While they can’t replace regular exercise, household chores can help mitigate the negative effects of a sedentary lifestyle and even aid in weight loss. Some chores are light to moderate in intensity, while others can provide a full workout. In modern times, appliances like washing machines, dishwashers, and vacuum cleaners have made life easier but reduced opportunities to burn calories. However, household chores can still be a convenient way to stay active, especially during heatwaves.
Household chores that help burn calories:
- Vacuuming: Pushing and pulling a vacuum cleaner can burn 150-300 calories per hour, depending on body weight and intensity.
- Mopping/scrubbing floors: This activity engages your core muscles and can burn 150-250 calories per hour.
- Washing windows: The reaching, stretching, and wiping motions use several muscle groups, burning 100-200 calories per hour.
- Gardening/yard work: Activities like raking leaves, pulling weeds, and pushing a lawn mower can burn 200-400 calories per hour. Additionally, contact with the earth while gardening can harmonize physiological processes in your body, aiding in weight management and stabilizing your mood.
- Washing and drying clothes: Bending, lifting, and moving around while doing laundry can burn 100-200 calories per hour.
- Cleaning bathrooms: Scrubbing, wiping, and disinfecting bathrooms provide a full-body workout, burning 150-300 calories per hour.
- Dusting and organizing: Light cleaning tasks like dusting and decluttering can burn 100-200 calories per hour.