Smarter Health: How Many Calories Do You Burn on Housework?
I have to say, it is time for me to clean my apartment. It's been way too long - even the dusbtbunnies have dust on them. Though my abode isn't huge, it takes just a few hours to get it sparkling again...but it's getting motivated to do it that is the problem - same problem I have for exercising.
Then I had a light bulb moment - turn my housework into exercise! I wondered how many calories I would burn doing certain household chores. Check this out:
Doing dishes: 160 calories for every 30 minutes you scrub that dried-on mac-and-cheese goop.
Scrubbing floor: For every half-hour, you burn 200 calories. Be sure to switch arms to tone both arms.
Vacuuming: An hour of sucking up little particles can burn 180 calories. Bend your knees and do lunges to work arms and legs.
Gardening: If you spend 60 minute weeding and tending to those plants, you can burn up to 250 calories - just be sure to sit properly and lift with your legs if you are carrying anything heavy.
Remember to turn on some fast tunes to keep yourself going and try to infuse little bits of real exercise in there too. As you are doing dishes, raise up onto your tiptoes 20 times to work calf muscles or do some squats with that laundry basket. When you scrub that bathtub, reach and pull the nasty grime, flexing your arm muscles.
Before you know it, you will have a clean house and burned some calories!
What housework do you feel gives you a little workout?
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I have a small house all on one level so it's not too time consuming.
though i get a bit sweaty & dirty doing housework i never feel like i burn off any calories
Weeding and trimming the bushes gives me a workout. I would be doing that now if it wasn't raining. Maybe tomorrow it will let up.
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for a healthier you! Sue ~ H. Admin
Cleaning the kids rooms always gives me a good workout. I have to move things, and sort things, and pick up a tonne of stuff.
Surely weeding burns more calories than that. It kills me!
Last week I couldn't find my steam mop (yeah I know how the heck do you lose that? Lol, it was moved to my basement) and I scrubbed my bathroom floor on my hands and knees. That felt like a pretty serious workout!
Mowing our grass with a push a mower. We have 2 acres and I mow it once a week with our push mower just for the exercise
If I do my entire house cleaning list I burn approx. 1500 activity calories, according to my fitbit. My lists consists of 20 min in each of the ten rooms in the house, two loads of laundry, two loads of dishes, making breakfast twice a day, packing lunches and making dinner. That really is motivation to move.
Smarter You: Brighter Whites
- HeatherNYC
on Jun. 5, 2012 at 12:00 AM