In the less than 10 minutes it takes to read this article, you’ll expend about 15 calories, assuming you’re sitting upright and weigh 150 pounds.
If you plan to spend the next hour leaning over a casino table, you’ll burn 156 calories. Praying to hit the jackpot? Praying (while kneeling) is 68 calories.
Scientists have assigned a calorie value to a dizzying array of activities. Cleaning out an illegal dump site: 450 calories. Painting over graffiti: 342. Digging for worms: 272.
“People have measured just about everything,” says John Porcari, an exercise researcher at the University of Wisconsin at La Crosse. “They’ve compared regular vacuuming to self-propelled vacuuming. Hand-held snow blowers to automatic ones. “
For more than a century, scientists studying calories and physical activity have approached the task in pretty much the same way–slapping masks on subjects and analyzing their exhalations. Now they can do it more accurately.
It may be tempting to dismiss the idea of assigning calorie values to everyday activities, but the research is providing a treasure trove of data on why some people stay lean and others slide into obesity.
“You can go through a wide range of occupations and household chores,” says William Haskell, a professor of medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine, “and see there have been small declines, day in and day out, at work and at home.”
Researchers are quick to point out that the values they arrive at–though reasonably consistent–are by no means absolute, because of individual differences in how an activity may be performed.
The point to keep in mind about such calorie estimates is that although the figures aren’t precisely accurate, they’re useful for comparing activities, says Dr. Robert Rizza, an endocrinologist and professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic.
“I’m looking at something on my wall,” Rizza says. “It says jogging 6 miles an hour at 150 pounds is 11.6 calories a minute, and mowing grass is 4.1 calories per minute. When I’m jogging, am I really expending 11.6 calories? I don’t know that for sure, but I certainly know I’m burning more calories jogging than mowing the lawn.”
HOW EVERYDAY ACTIVITIES ADD UP
Calorie counters can be found on many Web sites, including caloriesperhour.com.
Here are some estimated expenditures per hour for a 150-pound person:
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ACTIVITY CAL*
Assembly work, sitting 102
Bobsledding 476
Chambermaid work 170
Cleaning rain gutters 340
Computer work 120
Firefighting 816
Jackhammering 408
Light kissing 68
Napping 61
Office work at desk 122
Sexual activity, active 102
Sexual activity, moderate 88
Shoveling coal 476
Taking a shower 136
Walking with crutches 340
Washing the dog 238
Watching TV 68
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