Daily housework can help you lose weight
Daily chores like mopping and washing the car can help you lose weight, a study has shown.
Some of the most beneficial chores are those done at home, where sweeping and vacuuming can burn more than 200 calories an hour.
Ironing takes almost as much energy as walking or running for half an hour, because all the movements required are similar to those in fast walking.
Cleaning windows and polishing hard floors burns about the same number of calories as cycling for 30 minutes, while cutting grass is equivalent to running for an hour.
An hour of vacuuming is the same as 20 minutes of jogging and an hour of laundry is the same as 40 minutes of weight lifting.
The study’s authors, from Harvard University in the US, say that daily housework can help people to meet physical activity guidelines and lose weight.
They claim that for an average adult, this is equivalent to 2,300 calories per week – equivalent to 1.1kg (2lb 6oz) per month.
Those who live in more affluent areas with bigger homes and gardens could actually lose even more weight.
Commenting on the study, Dr Michelle Mielke, from the Medical Research Council’s Human Nutrition Research unit at Cambridge University, said: ‘The paper gives a useful review of work that has been done on energy expenditure during household activities.
‘Burning a couple of hundred calories a day helping around the house could help us to achieve modest weight loss goals.
However, it is important to remember that physical activity is not a substitute for changing our eating habits and reducing the amount of calories we eat.’ In the study, published in May in journal PLoS One, US researchers analyzed 18 previous studies all of which looked at the number of calories burned during common household tasks.
They found that an hour of ironing was similar to walking for 38 minutes, while cutting grass was equivalent to running for 50 minutes and washing a car burned more than 200 calories – about five to eight per cent of the recommended daily caloric intake for women and six to 10 per cent for men.
They also discovered that doing the laundry used up almost as many calories as cycling for 30 minutes, while an hour of mopping was equal to 20 minutes of jogging and vacuuming equated to 22 minutes running.
The researchers suggest that if an individual spends just two hours a week doing physical activity associated with daily housework they will gain weight loss benefits.
They claim that light daily activities such as ironing, sweeping and washing dishes are likely to be more manageable for people who have difficulty fitting in a structured exercise routine into their busy schedules. ‘The key is to find ways to build physical activity into our daily routine.