How To Burn Calories While Doing Your Household Chores
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When you add household chores to your daily schedule, there’s no way you’re going to be left with enough time to sweat it out at the gym. Especially with today’s hectic lifestyle where you have to juggle it all – work, home, friends, a very demanding bae, and even kids if you’re a parent! Add the madness of it all and it leaves you with one very important question:
How do I stay fit?
The answer to this question is easier than you think it is. As long as you’re carrying out your daily household chores, you don’t really need the gym to look fine and keep your waistline in check!
Here are 7 household chores that can help keep you fit as a fiddle when working out is not an option:
1. Mopping
Time taken: 30 minutes
Calories burned: 190 kcal
A great way to keep your limbs toned and shapely is to sweep around your house for 30 minutes! Don’t panic at the amount of time. If you’re living in a big apartment, it’ll take you that much time to sweep your house anyway. And even if you’re living in a tiny pigeonhole, it still adds up to the other chores you have to do!
2. Gardening
Time taken: 60 minutes
Calories burned: 256 kcal
If you have a green thumb, this calorie-burning chore is going to be very enjoyable for you! And if you don’t, maybe it’s time to have a little kitchen garden of your own in the balcony? After all, you get fresh produce. That said, gardening helps in flexing the muscles in your arms, neck, and shoulders, ensuring they stay shapely.
3. Car Washing
Time taken: 30 minutes
Calories burned: 150 kcal
Remember all those car washing scenes in movies and how they look? Well, we don’t know if it’s going to look like that, but it’s surely going to get you hot and sweaty, which means calorie burning! Anyway, this is a great full body workout, no matter what kind of vehicle you own. If you don’t have a vehicle, substitute it with going up and down the stairs.
4. Cleaning The Utensils
Time taken: 30 minutes
Calories burned: 75-80 kcal
If you’ve got chubby arms and want to exercise them a little more, cleaning utensils can help with that. You won’t be burning a lot of calories, sure, but it’ll add up if you want to pay extra attention to your arms and shoulders and consider them as problem areas. Besides, isn’t it a great feeling when you stack up sparkly dishes on the kitchen rack?
5. Manually Washing Clothes
Time taken: 30 minutes
Calories burned: 150 kcal
The effort of hand washing clothes might be too much but it’s totally worth it! It’s one hell of a high-intensity workout that helps you burn a lot of calories in a very short time frame. And it works out your entire body too! You’re practically using every muscle while you’re sitting on the bathroom floor and washing your clothes in a bucket.
Your back, arms, biceps, shoulders and even your abs – all of them get flexed in the process of this humble exercise! If you want to increase the intensity of this workout, throw in your bae’s clothes into the pile too!
6. Walking And Going Grocery Shopping
Time taken: 30 minutes
Calories burned: 100 kcal
If your local sabzi mandi or supermarket is not too far off (read: walking distance away), then stop taking your car or bike and walk to the store instead. And make it a point to walk back too. Carrying all that weight is a great strength-training workout. Also, make it a point to take the stairs in your building as well as those in the supermarket. It’ll help solve any digestion issues you face. Win-win for you, eh?
7. Cleaning The Windows
Time taken: 30 minutes
Calories burned: 100 kcal
Although this is dependent on the number and the size of windows in your house, it is an effective workout regardless, as it has multiple layers to it. You have to dust the windows first, then wipe with a soapy cloth, and then with a clean one. It’s these layers that help in working out your arms, neck, and shoulders quite well. Even your back and legs too (to a certain extent) if you have floor length windows and have to bend to clean them. Besides, the satisfaction of a sparkling clean home is bound to release your happy hormones!
Easy-peasy, right? Who knew household chores could pack in so many benefits! We suggest you get rid of the maid and take the onus of all your household chores on yourself. Think of all the money you’ll be saving on both gym memberships and maid expenses!
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