Skip the gym and burn off the calories with these DIY jobs

The DIY jobs that burn the most calories revealed

If you're looking to budge that 'corona stone' that built up over the last six months DIY-ing could be the answer. Here are the DIY jobs that burn the most calories, so you can get a workout in while doing up the house. Sounds like a win-win to us.

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With the help of a trusty Fitbit MyJobQuote.co.uk uncovered the DIY jobs that burn the most calories. Three men and three women were tasked with various DIY jobs over 15 days, to work out the ones that busted the most calories.

DIY jobs that burn the most calories

Sanding was revealed to burn the most calories, with men burning 456 calories an hour and women burning 392. Sanding is an essential part of most DIY projects, whether you are repainting furniture or kitchen cupboards. Sanding a large piece of furniture or dining set can sometimes take as long as half a day, talk about working up a sweat.

DIY jobs that burn the most calories

(Image credit: Future PLC/Simon Whitmore)

Carpentry came in as the second biggest calorie burner. The male participants reported burning 438 calories in one hour, while the female participants burnt 383.

'To hand, a door takes about twenty minutes to an hour, and installing a door frame will take around the same amount of time,' explains Kane Huges, DIY expert at MyJobQuote.co.uk. 'Skirting boards are a bit more complicated and to fit correctly in a room may take half a day.'

Tiling, painting and plastering were all found to be high-intensity DIY jobs that burnt more than 300 calories an hour for both men and women. Gardening, cleaning gutters, fencing and plumbing fell into the moderate-intensity range.

Gardening is often touted as a great way to squeeze in exercise

(Image credit: Future PLC/Maxwell Attenborough)

Gardening is often touted as a great way to squeeze in exercise if you're not a fan of the gym. All that digging holes, moving compost bags and mowing the lawn can build muscle and burn up to 337 calories an hour.

However, while putting up shelves and erecting flatpack furniture might seem like a tough job for most people, they fell into the low-intensity range. Putting up shelves will burn 291 calories an hour for men, and 249 calories an hour for women. However, unless you're constructing a library hopefully you aren't taking more than 15 to 30 minutes putting up a shelf.

Related: Be inspired by this on-trend bathroom makeover that cost just £45!

Will you be burning calories with a spot of DIY this week?

Rebecca Knight
Deputy Editor, Digital

Rebecca Knight has been the Deputy Editor on the Ideal Home Website since 2022. She graduated with a Masters degree in magazine journalism from City, University of London in 2018, before starting her journalism career as a staff writer on women's weekly magazines. She fell into the world of homes and interiors after joining the Ideal Home website team in 2019 as a Digital Writer. In 2020 she moved into position of Homes News Editor working across Homes & Gardens, LivingEtc, Real Homes, Gardeningetc and Ideal Home covering everything from the latest viral cleaning hack to the next big interior trend.