Think Cleaning Isn’t Exercise? Think Again

Running the vacuum cleaner over a carpet isn’t nearly as strenuous as running around the track. However, recent research shows that how we think about cleaning and housekeeping can actually affect how many calories we burn while doing it.

Psychologists at Harvard University wanted to find out whether exercise and health is moderated by one’s mindset. They noted that although housekeepers spend the majority of day doing physically strenuous work, few considered themselves physically active. Furthermore, their body types reflected this perception of inactivity, rather than the fact that most of them were essentially working out all day, every day.

To study this phenomenon, the researchers took baseline physiologic measurements of eighty-four hotel housekeepers and then divided the group in half. The informed group was told that housekeeping is good exercise and meets the Surgeon General’s requirement for daily physical activity. The researchers showed them how certain activities work specific muscle groups and burns calories. The control group was not given any of this information. Four weeks later, although neither group had any change in activity, the informed group perceived themselves to be getting more exercise. What’s more, this perception actually resulted in objective measurements of better health. Compared to the uninformed group, the group that perceived their housework as exercise had decreased weight, blood pressure, body fat, waist-to-hip ratio, and body mass index.

Could losing weight really be that simple? Just believe it’s exercise and that makes it so?

The placebo effect is real (at least in the above study) but I’m not sure it’s going to help the masses lose their asses. We may not be able to hang up the running shoes just yet, but knowledge is power, and the majority of us have to clean our domiciles. Might as well be aware that it’s burning calories, so perhaps more of them will be lost.

Exactly how many calories are we burning while scrubbing? Here’s a breakdown of approximately how many calories we burn per cleaning activity per hour: 

• Sweeping: 240
• Packing/Unpacking: 220
• Scrubbing floors on hands and knees: 325