Contrary to popular belief that housework is as healthy as exercising, researchers of a new study found that people who replace exercising with housework are heavier than people who exercise.
You may be familiar with the popular belief that says doing household chores can keep you fit and healthy. In fact, many are of the opinion that exercising can actually be replaced by housework. However, researchers of a new study found that this couldn't be further from the truth.
In the new study, researchers found people who replaced their daily quota of physical activities with household chores were heavier than those whose time was spent in other forms of exercise.
"Housework is physical activity and any physical activity should theoretically increase the amount of calories expended. But we found that housework was inversely related to leanness which suggests that either people are overestimating the amount of moderate intensity physical activity they do through housework, or are eating too much to compensate for the amount of activity undertaken," said Prof Marie Murphy, who led this study.
Health officials recommend 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity a week. However, when questioned, only 43 percent of the total population reportedly met or exceeded the recommendations. In fact, if you removed housework from a woman's daily count of physical activities, only 20 percent met the recommended limit.
"When talking to people about the amount of physical activity they need to stay healthy, it needs to be made clear that housework may not be intense enough to contribute to the weekly target and that other more intense activities also need to be included each week," the professor said.
Exercising has many effects on the body including enhancing mental and physical health. A pervious study found that regular exercise can lead to a good night's sleep.
