Is it Really Exercise or Am I Cheating?

No I don't.

My reasoning is that if you only do what you always did you'll only get what you've always had.

Unless you were previously severely mobility impaired by weight and for the first time you're doing your shopping, or you've never previously been able to clean your house before, then no.

The database includes things like "personal grooming" and "light house work".

I don't know many people who lost weight showering, cleaning their teeth or dusting...

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

Thanks so much for the info. Just so you know, I did join 1.5 years ago because my friend asked me to, but I didn't really do anything. I've only been dieting for 2 weeks now, so the 5 pounds has come off in the last 2 weeks, not over 1.5 years...lol. Thanks again for the help.

I might look like a total ***** saying this, but logging daily chores to me seems utterly ridiculous, if youre doing it to see how many calories you burn on top of your day, fair enough, if youre doing it in order to eat back the calories from exercise, shame on you!

There is no reason that you would need extra food from cleaning, exercise calories are designed to ensure you dont end up in too much of a deficit after doing something that burns significant calories and may make your body feel/become depleted as result. This is not going to happen through doing the hoovering. I walk up 3 sets of stairs to my office daily, I dont count it as exercise and go eat something to make sure I dont 'go into starvation mode'. Come on now people.

I might look like a total ***** saying this, but logging daily chores to me seems utterly ridiculous, if youre doing it to see how many calories you burn on top of your day, fair enough, if youre doing it in order to eat back the calories from exercise, shame on you!

There is no shame here. There are things that work, and there are things that do not work. We're all adults learning how to lose weight, there's no need to invoke shame.

OP has lost 5 pounds in the last 2 weeks. So far, what she is doing is working. When it stops working, she's already demonstrated the kind of thoughtfulness that it will take to figure out what is wrong (over-reporting exercise) and correct it.

And there is absolutely nothing wrong with setting your lifestyle to sedentary and using food as an incentive to exercise. That's how this site is designed to work. Maybe it doesn't work for you, and that's fine. For you. But don't heap shame on total strangers for trying to find what works for them. That's just downright rude.

Thats where we differ in thought, using food to reward oneself seems utterly backward to me. Thats like an alcoholic rewarding themselves from abstaining by having a drink. Im not 'heaping shame on total strangers finding out what works for them'. You would never, unless you were trying to lose weight, count something like washing dishes towards working out how much to eat, you wouldnt even think about it, because its an everyday thing. Im simply pointing out how ridiculous it seems (to me yes) to log things like these in order to justify eating more.
Anyway, lets not begin a thread riding argument, your point is taken, I simply disagree.

Im pleased the OP is doing well, good on her. Praise where praise is due,keep up the good work.