Household chores such as sweeping, vacuuming and even watering plants can burn more
calories than you would think. This is great news, considering chilly winter days can make it hard to motivate yourself get out and move. To help you figure out how many calories your daily chores are really burning, we’ve compiled a list of some common household chores and the number of calories burned from doing them for one hour.
- Cooking- 68
- Doing laundry- 68
- Light chores (changing lightbulbs, pumping gas, etc.)- 68
- Making the bed- 68
- Grocery shopping- 88
- Ironing- 88
- Putting away clothes- 88
- Washing dishes- 88
- Building a fire indoors- 102
- Feeding animals- 102
- Light cleaning (dusting, changing sheets, taking out trash)- 102
- Putting away groceries- 102
- Setting the table- 102
- Setting the table and serving food- 102
- Watering plants- 102
- Playing with children- 102-272, depending on activity level
- Playing with animals- 102-272, depending on activity level
- Carrying small children- 136
- Child care- 136
- Heavy cleaning (washing windows, cleaning garage)- 136
- Indoor sweeping- 156
- Bathing dog- 170
- Mopping- 170
- Vacuuming- 170
- Scrubbing floors- 190
- Elder care- 204
- Outdoor sweeping (garage, sidewalk, etc.)- 204
- Operating snow blower- 238
- Moving furniture- 340
- Shoveling snow- 340
Information from www.calorielab.com.
Athnie McMillan-Comeaux is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at ssole@cityscenemediagroup.com.
