Is it Really Exercise or Am I Cheating?

No I wouldn't bother, especially if you already have lightly active in your settings. You don't burn calories unless your heartrate is increased.. I think by adding them, you are allowing yourself eat more when you're not really burning the calories you think you are

False. You are always burning calories, Hence a bmr. But I probably wouldn't include light housecleaning unless it's like a heavy cleaning day where you're really getting down and dirty.

Wear a heart rate monitor when you do it. If you stay in your burning zone the whole time, then count it. If you don't, then it didn't count. Like others have said, it's about having an elevated heart rate. So just make sure that you're doing your part to get the heart rate up. I never count cleaning, even when I'm doing a good scrubbing.

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"Anything you do above and beyond your daily routine is exercise." [/quote]

During the summer I have my activity level set at sedentary because I am not teaching in a classroom walking, bending, moving. In addition, I don't clean my bathroom every day! Neither do I scrub my floors, run the vacuum nor mow the lawn everyday! Therefore, I count them as excercise. I work hard when I clean so if that means I get an extra piece of chicken...then I'm taking it!

I believe your activity should be based on your real life, every day activity. If you clean something everyday...then bump up your activity level and only count "excercise".

You don't say how successful you've been, but you've been a member for more than 1.5 years and only show a loss of 5 pounds so I'm guessing you haven't been. That means that you're not creating as big of a calorie deficit as you think you are, probably by "double dipping" your exercise calories

I spent some time a while ago trying to figure out how best to account for additional daily activity without double dipping. I found the following chart to be helpful

Classification of pedometer-determined physical activity in healthy adults:
1) Under 5000 steps/day may be used as a "sedentary lifestyle index"
2) 5,000-7,499 steps/day is typical of daily activity excluding sports/exercise and might be considered "low active."
3) 7,500-9,999 likely includes some exercise or walking (and/or a job that requires more walking) and might be considered "somewhat active."
4) 10,000 steps/day indicates the point that should be used to classify individuals as "active".

Based on that I set myself at sedentary because without actively trying to get more steps in my day I was logging around 3,000/day (desk job). I wear a pedometer daily to track my activity, but to be sure I'm not double counting I only log steps taken above 5,000. I don't log typical cleaning (vacuming, mopping, dusting, dishes, toilet scrubbing) as separate exercise, rather I figure that it ends up in my steps taken per day calc and it works itself out. I WOULD log something if it was a significant physical exertion - painting, etc. I've been steadily losing weight at about 1.5 lbs/week, even though I have MFP set to 1 lb/week so something's working!

I wrote a blog post about my method of logging calories above my baseline activity level if you're interested in more info (http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/msudaisy28/view/incorporating-more-daily-activity-231335). On the plus side, I'm now averaging around 7,500 steps/day so I'm considering upping myself to lightly active and only logging above that amount

No I wouldn't bother, especially if you already have lightly active in your settings. You don't burn calories unless your heartrate is increased.. I think by adding them, you are allowing yourself eat more when you're not really burning the calories you think you are

You burn calories just by being alive – when you are lying down, or doing nothing...

You knew the poster meant ADDITIONAL calories, don't be THAT guy....

When people post Absolutes, and what they say is easy to misunderstand, then Yes I am “that guy” WETFTMs.
But the poster was both unclear and wrong. You don’t “only” burn calories when your heart rate is raised were that true you’d burn nothing when you sleep. 350 to 400 per night avg
Driving a car 300 cal per hour
Chatting on your cell 110 per hour
Sitting at your desk and playing with you pencil 200 to 300 per day,
none of which will raise your heart rate much

Jesus Christ.

I only track things that I did NOT do before my lifestyle change. So all the crap that we do every day anyways (cooking, cleaning, washing the car, doing the laundry, etc.) well, to me that doesn't count as "exercise" that's just LIFE! LOL

I never log daily activity! That may cause you to eat more because you think you have more calories then you actually do.

My opinion is it's not exercise unless it makes you sweat, increases your heart rate and leaves you out of breath. ;o)

This ^^^

I quit my job this week, I was a waitress and back then I was set as lightly active. Meaning I was running around 8 hrs straight or frequently on my feet.

Now I'm at sedantary and I do not log cleaning. But everything that gets my heart rate above the 120's. I recently created an exercise called Shopping

When you set it at lightly active, it means that your daily activities are already accounted there so logging it will be like double punching the numbers which makes it sound like a cheating. I have mine set at lightly active because I commute from work to home, walk about 2 miles from the office to the nearest bus station plus everyday I climb stairs to our office & to the train station. So since I already set it that way so I don't log my other activities like lightly/moderately cleaning house, walking, shopping etc. I only log my activities if it made my entire body fatigued such as vigorous house cleaning (general cleaning of entire house). But other than that, I only log my actual workouts.

I have my settings to sedentary because my job is at a desk all day, but I am a VERY active person after work and on the weekends, so I log all of my activites including cleaning, riding and grooming my horse, mowing my grass, etc. If you want to log everything, change your settings and you won't be double dipping.

Personally, I only count exercise that is outside of what I do on a regular basis around the house. I do include my 15 minute walk with the dog or work in the yard. The real issue that you need to look at is how your body is reacting. If you are logging everything and you are losing a pound per week (or whatever your goal might be) you can probably leave it alone for now. If you plateau, quit counting those calories and see if that helps you break through.

With that being said, I wouldn't count every activity if I were in your shoes.

I have my activity set as sedentary (desk job). I do not count daily cleaning like putting the dishes in the dish washer, or clothes in the wash machine/dryer. I do count the full house cleaning I do every week. It takes about 3 hours to clean the house and that I count. If it takes more than an hour or if it gets my heart rate up, I could it. I figure the small stuff doesn't burn enough off to make much of a difference.

I went shopping for a bathing suit on Monday. It was so much work and I was exhausted at the end. I am sure I burned extra calories. Thanks for posting, so I don't feel guilty by not completing "formal" exercise.

i dont record normal chores and things like that because i feel like its already built into my deficit and if normal chores really impacted my calorie burn, i wouldnt be trying to lose weight in the first place. i only count the thing i do extra, like the gym, maybe a bike ride if it was long enough to make a difference. my rule is nothing under 100 calories burned will be added.