Way More Than You Want to Know About Burning Calories

Quick–How many calories can you burn in one hour if you’re digging worms? How about washing the dog? Having sex? The answers: 272, 238, and 88 (moderate) 102 (active) to these and many more "burning questions" appear in this excruciatingly well-researched L.A. Times report on the rapidly evolving science of calculating calorie burn. Why do we care? Because some of this stuff , like the argument that time-saving and labor-saving devices are turning us into (barely) walking calorie storage tanks, is pretty disturbing. And some of the advice–wash your own car; do your own housework–is not the preferred recipe for an active lifestyle. And then there’s the list of calories burned per hour for 22 activities, from accordian playing to watching TV, including, of course, reading the L.A.Times story (15 calories).