Household work burns calories

[Lamb]

• 30 minutes of digging in your yard will burn about 315 calories, the same amount burned by 45 minutes of bicycling on flat terrain. Digging tones the muscles of your calves, thighs, arms and shoulders. If you do it vigorously enough and continue the activity for 20 minutes or more, you can raise your heart rate and strengthen your cardiovascular system.
• Washing your car works your arms and abdominals. For every 30 minutes of car washing, you'll burn 143 calories.
• Weeding for 30 minutes burns 115 calories, the same amount you'd burn in 15 minutes of weight training. Weeding tones your thighs and buttocks. Just be careful to bend with your legs while keeping your spine straight, or you could hurt your back.
• Raking leaves for 30 minutes burns 225 calories. The resistance offered by the leaves makes this chore a type of weight training. Raking leaves tones all the major muscle groups in your body.

• Scrubbing the bath for 30 minutes burns 200 calories. Removing that stubborn soap scum from your tiles is a great way to tone the muscles of your arms and shoulders.
• Carrying shopping bags for 30 minutes burns 190 calories, and maybe more if the bags are particularly heavy. Distribute the weight evenly on each hand, or swap back and forth at regular intervals. Carrying too much weight on one side won't just overdevelop those muscles, it could injure your spine.
• Making beds for 30 minutes burns 130 calories, the same number you'd use if you jogged on a treadmill or on flat terrain for 15 minutes.
• Cleaning windows for 30 minutes burns 125 calories, the same number used in 20 minutes of power yoga (about one-third the length of a typical power yoga class).
• Loading the dishwasher for 30 minutes burns 105 calories, which is less than the 160 calories burned when washing them by hand.
• Vacuuming for 30 minutes burns about 90 calories, the same amount you'd burn in 15 minutes of kick boxing.

http://www.fitday.com/fitness-artic...s/calories-burned-doing-household-chores.html

 

[Josiah]

Sex consumes an average of 100 calories for the man and about 70 for the woman. I'll not comment on that activity vis-a-vis other "housework."



:ewink:



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[Rens]

The housework I do doesn't burn much calories.

 

[Lucian Hodoboc]

This article author seems to think that everyone lives in houses with yards, not in apartment buildings, like the majority of big city dwellers do.

 

[tango]

This article author seems to think that everyone lives in houses with yards, not in apartment buildings, like the majority of big city dwellers do.

How so?

Does washing a car burn fewer calories because it's parked outside an apartment rather than a house? The only difference is that those who live in apartments may not spend much time gardening, weeding, raking etc. The number of calories they would burn if they partook of such things would still be the same.

Scrubbing the bath, making the bed and similar indoor activities (including - ahem - Josiah's comments) are the same too. If you live in an apartment block you may also burn more calories going up the stairs. When I lived in an apartment I found the stairs quite tedious, especially when getting home from a trip with luggage.

 

[Lucian Hodoboc]

I don't own a car or a dishwasher. Nor am I that big on scrubbing baths. The only thing I do on a regular basis from the list is carry groceries.

What kind of beds (or how many of them) do you have that it takes 30 minutes to make them? It takes me 5 minutes at most to make my bed.

 

[Lamb]

I don't own a car or a dishwasher. Nor am I that big on scrubbing baths. The only thing I do on a regular basis from the list is carry groceries.

What kind of beds (or how many of them) do you have that it takes 30 minutes to make them? It takes me 5 minutes at most to make my bed.

Yeah, the list has some weird stuff like loading the dishwasher for 30 minutes. It takes me 2 minutes to throw things in there.

 

[Messy]

Yeah, the list has some weird stuff like loading the dishwasher for 30 minutes. It takes me 2 minutes to throw things in there.

2 minutes??? Don't throw em in there Lamb. They may break lol.

 

[Lamb]

2 minutes??? Don't throw em in there Lamb. They may break lol.

Well, I put the dishes in as we use them even though sometimes a few things will be in the sink instead. It's just that I don't let the sink all fill up with dishes and just slowly load the dishwasher after meals. It's just the two of us so we don't run the dishwasher every day.

 

[tango]

I don't own a car or a dishwasher. Nor am I that big on scrubbing baths. The only thing I do on a regular basis from the list is carry groceries.

What kind of beds (or how many of them) do you have that it takes 30 minutes to make them? It takes me 5 minutes at most to make my bed.

If you burn 130 calories in 30 minutes making beds you can always scale up and down. If you live in a mansion and it takes you three hours to make all the beds, you burn 780 calories (plus whatever you burn moving between all the beds). If you live in a small apartment and spend 10 minutes making the bed you burn more like 40 calories.

Not a lot, but they all count.

I share your curiosity about the example durations though - how many people spend 30 minutes loading the dishwasher? The only time I spend more than about 5 minutes is when I take over my wife's game of Tetris trying to get everything in a single load.