Thoughts about burning calories by cleaning?

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  • RachelsReboot
    RachelsReboot Posts: 569 Member
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    why does it make you feel like you've done nothing? If others want to log "cleaning" as exercise- they are only cheating themselves.

    I know I haven't cheated myself out of anything but that down there V V V 178lbs V V V
  • xHelloQuincyx
    xHelloQuincyx Posts: 884 Member
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    its not overestimated for me because i wear a hrm. i count it because its not something i do every day. (in college full time and work 30 hrs a week) so when i do have time to clean, my place is wrecked up man. plus my bf is a slob :p i also do laundry on the same day and thats in my apartment building. im on the 3rd floor so i have to carry huge baskets up stairs like 8 times, fold laundry, scrub toilets, do dishes, vaccume, dust etc. its a whole ordeal.
  • mjf0461
    mjf0461 Posts: 470 Member
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    #1 - I try not to let what other people claim they do and burn bother me. Either way it's not going to work my fat off. So I don't care.
    #2 - MFP calories burn are higher. So I compare my exercise with Lance Armstrongs site, where it actually ask your weight and then gives you the calories burned. And then I will input my numbers in that way. I've seen differences of 100-150 calories in 30 minutes of exercise..
    Good luck ladies losing....
  • Jessika421
    Jessika421 Posts: 7 Member
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    I don't log day to day cleaning like dishes or picking up laundry and throwing it in the washer/dryer. But if I'm doing heavy duty cleaning marathons, I'm logging it, but I always round my time down instead of up to make it more realistic.
  • treetop57
    treetop57 Posts: 1,578 Member
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    #2 - MFP calories burn are higher. So I compare my exercise with Lance Armstrongs site, where it actually ask your weight and then gives you the calories burned. And then I will input my numbers in that way. I've seen differences of 100-150 calories in 30 minutes of exercise..

    I don't know the accuracy of one versus the other, but MFP uses your weight. It doesn't ask, because it already knows!
  • cawmacomber
    cawmacomber Posts: 12
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    Cleaning is not exercise - hmmp - tell that to my body and waistline after basically sterilizing a room from top to bottom when the husband left an open box of crackers out and overnight a wonderful trail of ants appeared.

    Laundry is not exercise - again, hmmp - touch your toes while you collect and sort laundry, waist bends as you load/empty the washer and dryer, upper body stretches as you fold and put away, stair master as you take all loads (individually) to each room. Gee - that's part of a aerobic workout! One week of laundry for a family of four can be 10+ loads.

    Some people just don't do exercise - I don't care the reason. Myself - I HATE exercise - I absolutely can not tolerate what I consider "wasting" part of my day to stair step, aerobicize, weight lift, treadmill, etc. just to hopefully see 2 months or so down the road a change in my physical appearance. My exercise has to be incorporated into what I am doing. For example, I don't consider bicycling exercise - it is a family event or relaxation technique - only stationary biking is exercise - and what fun is that?! Gardening is fun and yes - exercise when you are digging, hauling, planting, etc - what's great is you get to immediately see what you accomplished. How about going to the zoo - gee - 5 hours plus of walking - how many calories get burned there? Calories are burned non-stop every day and night including while you are sleeping, and sometimes we need to see in print what has been burned - it's our way of saying "good job" to ourselves, when others don't.

    I do agree with everyone that MFP does seem to really be off on their exercise calculator - but you can change the number of calories burned to what you know or feel it was. Also, everyone has a different metabolic system therefore, a different caloric burn. You can bet I burn more calories doing the cleaning or laundry than my husband would (I'm short, he's tall - not as much stretching for him.)
  • k0nfyo0zed
    k0nfyo0zed Posts: 313 Member
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    I count it as exercise, or used to when I had MFP set to sedentary. I moved it to moderately active and don't log my exercise except on heavy gym days to see if I am netting below BMR numbers.

    Then again, I always put on upbeat music and dance around while I'm cleaning house or doing laundry. It can be a pretty decent workout if that's when you can get it in!
  • mariamarchita
    mariamarchita Posts: 131
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    I do log them but only because I am very overweight and even walking around the house is hard for me. I do make sure to only log the minutes I'm actually moving around. If I spend 3 minutes vacuuming, I log it lol. That's just me though, given my current condition.
  • BeautyAndTheGeeks
    BeautyAndTheGeeks Posts: 109
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    I haven't read the whole thread so I'm not sure if we're still on this topic on page 6 but as far as I'm concerned with cleaning calories, you should be cleaning often enough that it's part of your lifestyle, not a once in a while workout. I wouldn't consider spring cleaning a workout either, yeah, my arms hurt from scrubbing when I do a big clean, but I don't consider it as part of my exercise routine, that just seems like an excuse to get out of an actual workout.
  • Mommy2Avaj
    Mommy2Avaj Posts: 140 Member
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    I do log them in, but I usually only log about half the time I actually spent doing it. I've read so many people saying the MFP over estimates the number of calories burned. I also don't count the time I am standing like dusting or wiping counters.
  • Drawberry
    Drawberry Posts: 104 Member
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    I don't log cleaning myself, but that's because I don't do anything that's considered strenuous. However, I disagree with the sentiment that because something is 'part of life' that it isn't worth note. I often go walking, and these walks often last well over 3 hours. I am talking about NON STOP constant pace walking all over town. Sure walking is part of life, but does that mean my 8pm-12pm walk isn't worth notice?

    To me personally it all depends on the level of strenuous activity involved and the length of the activities. Here's a quote from livestrong.com:
    Some activities are more vigorous than others. A 150-lb. person washing dishes for 30 minutes would burn approximately 77 calories, according to Health Status. The same person doing 30 minutes of mopping would burn approximately 153 calories.

    Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/314390-how-many-calories-does-housecleaning-burn/#ixzz1uJF8TTz4

    Folks are logging less calories burned from traditional outdoor 'sport' activities then what is burned from half an hour of mopping.

    Would I say that dusting my lampshade is exercise? Absolutely not. Is making my bed exercise? Of course it isn't. I live in a small house where it takes a very short amount of time to really get things cleaned properly. But for the person who lives in a 2 story farmhouse and 'chores' consist of mopping 4 rooms, being on your hands and knee's scrubbing for an hour for each bathroom, and moving multiple rooms worth of furniture around? Yeah I'd log that.

    So at the core of it, what the activity is and how long it's going on for makes all the deference in the world. 'Cleaning' may not mean much to me, but to someone else it could easily be 4 hours of lugging around bales of hay and scoping cow poop or lifting 4 rooms worth of heavy furniture and making sure all three bathrooms are sparkling clean.
  • annabelsmommy
    annabelsmommy Posts: 24 Member
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    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 use cleaning as an exercise, but on MFP you have the option to change the number of calories burned, so I cut the number they give me in half - same thing for swimming. The amount of calories they estimate you burn is ridiculous in both categories. I also have a Polar heart moniter that tracks how many cals I burn so I trust that to be pretty accurate.
  • annabelsmommy
    annabelsmommy Posts: 24 Member
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    I do log them but only because I am very overweight and even walking around the house is hard for me. I do make sure to only log the minutes I'm actually moving around. If I spend 3 minutes vacuuming, I log it lol. That's just me though, given my current condition.

    That's good! I would log it too. We're almost in the same boat, except I have Rheumatoid Arthritis instead of an arm/shoulder injury like you. I would log anything that makes you feel like you're working up a sweat. And I know when I sweep and vacuum my house I get there. I just try to stay moving and doing things and staying active. I used to be very sedentary until I started here on MFP. The first month I didn't exercise at all and just stuck to eating healthy and staying within my calories and I lost 10lbs. So if you're having a hard time doing exercises you may just want to try sticking really close to the goals you have here on MFP food wise and that could help you take off a little which in turn makes it easier to move around and get closer to your exercise goals. I'm also going to try resistance bands. I hear it's a good at home exercise and not too difficult for larger ladies like us.
  • annabelsmommy
    annabelsmommy Posts: 24 Member
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    #2 - MFP calories burn are higher. So I compare my exercise with Lance Armstrongs site, where it actually ask your weight and then gives you the calories burned. And then I will input my numbers in that way. I've seen differences of 100-150 calories in 30 minutes of exercise..

    I don't know the accuracy of one versus the other, but MFP uses your weight. It doesn't ask, because it already knows!

    Yeah, I'm heavier than my sister and when we record the same activity I burn more than her because MFP knows my weight and how a heavier person will have to exert more energy for the same task. But it tells me that I would burn 900 calories with 45 minutes of leisurly swimming and I think that's bogus so I trust my heart monitor more than MFP's calculations. They did get the calories burned for circuit training pretty dang close though.
  • jules0516
    jules0516 Posts: 158
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    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?

    Just curious, and I really don't mean this in a mean way, but why do you care what other people list on their diary? You show you have lost 28 lbs. I say congrats to you and don't worry abou t those other people.

    Thank You!! Take into consideration if a person is on the heavier side-they get winded walking up stairs and their Dr. suggested lifting cans of corn while sitting on the couch. Is that less of an excersize? Should we put that person down? If a person is cleaning-the heart rate elevates-I'm no expert-but isn't that expending energy where calories might burn? We are here for support,so why question and make people feel bad or doubt themselves?
  • Elizabeth_C34
    Elizabeth_C34 Posts: 6,376 Member
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    Depends. On the days when I get on my hands and knees and scrub my tile (all 2300 square feet of it), yes, that is a workout. I burn almost 1,100 calories when I do that according to my HRM.

    If it's just cleaning a bathroom or something, no.

    Also, some people who are extremely heavy have trouble even standing up and moving, so 60 minutes of housework may be a good workout for them and productive. It may burn more than you do in an hour of running.

    It's good to put things into perspective and realize that not everyone is on the same fitness level.
  • Jules2Be
    Jules2Be Posts: 2,267 Member
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    I logged it under Stairs, but putting laundry away 1 piece at a time and going up and down the stairs 62 times in 46 minutes burned 702 calories according to my HRM, and I was sweaty.

    its just a word... but i did log it under something else so i wouldnt hear it from anyone,:flowerforyou:
  • jules0516
    jules0516 Posts: 158
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    I'm also curious why you directed this at SAMs?? Is there a chance that people who work outside the home do this too? SAMs take so much slack for being in the home-I've actually had people make comments that I'm lucky to just sit around and watch tv all day. We don't- and as I said above in my post..if you are cleaning-you are moving around expelling energy,right? I may do it everyday-but I do clean a 4 bedroom house, home school, field trips, etc. We do move,not just sit in a chair all day..and on top of cleaning everyday I do a workout. So for people to elude that this is normal everyday stuff..once you are in a routine of going to the gym-isn't that an every day normal activity? Should you just stop logging your everyday workout routine..because it has become an every day occurence?
  • ZombieSlayer
    ZombieSlayer Posts: 369 Member
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    So for people to elude that this is normal everyday stuff..once you are in a routine of going to the gym-isn't that an every day normal activity? Should you just stop logging your everyday workout routine..because it has become an every day occurence?

    :heart: this SO much!!
  • angieleighbyrd
    angieleighbyrd Posts: 989 Member
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    I only log actual exorcise. I don't count cleaning.

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