It’s not necessary to join a gym, an exercise club or sign up for a marathon to get more active. You can get fit anywhere even in the privacy of your own front room. Here's how many calories (kcal) you'll burn off doing household chores per 30 minute session
- Vacuuming — between 75 and 125 depending how vigorous you are!
- Making beds — 70
- Cooking — 40–50
- Raking leaves — 110
- Lawn mowing — between 150 and 225 depending on how much you have to push it!
30 minutes of sleeping, by comparison will burn just 25 – 30 calories.
A brisk walk of about 2 miles burns an extra 200 calories per day. If you did this most days of the week, you would see substantial health benefits. It sounds a lot, but making small changes over a few months can make a real difference.
Now that your house and garden are in shape, here's approximately how many calories are used on other activities per 30 minute session
- Gentle Walking — 60–75
- Fast Walking — 210–240
- Badminton (singles) — 175
- Golf (if you carry your clubs!) — 180
- Jogging — 175–250
The whole family can benefit from keeping active, and your house and garden will see the results too!
- Car washing, lawn mowing, dog walking or room tidying — make those chores part of an exercise plan for all the family.
- Getting the chores out of the way can help you make more time to do the things you enjoy doing together.
Pick a typical week and see how active you really are. You may have become used to doing things that you could easily change.
- Think about how often you drive rather than walk, how often you stand motionless on the escalator, what you do in your spare time.
- Write it all down, take a cold hard look at it and find some ways to build more activity into your daily life
Set a target of 30 minutes extra physical activity per day. You don’t need to do it all at the same time but can break it into three sessions of 10 minutes each.
Exercising releases chemicals in the brain called seratonins that can reduce anxiety, stress and depression so if you don’t feel like exercising remind yourself how good it makes you feel afterwards. The government recommends walking 10,000 steps per day to maintain a healthy body weight. See how many steps you do in a day and try to increase the number you do.
For information on activities in your area visit www.activeplaces.com