Holiday Activities & Calorie Burn

With all the excitement, busyness, and stress of the holidays, many of us seem to feel like we do not enough hours in the day to get everything accomplished.    How many of us stress out when we do not get our exercise in because we are “getting ready” for the holidays?  I know I do.  It is ok to cut down on your exercise so you can more enjoy the holidays.    Most of us may actually increase our daily caloric expenditure (not including exercise) during the holiday season due to everything that needs to get done for the holidays.  

Below are some holiday activities that most of us engage in including the estimated calories burned for 30 minutes of doing that activity.

• Shopping: 112 calories, whether it is shopping for gifts or grocery shopping.
• Touring/ Traveling: 100 calories, take a walk around the neighborhood to look at Holiday lights.
• Cooking: 100 calories, since we eat more during the holidays, we have to cook more.
• Housework: 137 calories.  The house has to be spotless for the guest, plus cleanup after gifts.
• Standing: 56 calories.  Yes, standing, but that is what we do at holiday parties.
• Playing board games with family and friends: 75 calories. 
• Dancing: 150-281 calories. This is a fun and effective way to burn calories and that holiday party!
• Wrapping presents: 106 calories.  I did not find the estimated caloric expenditure for wrapping presents so I used the estimated caloric expenditure for “ironing”.   I thought they were similar because we primarily use our arms for both of them.

These particular numbers vary according to your weight. To do your own calculation, go to http://www.healthstatus.com/calculate/cbc. Just choose an activity; enter your weight and time allotted to come up with your exact calorie burn. You can have some fun with this calculator!  

As you can see, we have a lot of activity during the holidays.   So, don’t beat yourself up if you miss a workout.   Go do all the things you need to do for the holidays and enjoy them.  

Happy Holidays!

Post written by Jeremy Workman, Personal Trainer at Motivation Fitness, West Conshohocken