Your minimum goal for exercise should be 150 minutes a week -- and you'll need to fit in even more activity if you're trying to drop pounds and maintain that loss. That news may be a downer if you're averse to exercise, but many of your daily activities can help you burn calories to keep your weight in check. Because intensity and frequency are major factors, those everyday activities alone will not help you reach your weight loss goals.
Yardwork
Mowing the lawn with a push mower, gardening, raking leaves -- these activities provide a solid calorie burn and require use of several muscles. In fact, if you weigh around 155 pounds, you can expect to burn almost 300 calories after an hour of raking the yard, according to the activity chart from the Wisconsin Division of Public Health. Gardening and mowing burn 352 and 387 calories per hour, respectively. More vigorous activity, such as chopping wood, burns 220 calories in just 30 minutes for a 154 pound man, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Housework
If you turn your attention to indoor chores and maintenance, you also can burn calories. Simple tidying up doesn't yield a substantial burn at 176 calories in an hour for a 155 person person, especially since a light cleaning will probably not take a whole hour. More intense cleaning, however, can provide a calorie burn of 246 to 317 per hour. Fixing up your home with a paint job also burns 317 calories an hour.
Taking Care of the Kids
It can be a challenge to find exercise time if you're busy taking care of the kids, but this important daily responsibility can help keep you active. Just dressing and feeding your children can burn 211 to 246 calories in an hour for someone who weighs 155 pounds. Pushing a stroller burns almost 200 calories an hour. While it's unlikely you're spending a whole hour doing such activities, minutes add up throughout the day. Even playtime with your kids is a good calorie burner. An hour of moderately intense playing burns almost 300 calories per hour and is good for both you and your children.
Dancing
Whether you like to dance the night away out on the town or prefer to practice your moves behind closed doors, dancing is a good choice for a fun aerobic workout. It gets your heart pumping and works a variety of muscles. While even slow ballroom dancing burns calories, your best bet is to engage in some faster-paced moves to maximize the calorie burn. An hour of typical dancing burns 317 calories per hour if you're around 155 pounds, which is more than 100 calories more than what you'd burn by a seemingly more intense activity like surfing.
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