Who told you that you couldn’t burn those calories unless you hit the gym? Doing regular everyday chores also helps in burning calories. Although it may not be as much as heavy weight training and cardio at the gym, but it is still effective. A standard workout session will help in burning 500 calories per session, especially if you are training to lose weight. Let us see how effective everyday chores are in reference with this figure, so that you can take full advantage of it when you miss your regular work out session.

1. Shopping

Be it stocking your regular supply of foodstuff, fruits and vegetables or shopping for clothes at the mall, it all requires a lot of walking when you are involved in shopping. It keeps you on your feet for hours! Add in a little enthusiasm and walk, run or cycle to the grocery store for a good cardio session—try to pick a store, which is a little farther. At the shopping mall, take the stairs and try running up them or climb them by skipping alternate ones! However, just being on your feet shopping can burn 130 calories per hour. Every extra effort you put in will pile on to those figures considerably.

2. Cleaning

 

All that kneeling down, sweeping, scrubbing and vacuuming would not only keep your house spick and span, but also help in burning some of those calories. Incorporate all that lunges, dips, planks, calf raises, squats, thrusters and twists for a wholesome full body workout while you do different chores from doing the dishes, scrubbing the walls to doing the laundry. Add in a few good stretches in the end so that you don’t over-strain any muscle. Oh, and don’t forget to plug in some fast music while you are at it! A good session of this cleaning routine can burn out at least 170 calories every hour.

3. Cooking

A healthy way to eat anything you want is by cooking whatever it is that you crave for; You want that pizza, just make it yourself and chances are you will probably end up with lesser calories by eliminating unwanted and poor quality ingredients. So, cooking your food by yourself is beneficial in weight reduction. However, the effort you spend on doing this chore is important too, as it requires quite a bit of standing and moving your upper body repeatedly. Clubbing in muscle specific actions during cooking can result in lean muscle formation and cutting down calories. You can do stretches with the support of kitchen counter tops or simply by leaning against the fridge! A good abs workout is possible on the kitchen floors while you wait for the cake to bake. An average of 150 calories is burnt every hour you cook your meal.

4. Washing your vehicle

All of us today own some sort of a vehicle, be it a motorbike or a car for commuting. We generally get it cleaned at gas station or workshop, but doing the tedious cleaning by yourself has some health benefits too. Mostly cleaning your vehicles involve scrubbing and lots of leg movements—squats, calf raises and stretching your legs. Most of the big muscles in your body are in the lower half of your body and working them out helps burning more calories. Washing a tall car can burn up to 250 calories an hour!

5. Clearing the snow

Its that time of the year again when your driveways are piled with snow and slush beneath. Though it is a sore eye in the morning, shoveling it off your driveway burns 150 calories in 30 minutes– that’s some good stats there! So instead of cursing the snow, make use of it to burn off those extra calories you put on the previous night at that late dinner.