Calories Burned Doing laundry at 85 kg — 170 kcal per Hour
calories burned doing laundry 85kg — the short answer is 170 kcal per hour. That figure is for a 85 kg (187 lb) person doing the laundry at the intensity the 2011 Compendium of Physical Activities assigns to it, and this page works the number out in full so you can check it, scale it to any session length, and see how it compares with other activities at the same body weight.
The headline number is an estimate, not a measurement of your body. Two people of the same weight doing the same activity for the same hour will burn different amounts, because fitness, technique, temperature, and how hard they actually push all move the real figure. What the formula gives you is a fair, standardised comparison — the same method researchers use when they rank activities by energy cost — and that is exactly what it is useful for: comparing options, planning a week, and setting a realistic expectation before you start.
Doing laundry at 2.0 METs is light activity: sorting, loading, hanging clothes and folding keep you moving gently, but the effort is low and the heart rate barely rises. Its value is not the burn per hour — it is small — but that it replaces sitting time with light movement, and carrying baskets up and down stairs briefly raises the intensity. The Compendium value covers the whole chore, not just the active minutes.
Work out your own number
Use the calorie calculator to get your own daily figure: it combines your basal metabolic rate with your activity level and your goal, so a single chore slots into a full-day picture instead of floating on its own. If you want the whole-day picture rather than one activity, the TDEE calculator combines your basal metabolic rate with your activity level to show what you burn in a full day. Both tools show their working, and both label their results as estimates.
The formula, shown and cited
The calculation comes from the Compendium of Physical Activities (Ainsworth et al., Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 2011; 43(8):1575–1581), which assigns every activity a MET value — a multiple of your resting metabolic rate. One MET is the energy you use sitting quietly. The formula is:
Calories per hour = MET × body weight (kg)
For this page the MET value for doing laundry is 2.0, which makes it a light-intensity activity by the usual classification (under 3 METs is light, 3 to 6 is moderate, above 6 is vigorous). The worked example uses the midpoint of the 80–90 kg band, 85 kg:
2.0 MET × 85 kg = 170 kcal per hour
For any other duration, multiply by the hours: calories = MET × weight (kg) × hours. A 30-minute session is half the hourly figure, a 90-minute session is one and a half times it, and the table below does that arithmetic for the common session lengths so you do not have to.
Your numbers at 85 kg
| Session length | Calculation | Calories burned |
|---|---|---|
| 15 minutes | 2.0 × 85 × 0.25 | 42 kcal |
| 30 minutes | 2.0 × 85 × 0.50 | 85 kcal |
| 45 minutes | 2.0 × 85 × 0.75 | 128 kcal |
| 60 minutes | 2.0 × 85 × 1.00 | 170 kcal |
| 90 minutes | 2.0 × 85 × 1.50 | 255 kcal |
| 120 minutes | 2.0 × 85 × 2.00 | 340 kcal |
A useful way to read the table is backwards: to burn roughly 500 kcal from doing laundry alone at 85 kg you would need about 176 minutes. Three hours spread across the week come to about 510 kcal a week from this activity, and five 45-minute spells come to about 640 kcal a week. Those weekly totals are the numbers that matter for weight management, because a single chore is a small fraction of a week's energy balance — consistency across weeks is what moves body weight, not one heroic session.
Note also that the table scales linearly with weight. A heavier person burns more doing the same activity for the same time, because there is more body to move; a lighter person burns less. That is not a judgement about fitness — it is physics, and it is why every calories-burned figure on this site states the weight it was calculated at. If you weigh 10 kg more than the 85 kg example, add roughly 20 kcal per hour; 10 kg less, subtract the same.
How doing laundry compares at 85 kg
| Activity | MET | kcal per hour | kcal per 30 minutes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Doing laundry | 2.0 | 170 | 85 |
| Mopping | 3.5 | 298 | 149 |
| Cleaning the house | 3.3 | 280 | 140 |
| Vacuuming | 3.3 | 280 | 140 |
| Cooking | 2.0 | 170 | 85 |
The comparison is the honest way to choose between activities. A higher MET is not automatically better: an activity you enjoy and repeat three times a week beats a harder one you quit after a fortnight, and joint-friendly options matter more than raw burn for anyone with knees or a back that complain. Use the table to see the trade-offs — for example, swapping a lower-MET activity for a higher one for the same 30 minutes — and then choose on enjoyment and sustainability, not on the biggest number. At 85 kg, Mopping burns the most of this group at 298 kcal an hour, while Doing laundry burns the least at 170 kcal an hour — a gap of 128 kcal per hour for the same time.
How to use the result
Fold doing laundry into the day rather than treating it as a workout session. An hour of doing laundry at 85 kg burns about 170 kcal, and spread across a week — a little most days rather than one long block — it adds up without ever feeling like training. If you already do the chore regularly, the 60- and 90-minute rows are your planning numbers for a big session, such as a full-house clean or a whole afternoon in the garden, and tracking the hours rather than the calories is the practical way to keep it up, because hours are what you control.
For weight loss, the activity calories sit on top of your daily food intake, and the safe frame is a deficit of roughly 300–500 kcal a day, aiming for 0.5–1% of body weight per week. Never let the activity numbers talk you into eating far less: the safety floors are 1,200 kcal a day for women and 1,500 kcal a day for men, and any intake below those needs medical supervision. A 170-kcal session does not "earn" an extra meal of the same size, either — the body compensates, appetite rises after hard sessions, and the deficit that matters is the weekly average, not a single day's maths.
Practical tips specific to doing laundry:
- Hang clothes to dry instead of using the dryer: pegging out a load adds standing, reaching and walking the machine never gives you.
- Carry baskets with both hands and good posture, and take the stairs rather than leaving the basket at the bottom.
- Fold standing at a table instead of sitting on the sofa — the same chore, a little more movement.
What the number does NOT tell you
MET values are population averages, and the error on any single person is real. The Compendium value was measured on a sample of adults, not on you, and it assumes a standard intensity. Laundry is mostly waiting: the machine does the work while you do not. The Compendium value averages the active minutes with the idle ones, so an hour that is mostly waiting for a cycle burns less than the table suggests. If you push harder than the standard, you burn more; if you coast, you burn less. Heart-rate monitors and power meters estimate the same thing from different signals and disagree with each other by 10 to 20% on a good day, so treat every figure — including this page's — as accurate to roughly that band, not to the single calorie.
The figure also counts gross energy, which includes the calories you would have burned sitting still during that hour anyway. The extra burn above rest is the gross figure minus your resting rate for that hour (roughly 85 kcal for a 85 kg person at 1 MET), so the net cost of an hour of doing laundry is about 85 kcal, not 170. That distinction matters when you add activity calories to a daily total that already includes your resting metabolism — counting gross calories on top of a full BMR double-counts the resting hour.
Finally, the formula knows nothing about your body composition, fitness, or health. Muscle burns more than fat at rest, trained people are more efficient at a familiar activity (and therefore burn slightly less for the same work), and illness, heat, altitude, and medication all shift the real number. If you have a medical condition, are pregnant, or take medication that affects heart rate or metabolism, treat this page as background information and talk to a clinician before building a training or weight-loss plan around it.
Related pages
- Calories burned hub
- Calories Burned Doing laundry at 75 kg — 150 kcal per Hour
- Calories Burned Doing laundry at 65 kg — 130 kcal per Hour
- Calories Burned Cooking at 85 kg — 170 kcal per Hour
Frequently asked questions
How many calories does doing laundry burn in 30 minutes at 85 kg?
About 85 kcal. The calculation is 2.0 MET × 85 kg × 0.5 hours = 85 kcal, from the 2011 Compendium value of 2.0 METs. It is an estimate: your real figure depends on how hard you push, and a relaxed session will come in lower.
Is doing laundry good for weight loss?
It can help, because at 170 kcal an hour it makes a real contribution to a weekly deficit — three hour-long sessions are about 510 kcal a week. But weight loss is decided by the weekly energy balance, not by one activity, so the food side matters at least as much. Keep daily intake at or above 1,200 kcal (women) or 1,500 kcal (men) unless a clinician supervises a lower intake.
How long do I need to do doing laundry to burn 500 calories?
About 176 minutes at 85 kg at the standard intensity. Splitting it across days is fine — two 45-minute sessions and one shorter one add up to the same total, and shorter, more frequent sessions are easier to sustain.
Does doing laundry burn more calories than cooking?
No — about the same. Both activities are 2.0 METs, so both burn 170 kcal per hour at 85 kg (85 kcal in 30 minutes) by the Compendium method. The practical difference is not the burn but the activity itself: choose the one you will actually do, because the same MET done three times a week beats a higher MET done once.
Why does the same activity burn different calories for different people?
Because the formula multiplies MET by body weight, a heavier person burns more for identical movement, and because fitness, technique, and effort change the real cost. Two people doing doing laundry for an hour can differ by 20% or more even at the same weight, which is why this page's figure is labelled an estimate.
Does doing laundry count towards the weekly activity guidelines?
Not towards the headline target, no. Health guidelines generally suggest 150 minutes of moderate activity or 75 minutes of vigorous activity a week, and doing laundry at 2.0 METs is light activity, below the moderate threshold. It still counts as movement — it replaces sitting time, which matters on its own — but pair it with genuinely moderate activity such as brisk walking to reach the 150-minute target.
Estimates only, not medical advice. Minimum safe intakes: 1,200 kcal/day women, 1,500 kcal/day men — consult a healthcare professional before a very-low-calorie diet.