekeeping, etc. She said if I did those things before, than I should not count them. So my regular daily routine of light housecleaning, cooking, etc., I dont count. Even if I did count them, I would never eat them back, so I dont waste the time to log them. She told me to log only things that I do above and beyond what I had normally done before. So when I do aquatics, go for a walk, exercise on the Wii, etc, those are the things I count as true exercise calorie burn. I never did any of those things before starting this journey. This is what works for ME! Not saying it is right for everyone. I also must mention I dont pull heavy numbers on exercise because of double knee replacements, so that is why I dont eat my exercise calories back. But I try to eat as close to my daily goal as possible.

I don't count it, but I do put more effort into cleaning now because I know I can get some workout for it. A few weekends ago I swept and vacuumed both levels of stairs, I dusted the banisters, I now carry the laundry basket from the basement to the third level myself (I used to get my boyfriend to do it). I get on my hands and knees to scrub the kitchen and bathroom floors and I walk the dogs myself more.

I don't think it is cheating, but I think that sometimes counting household chore calories can be inconsistent, especially since it is really only something that I do on the weekends (deep cleaning). I do the light stuff during the week.

Only you can know that, really. On Saturday I cleaned the whole house (2 levels) switched out all the clothes for our family (5 people) from winter to summer, tons of laundry and climbing up to the attic - I logged it because it took 4 hours (I only counted half the calories it said) and I was WIPED out after, I had exercised.

Now last night, I did the kitchen, but it was 15 minutes and I didn't feel like I had done anything, so I didn't log it. If you honestly feel like you've worked out, log it. If you haven't, don't.

This is what I do, also. Normal everyday stuff, I don't count. But I will count it if I have a heavy duty weekend of cleaning or if I'm preparing a meal that involves a lot of movement (like when I grill out because I end up running back and forth between the kitchen and the patio a zillion times).