well,
here's a calculator I found.
According to the calculator above, if you weigh 150 pounds, here's how many calories you would expend (approximately as everyone is different):
Cleaning house, General: 237 calories per hour
Cleaning, light, moderate effort: 170 calories per hour
Cleaning, heavy, vigorous effort: 306 calories per hour.
So is this going to be the same as exercising? Well it really depends on WHAT kind of exercise you do and how vigrously you do it...for example:
Walking, 3.0 MPH, moderate pace - 236 calories per hour
Stretching, hatha yoga - 272 calories per hour
Bicycling, 12-13.9 MPH, moderate effort - 544 calories per hour
Running, 5 MPH (12 minute mile) - 544 calories per hour
There are exercise calculators all over the web - here's what I got
from the one at this link - again the calories are based on 1 hour of activity at 150 pounds.
Activity Calories burned
Sleeping 63
Reading 72
Sitting 72
Talking on phone 72
Standing 81
Driving 144
Ironing 153
Shopping 162
Cooking 180
Housework 198
Archery 234
Bicycling - leisure 270
Showering 288
Calisthenics - moderate 306
Badminton 306
Aerobics - low impact 414
Rearranging Furniture 450
Stair Step Machine 477
Aerobics - high impact 477
Backpacking 477
Jogging 477
Bicycling - Mountain 576
Elliptical trainer 774
Running 12 mph 1,521
Summing up - unless you lack the modern conveniences to do your housework such as a washer and dryer or vacumn cleaner, and have to pump water from a well, and so on... (there's a great book on the history of housework titled
Never Done which is definitely worth a read!) then I'd say that housecleaning is NOT the equivalent of exercise...but that's just IMO.
cleaning
< how cute!!
