For me, the holidays are all about eating, drinking, and general merry making with friends and family. All that celebrating can add up to gaining at least five unnecessary pounds. That is no way to ring in the New Year. If you can't make it to the gym, you can maximize the calorie burning potential in your holiday chores. I have made a little chart to help find some ways to burn those extra holiday calories. All the calculations are based on a 130 to 140 pound woman.
To see how you can burn it up, just read more.
| Activity | Calories burned |
| Go shopping. After each store, instead of lugging your bags around, walk back to your car. The extra trips back and forth will burn more calories. | 1 hour burns 207 calories. |
| Wrap gifts. | 30 minutes burns 48 calories. |
| Vacuum, dust, wash floors, scrub the bathrooms, and do other house cleaning to get ready for guests. | 1 hour burns 191 calories. |
| Drive to the Christmas Tree Farm, hike around to find the perfect tree and cut it down. | 30 minutes burns 100 calories. |
| Decorate the tree, and go up and down the ladder to decorate your house with lights. | 1 hour burns 250 calories. |
| Light holiday baking. | 1 hour burns 159 calories. |
| Shoveling snow from your driveway and walkway by hand. | 1 hour burns 374 calories. |
| Take a walk around your neighborhood to deliver holiday cards. | 1 hour burns 207 calories. |
| Nature hike before dinner. | 30 minutes burns 190 calories. |
Finesse
Early 20
Rag and Bone
Good to know about the baking. I made sugar cookies yesterday and decorated them, so at least that burnt off the one that I later ate.
1the thing about baking is: ok. you have burned this many calories, but how can you resist gaining all of those calories back? every time i bake, i end up eating the left over batter in the pan, or at least taste testing the outcome
2those are some decent suggestions - but the one thing to think about is that if you're going back and forth to your car after every store - you're probably going to anger some people in the parking lot since you know how people always follow you as you're walking to your car in the hopes of getting a spot.
3Shoveling snow is probably the best workout you can do. Especially when it's deep heavy snow. It'll make you sweat in about 30 seconds.
4I just say eat mindfully and walk extra distances--I like the walking back to the car but really? That might be a bit... odd. Why don't you just park in the furthest parking spot and make sure you do double loops when walking around. Carrying your bags around is like carrying some weights (depending on what you buy) so it's really not too too bad
5No snow shoveling for me!
6Snow shoveling STINKS!!! I like the walking suggestions. I always forget that just taking a walk is a great way to exercise. Plus, 5 lbs is not too bad
7I think the light holiday baking does not provide for picking... a few chocolate chips here and there will definitely negate any calories burned!! That one has GOT to be scratched off my list! haha
8Great ideas! I always try to walk 2 laps around the mall before going into any stores. It gives me some extra exercise and a chance to make my game plan.
9I'm doing some holiday baking today...good to know I'll be burning off at least a couple of calories while I'm doing it, lol.
Too cold to go for a long walk though...I'm only going out for about 20 minutes to walk my pooch, but since it's -20 with the windchill, we have to be careful.
10i think i ate more calories than burned when baking. I simply cannot resist licking the bowl and tools clean. damn pumpkin bread batter. oh so yummy. add the optional choc chips or raisins and that definetly more than the burn.
loads of walking i agree with
no snow to shovel here. . .
11i think i ate more calories than burned when baking. I simply cannot resist licking the bowl and tools clean. damn pumpkin bread batter. oh so yummy. add the optional choc chips or raisins and that definetly more than the burn.
loads of walking i agree with
no snow to shovel here. . .
12Awesome. I've spent almost fourteen hours baking over the last few days and I was feeling a little guilty that I wasn't getting any walking in, but if those stats are correct, then I actually burned way more calories in the kitchen than I would have on the treadmill. Who knew?
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