12 Home Chores that Burn the Most Calories
Carpenter Kevin Stevens of KMS Woodworks burning some calories by building a wall. Photo: KMS Woodworks.
By Steve Graham, Networx
Running marathons and swimming laps are not the only way to burn calories. Housekeeping and yard work can also help you keep off the pounds. Here are 12 of the top calorie-burning home and garden chores, with estimated hourly calorie-burn rates for an average 145-pound person. Of course, each person mows, mops and dusts at a different pace and burns a different number of calories, so these are general estimates.
The first number is provided by the Livestrong Foundation, which lists the number of calories burned for a wide variety of jobs, sports and other activities. Wherever possible, a second number is provided by My Fitness Pal, which offers tracking for both caloric intake and caloric burn, online or with iPhone and Android apps.
My Fitness Pal has a smaller list of activities, so not all chores have two estimates. For example, the site does not break down specific cleaning activities but estimates that cleaning burns between 164 and 197 calories per hour for a 145-pound person. Likewise, gardening burns about 263 calories per hour, according to My Fitness Pal.
We also list caloric equivalents for the number of calories burned per hour. Many of the items and their caloric values are listed at Fatsecret.com.
1. Vigorous barn cleaning (526 calories per hour): My wifes grandmother believes jeans should never be worn in polite company, and are only good for mucking out the barn. However, a few hours of barn cleaning could help you fit into smaller jeans. Mucking a barn for an hour burns off the caloric equivalent of one pound of pink salmon, and is by far the heaviest calorie-burning chore.
