Last week, over at Roni’s Weigh, she blogged about how she takes the stairs in any building that is five stories or less. In Bend, OR, I think there may be a total of two buildings that have more than five stories, so unfortunately, I don’t have the option of climbing stairs. But I do have a two-story house so stairs are an integral part of my life. I wondered how many flights of stairs I climb each day, so I decided to log it. Here is how my day went climbing stairs (feel free to skip to the bottom if you don’t want to be bothered by the trivialities of my day):
- To clean upstairs
- To clean upstairs again
- To bring son a toy
- To bring son yet another toy (he was sick, I was feeling sorry for him)
- To get son dressed
- To brush teeth
- To get son’s socks
- To get my socks (why didn’t I get them when I got my sons?)
- To get shoes (uh, clearly if I would think ahead I could save a few trips)
- To put son down for a nap
- To work out
- To check e-mail
- To get son waking up from nap
- To take a shower
- To take a shower again because there was no hot water the first time I tried
- To get something
- To get laundry
- To get a book
- To get a magazine
- To put laundry away
- To bed–finally!
For a grand total of 21 flights of stairs! Honestly, I would have guessed I went up and down those @#$% stairs more than that, but still, not too shabby.
According to a study by the American College of Sports Medicine, the average calorie burn for going up one step is .11 calories, and going down a step is .05. Using my advanced math skills leftover from my engineering days, I calculated I burned a total of 57.12 calories. Not bad for just going about my day. Of course, I’m convinced I burn a few more than that because I always run up the stairs instead of just walking. And then there is the 40+ pound kid I carry up and down regularly too. The kid carrying I am trying to limit these days because climbing stairs is a great activity for kids too.
Anybody else want to track their daily stair climbing?
