The Burning Truth

Happy Monday!

Ready to move it?

I hope so because I’ve compiled a list of common activities, both everyday and exercise-related and how many calories each burns (in one hour) to help you get a better idea of how many slices of pie you can eat how much/what kind of moving it you need to do to maintain or change your shape.

Now, keep in mind that these are approximate and are based on the efforts of a 150 lb. person (generally speaking, the more you weigh, the more you burn…and vice versa), but these should at least make for a useful guide. Also, knowing how many burpees it takes to burn off a bowl of Chunky Monkey might help keep you from turning into something that resembles your snack’s name. 

Calories burned/hour

  1. Running (8-minute-mile): 900, Jogging: 475
  2. Soccer (competitive): 480, Basketball: 450, Volleyball: 300
  3. Push-ups (moderate): 340, (vigorous): 575/HOUR (Push-ups are great and all, but ONE HOUR of them…yeesh!)
  4. Weight-lifting, (moderate): 230  (vigorous): 400 (Body Pump would fall into this range).
  5. Sitting on your bum reading blogs: 70 (not that I want you to stop!), Writing: 70 (this blogging business isn’t terribly great for one’s waistline on the reading or the writing end!).
  6. Pushing a stroller (with a kid in it!): 180
  7. Step aerobics (low impact): 475, (high): 700
  8. Teeth-brushing (just wanted to make sure you were still with me): 170 (Can you imagine? Your fitness accountability partner wants to know what kind of exercise you did today, and you say, “Weeeellll, I brushed my teeth for an hour. It was on some blogger chick’s list.”  Neither she nor your gums would find it funny).
  9. Power yoga: 350, Bikram (hot) yoga: 475
  10. Kickboxing: 700
  11. Backpacking: 500
  12. Elliptical: 775
  13. Dance aerobics (including Zumba): 400 (NOT the 1,200 cals/hr that your calorie-counting watch from Walmart claims you burned…but that’s another post for another time).
  14. Badminton (uh-huh): 300
  15. Housework: 200, Carrying an infant: 250

Aaaand…because I’m pretty sure I would be violating some sort of unspoken blogger code by posting an entry without any photos, I thought I’d show you the following pic from about 10 p.m. last night…brought to you by Keepin’ it Real.


Carrying a child WHILE doing housework (15 minutes) = 75 cals burned.  Of course, Apple Crostata for dessert = way more consumed. Ugh. Math stinks.

If you would like to look up the approximate caloric expenditure of an activity I may not have included (although I’m pretty sure I got the really big ones: badminton…check…teeth-brushing…check, check), my source for today’s numbers was: (I will say most of their numbers seemed a tad high to me). 

Here’s to moving it!

See you tomorrow for Try-it Tuesday!

4 thoughts on “The Burning Truth

  1. My brain hurts after reading all of that… I am not big on exercise. Maybe I should be! But I can tell you that if you come to my house, chances are you just might find me vacuuming whilst holding an infant! So that counts as exercise, right?? Love the pic! Her eyes are bright at 10 PM!

  2. If Bikram only burns 150 more calories than regular power yoga, that totally justifies me hating Bikram and never doing it again!! I will just eat that much less food and not have to die from sweating!!

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