If you’re running a busy household, you’ll know that a daily gym session can be the first to drop off your long list of things to do. And with the UK now in a national lockdown, it’s not like you’d be able to go to the gym, even if you wanted to!
But hope is not lost. Sure, it may feel like you spend all of your spare time trying to sort out the never emptying washing basket, or tackling a continuously growing pile of ironing, but did you know that doing these tasks are the equivalent of having a workout? In fact, it turns out that every month, your household chores could help you to burn a staggering 20,000 calories – that’s the same as 16,816 burpees!
The household chores that burn the most calories
We ran a study of 1,000 participants to reveal the average time spent on daily and monthly chores across households in the UK. We then calculated how many calories each chore would equate to over the month, as well as how many burpees you’d need to do to match the calories.
The biggest burning household chore is cleaning your house or flat, which equates to 3,976 calories a month (you’d need to do 3,340 burpees to burn that!). In second place is cooking, at 2,856 calories a month, and mopping in third place, at 2,724 calories a month.
Of course, calories burnt vary depending on a person’s weight. We worked out the calorie counts based on the average weight of a person being 156 pounds. So, if you weigh more, you’ll burn more calories, but if you weigh less, you’ll burn less.
So, the next time you’re berating yourself for not making time for the gym (or if you’re feeling down about not being able to go because of lockdown!), just remember that you’re still getting a workout with your daily household chores!
Methodology
We ran a survey of 1,000 participants, which questioned what their daily and weekly activities consisted of, and how much time they spent on each activity. We then calculated calorie data by using https://caloriecontrol.org/healthy-weight-tool-kit/get-moving-calculator/.
To calculate the number of burpees, we used the figure of 1.19 calories burnt per burpee: https://bootcampmilitaryfitnessinstitute.com/2018/02/22/how-many-calories-does-a-burpee-burn/.