Digital Packs

Digital Packs Banner Digital Packs Banner

Nutrition

Deskbound jobs burn just 34 calories an hour

Healthista got excited this week when health website CalorieLab.com worked out how many calories your occupation burns in an hour – until we discovered our score. 

Unfortunately, the whiz kids at CalorieLab have discovered that typing away at your desk all day only burns a measly 34 calories per hour. However, as we’re sure they didn’t take our gym sessions, Whipped class reviews and the three flights of stairs outside our office into account, we don’t feel too disheartened.

Female hands typing on the computer keyboard.

As well as typing, they found that fire fighting burns 748 calories per hour, fruit picking burns 238 and dancing 258, all based on a person weighing 150lbs.

And if you really want to fight the flab at work, become a tree surgeon.  Forestry turns out to be the most physically exerting job, with a staggering 1,088 calories getting the chop every 60 minutes.

Both massage therapists and physical education teachers burn 204 calories an hour, while cleaning jobs such as vacuuming and cleaning bathrooms burn around the 130 mark.

Masseur doing massage on woman back in the spa salon

After forestry, CalorieLab found that professional diving was the best occupation for calorie loss, followed by fire fighting, truck driving, horse grooming and construction.

The least beneficial occupations for trimming the waist are (sadly) typing, followed by directing traffic, light effort farming, sewing and bartending.

Although physical activity has many benefits, two studies released last year suggest that losing calories at work may not necessarily be a good thing as jobs involving hard manual labour may actually increase your risk of heart disease.

Young female dancer practicing by bar. View from back.

Dr Els Clays, from the University of Ghent in Belgium, was involved in the research and said that jobs demanding a lot of heavy lifting appeared to be taxing on the body in a way that doesn’t benefit health in the same way as doing something like going for a run.

He said: ‘The hypothesis based on our study and other recent literature is that physical activities done on the job usually include more static activity types which do not have a training effect on the cardiovascular system, but have an overloading effect on the system.’

‘If people are exposed to that for a long time, like multiple hours during the day, that can really have an adverse effect on their cardiovascular health.’

You can find out how many calories your occupation burns in an hour at CalorieLab.com.

Like this article? Sign up to our newsletter to get more articles like this delivered straight to your inbox.

More Healthista Content