Did you know that working out isn’t the only way for you to burn calories? Sure, the time you spend on the treadmill or lifting weights is the time when you burn the most calories, but there are so many more ways you can burn calories.
That’s right, I’m talking about those activities you do every day. Your house needs to be cleaned, your laundry needs to be folded, your shopping needs to be done, and the list goes on. All of those things can be an opportunity for you to burn calories, and the number of calories you can burn might surprise you!
Dust Your House
You can burn over 80 calories in just a half hour of dusting your home. Wipe down all the surfaces, clear out the cobwebs, and get your house looking great, and you’ll expend some energy in the process!
Go Shopping
Walking around the supermarket aisles is actually surprisingly good way to burn calories, particularly if you shop in huge stores like Costco or Sam’s Club. Even just pushing your shopping cart around your local grocery store burns almost 250 calories in a single hour, and you can increase the number of calories you burn by bagging your own purchases, carrying them to your car by hand, and walking your cart back to its place.
Iron
You can burn almost 80 calories in half an hour of ironing, so it’s time to break out the ironing board and get your family’s clothes wrinkle free!
Painting
Does your house need a bit of work done to get it looking good? You can get in a pretty awesome workout by painting your home–burning about 350 calories per hour. Applying a fresh coat of paint to a single room can help you to burn a few hundred extra calories, and it’s a great way to make sure that your home stays in good condition.
Pick Up Trash
Want to really give yourself a workout while cleaning up your neighborhood. Grab a trash bag and start walking around your area picking up garbage. After a couple of hours of this, you will have burned as much as 1,000 calories!
Fold Laundry
Folding laundry only burns about 150 calories per hour, but you can burn a few more calories by making multiple trips up and down the stairs. The more you walk at home, the more calories you burn!
Sweep
Sweeping can be a surprisingly good workout, particularly if you are sweeping outside or are trying to clean a very large area. You’ll find that you can burn about 500 calories in an hour of sweeping, and you’ll get the house looking great at the same time!
Mop
If you thought sweeping was good exercise, wait until you break out the mop and get down to mopping the floors. Mopping burns roughly 600 calories in an hour, so a good mopping of your house can leave you sweating and burning calories.
Scrub
If you have tile floors, you’ll find that a good scrub session is a great way to burn calories. You’ll feel the ache in your arms, and you’ll be breathing hard within just a few minutes. Half an hour of vigorous scrubbing can burn about 350 calories!
Mow the Lawn
If you use the old push mower rather than a riding mower, you can get a good workout and keep your lawn looking great at the same time. Just an hour of pushing that mower around will burn over 300 calories, and you’ll earn a bonus 170 calories in half an hour of raking!