You'll never see a leaf raking or lawn mowing machine at your gym. But you can still make these everyday chores into a meaningful part of your weight-loss or workout program.
Estimates
If you weigh 185 lb., you could burn 222 calories in 30 minutes of carrying and stacking wood, or 266 calories while chopping and splitting wood, according to Harvard Health Publications. Other estimates include 266 calories per half hour of shoveling snow, and 178 calories per 30 minutes of raking leaves.
Why it Matters
When you burn more calories than you consume, your body is forced to use stored fat as fuel. End result: You lose weight. Burning 3,500 extra calories is equivalent to losing 1 lb. of body fat.
Make it Count More
You probably don't have enough wood to chop and stack, leaves to rake or snow to shovel to get your workout through yard work every day. But when you do have to do these chores, make them count as much as possible by picking up the pace. The harder you work, the more calories you burn -- and the faster you'll be done.
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