Short bouts of activity can significantly boost your fitness levels. Engaging in household chores like dusting or gardening can help you stay active and move your body more frequently. While these tasks don’t replace regular exercise, they can mitigate the negative effects of a sedentary lifestyle and even aid in weight loss. Some chores are considered light to moderate activities, while others can provide a full workout. Modern conveniences like washing machines, dishwashers, and vacuum cleaners have made life easier but also reduced opportunities to burn calories. However, these chores can be a practical way to stay active, especially during heatwaves.
These small tasks of activity can significantly enhance your fitness. Household chores such as dusting, walking the dog, and preparing meals can keep you from sitting continuously and encourage frequent movement. Tasks like washing clothes or cleaning bathrooms can make a noticeable difference in your fitness levels when done regularly.
“Maintaining a healthy weight is crucial to avoiding diseases like diabetes, heart disease, and arthritis. Engaging in physical activity promotes improved circulation and regulates metabolism, which is essential for overall health. While going to the gym or playing sports are popular options, everyday household chores can help you stay fit and reduce fat,” says Shlloka Joshi, a Classical Hatha Yoga Teacher & Lifestyle Expert.
Household chores to 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. Being in touch with the earth while gardening has additional benefits. If your hands and bare feet are in contact with the earth, it 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.
These activities fall under NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis), referring to the calories burned through everyday movements and activities outside of planned exercise. Incorporating more household chores into your routine can increase your NEAT, leading to a higher overall daily calorie burn.
Read More: Click Here
