Thoughts about burning calories by cleaning?

I don't mean to bash the stay-at-home moms who have a hard time establishing an official workout time, but sometimes when I see how many calories some people burn by putting "cleaning, moderate effort" into their diary it makes me feel like all the sweat pouring off of me when I jog at night is for nothing.
I have also heard from numerous people that myfitnesspal tends to overestimate calories burned on many exercises.
So, how do you feel about having "cleaning" as an exercise? Do you think it really burns that many calories?

I have a hrm and when I clean I put it on and it burns about 200 per hour... that is about average for me. I was just curious as to how much I actually burned while cleaning.

You burn the calories cleaning yes, but I wouldn't go as far as to log it. Just consider it bonus calories burned

Any exercise - lifting, cardio, walking, yard work, housework - I use my HRM...I only put it in my exercise log if it is cleaning that I don't do on a normal basis or when I clean my mom's house for her which is massive & takes about 2hrs to clean b/c this is not my normal day to day routine....Also, if I do something for more than 30 minutes & I break out in a sweat I am burning calories more than normal....Just my opinion...And it depends on what you set your daily activities as as well...

My rule for logging ANY exercise: IF it makes you breathe heavy and sweat, then log it!

Then again, I have a desk job, if I were doing this for a living I wouldn't have my profile set on sedentary.

definitely this!!

Cleaning house might not be burning a lot of calories but it's the type of exercise that will burn through some fat. The more "moderate" the intensity of an activity the more fat that is uses (as opposed to "carbs" that the body will burn through during high-intensity exercise).

I have found that my daily calorie burn has more to do with the moderate activity I do through the day. Not structured exercise, not 10000 steps...

I have a desk job but if I am moving around at my desk a lot my daily burn can jump by 200 or more calories before I leave work. I might only put in maybe 5000 steps but as my "moderate" activity goes up my calorie burn goes up. My calorie burn has more to do with how often I move rather than how high the intensity of that movement is. And the higher the intensity the less fat and the more "carbs" the body burns.

I have a Body Media Fit Armband and have been tracking all of this for over a year.

I think people should be able to log whatever they feel like logging - if it helps them.

I'm waiting for my favorite "cleaning-IS-NOT-EXERCISE" person to weigh in. Hahaha. You know who you are.

I only use the cleaning calories burned when I am doing spring cleaning or heavy duty on your knees scrubbing and stuff. General day to day cleaning I don't count. I use these also because I have my activity level set to sedentry and don't want to dip too far below net calories of 1200. Gardening and raking I also use. I do go to the gym 5 days a week and get a good burn there as well.

I agree with this reply. I have my activity level set at "sedentary" too, so, like this poster, while I don't count day-to-day cleaning, I do count heavy-duty cleaning like yesterday when I vacuumed and mopped the entire house and scrubbed the bath floors on hands and knees! That said, I usually take the calories MFP gives burned and only credit half or slightly more than half since, yes, I feel that they "overcount" calories burned across the board.

I do if I wear my HRM.

yup me too, it is surprising how much you realld do burn

i agree with ATLMel

it is better to underestimate the amount of calories you are burning. overestimation will just cause you to lose confidence in your routine (when you don't lose as much weight as MFP is suggesting you'll lose).

I agree, but there's a reasonable limit to that, of course. If I've spent all day in the garden and yard working hard, my 1,450 calories ain't gonna get me through the day, and I'll be sick the next day if I don't eat SOME of that exercise back. I just try to only log when I've put a lot of effort into something.

If I sweat for more than 10 minutes, I'll log at least 2/3 the time I spent sweating as something. If my muscles are sore, something gets logged.

But I do agree, the calories MFP comes up with are sometimes fanciful, and overlogging calorie burn can lead to disappointing setbacks.

If you have your lifestyle set to sedentry and then burn 800 calories raking and gardening on a sunday afternoon or spring cleaning on your hands and knees you will not only be sick but this is also counterproductive you will dip below 1200 net calories eaten for the day. Do this too many times and your body will fight back. I spent two years on a plateau and tried to exercise more and eat less it wasn't until I was consistently above a 1400 net calories eaten that I started losing again.

I spent about an hour on the weekend cleaning (dishes, bleaching bathroom & kitchen, hoovering, polishing, emptying the bin and cleaning out my pet rats), I think I would log it but maybe put it down as only 30 minutes due to the overestimation of MFP.
I'd rather log less calories burned than too many and over indulge because of it.

I never understand why anyone cares how other people burn calories. But that's just me.

My work day is 100% sedentary (opposite the computer screen, driving) - so anything I do that works up a sweat or is not done sitting around gets listed. That includes sweeping and mopping floors, and sometimes cooking (if I'm on my feet cooking for several hours-not just a few minutes), biking or walking to the local shops, etc.

only once did I log "cleaning" exercise...when I moved by my self...packing loading, unloading, lots of stairs, cleaning...but only took credit for 4 hours~
Daily cleaning, cleaning the rugs, moving furniture around is just normal daily activity.

I never, ever log any cleaning done at home.

HOWEVER..I do have a part-time job cleaning dog kennels that gets quite exhausting, so I'd be half-dead if I didn't eat back those calories on the days that I work.

I do understand your sentiment though.

What has it got to do with you what I log? In what way does it affect your weight loss? None?? Thought so, I can log sitting on my butt all day if I want to, technically I'm still burning calories. You go on your journey, I'll go on mine. My profile is set to sedentary, meaning I do nothing all day every day, I could be logging every substantial movement I make.
You keep worrying about what everyone else is doing, I'll carry on blissfully not caring and steadily losing weight :flowerforyou: