10 Household Chores That Will Get You Sweating
Cleaning your house to burn calories? That’s just one of the great benefits of having a tidy home. There’s also the psychological advantages of living in a clean home or the fact that a clean house just plain looks good. What about working up a sweat with your broom or vacuum cleaner? There are many housecleaning tasks that can give you a great workout.
“You probably know that the U.S. Surgeon General recommends 30 minutes of moderate exercise at least five days a week to maintain good health,” said Weight Watchers. “But did you know that any kind of physical activity counts, including housework? Believe it or not, dusting, sweeping, mopping, making beds and carrying laundry all add up to a lot of ‘incidental activity – the type some health experts view as potentially more beneficial than ‘official’ workouts, such as calisthenics.”
So how many calories are we talking here? “According to Health Status, a 150-lb. individual would burn 99 calories doing 30 minutes of housework,” said LIVESTRONG. But the calorie burn varies depending on the activity – and your body weight; consider that the more you weigh, the more calories you burn.
- Dusting
Burn 80 calories in 30 minutes, and get a good arm and shoulder workout. Want to burn even more? Add weights to wrists and/or ankles for this and any other task.
- Washing dishes
Burn 77 calories in 30 minutes. “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,” said LIVESTRONG.
- Cleaning your windows
Burn 100 calories in 30 minutes and Improve your view at the same time. Washing windows can be a great upper arm workout too.
- Laundry
Burn 68 calories in 1 hour. While you’re putting clothes in the washer, moving them to the dryer, sorting, folding, and hanging, think about this: you’re burning calories.
- Sweeping
Burn 136 calories in 30 minutes as long as you dance while you sweep! Dancing makes everything fun!
- Vacuuming
Burn 170 calories in 1 hour. Don’t believe it? You will when you consider all the walking, turning, twisting, and bending vacuuming required.
- Mopping
Burn 170 calories in 1 hour and clean your hard surface floors. You say give me that mop?
- Washing floors
Burn 187 calories in 30 minutes with your extra dirty floors.
- Rearranging your closet
Burn 85 calories with this task whether it’s time to swap out summer duds for winter sweaters or you just need to clean out a closet that’s overstuffed.
- Mowing the lawn
Burn 300 calories in 1 hour by tidying your outdoor. Even if it only takes you 20 minutes, you “can burn more calories than a power walk,” said Health Magazine. “But there’s a catch: you have to mow with a push mower. You may feel like you’re living on the frontier, but a push mower will turn your backyard into a boot camp!”
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