Housework Inversely Linked to Leanness: Study

A new study suggests that housework that women claim as exercise does not help in losing weight.

The study published in BioMed Central's Open Journal access journal BMC Public Health, found that people who include housework in their moderate to vigorous physical activity regime tend to be heavier when compared to those who spend the same time in other forms of exercise.

Recommendations according to the UK Department of Health,  claim that 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity a week is good. But when the people were quizzed about the activity level, only 43 percent of the population succeeded in meeting or exceeding the guideline.  And two thirds of the population did 10 minutes of housework daily.

The researchers worked on the data collected from  Sport & Physical Activity Survey (SAPAS) by the University of Ulster. The analysis of the data revealed that those who were involved in housework as a part of their weekly exercise were heavier.

Prof Marie Murphy who led this study said in a statement, "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."

Higher levels of housework were seen in women and older people. By excluding home work from the list of activities, only 20 percent of the women met the guidelines.

Prof Murphy concluded, "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."