<p>It’s a miracle my husband is not obese! </p>
<p>Must be all that golf he plays while I do all the housework in addtition to my full time job…</p>
<p>I used a shirt service for a year when I was single (in the days where I had to wear shirt + tie) but I gave up on them because they damaged too many shirts. So I ironed them by hand. It was actually relaxing after doing mental work all day. I just wear tech shirts at the office so hang-dry works there.</p>
<p>H does his own laundry. I do vacuum more however because our rugs are fairly new.
Hmm. I am @ the higher end of “acceptable BMI”, while he is at the lower end.
Maybe I should do more laundry!</p>
<p>Google The Hierarchy of Fat Loss by Mike Boyle. It’s reproduced all over the internet.</p>
<p>The #1 most important thing to losing fat is nutrition.</p>
<p>The #2 most important thing to losing fat is nutrition.</p>
<h1>3 is activity that promotes increase in muscle mass and also results in increased metabolism after the activity. This is usually achieved with interval training.</h1>
<h1>4 is activity that promotes increase in muscle mass.</h1>
<h1>5 is intense aerobic activity.</h1>
<h1>6 is low-intensity aerobic activity.</h1>
<p>Carrying around a vacuum cleaner (the old, heavy kind) or a load of wet laundry would seem to me to be pretty good exercise.</p>
<p>Our bigger problem is nutrition.</p>
<p>“You can’t out-train a crappy diet”</p>
<p>Huh. Maybe that’s why my partner is a stick. He does all the cleaning and laundry.</p>
<p>I think I’ll let him keep doing that and I’ll pick up an exercise video ;)</p>
<p>emerald, so you and your H do your own laundry? Interesting.</p>
<p>Lerkin, since my H has never done laundry in over 30 years, I wouldn’t trust him to do it. Might end up with a suede skirt catastrophe.</p>
<p>BC, H has to wear a suit to work every day. No tech shirts for him.</p>
<p>I imagine those that don’t have a washer/dryer in their home or apartment that also don’t have cars get a good workout doing the laundry. They have to walk to and from the laundromat and carry or cart their clothes to and from in addition to loading stuff in and out.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>And this is why I hate doing laundry. It’s especially awesome when it’s raining. Or if I have clothes that should be hung to dry (my preference would be to hang most clothes to dry, but I don’t think I can carry them all home wet). :)</p>
<p>I think the amount of laundry that people need to do at one time generally prohibits getting a good workout out of walking to a laundromat with heavy stuff. I might take a bus (I really don’t like the laundromat on my street and prefer to go a bit further) but this is also when you see people stuffing carts full of clothes to bring. For a low-income family dealing with weekly laundry for four people, they’re probably pushing a shopping cart less than a block. I can drag two duffel bags around but I’m one person. And sometimes I splurge on a laundry service.</p>
<p>Also, doing laundry at a laundromat tends to kind of suck up your day, especially when you have to get there by a way that is not driving. That’s a lot of time that could be spent doing other things like working out or buying healthy food. (No joke. I’ve rushed home from work to go straight out to do laundry and bought takeout). I love my apartment but I want washer/dryer in building.</p>
<p>My parents each do their own laundry and my brother and I each did our own when we lived at home starting when were around 11 or 12.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Stereotypically speaking this group is most probably obese, because they don’t have resources (time and money) to eat healthy. Just like you said:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Managing cortisol production may be a key to some people.
[Cortisol</a> ? Its Role in Stress, Inflammation, and Indications for Diet Therapy](<a href=“http://www.todaysdietitian.com/newarchives/111609p38.shtml]Cortisol”>Cortisol — Its Role in Stress, Inflammation, and Indications for Diet Therapy)</p>
<p>eireann, seems like your family would use more water and energy if everyone did their own laundry. If you combine everyone’s laundry together, you can do fewer loads by filling up the machine each time rather than running partial loads. Just a comment not a criticism. I agree that learning how to do laundry is a valuable skill. D didn’t learn that skill until she started college.</p>
<p>I agree that having to use a laundromat is a hassle. So glad I haven’t had to to do that in 33 years.</p>
<p>There may be additional bleach and detergent use too.</p>
<p>But it makes it easier if you hang dry because you have more line capacity. BTW, we hang dry about half our laundry but we don’t use lines. We have a ton of closet space in the basement and the water heater is in the closet so we hang dry clothes on hangers in that closet. I also throw my shorts on a bicycle that’s mounted on a trainer. Lots of places to hang stuff on a bicycle.</p>
<p>We did fill it up each time. I’ve never necessarily done laundry each week, just when I have a full load to wash. If it was that emergency situation when you have no dirty clothes and need something clean tomorrow, I’d see if anybody else wanted to combine a load. My mom also is a lover of line-drying and strongly encourages everyone to do that, so we probably didn’t use so much dryer energy.</p>
<p>My parents are huge on no wasted energy (keep the heat at 62 all winter and compost all food waste) and if I were putting half-full loads through the washer regularly, I would have been told not to. I’m not saying everyone should do things this way, but it worked well for us. My parents both worked full-time, and my mom probably always had a bit of a heavier schedule, so she would never have just done all the cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc – which also ended up pretty divided (whoever got home first would usually make dinner). Also that way everyone could be responsible for making sure their delicate clothes were handled appropriately. My dad has a ton of biking spandex with finicky washing instructions.</p>
<p>We only do full loads( except when younger D is home, she seems to do small loads, even though I ask her to at least throw some towels in)</p>
<p>I sometimes do Hs laundry, if I notice it is piling up, but I don’t fold - or iron .( I use a downstairs bedroom as my walk in closet & hang up most things)
But he doesn’t expect me to do his laundry ( or cook dinner 
)
Works out pretty well for me, I do whatever I was going to do anyway & he is tickled that I did anything at all!</p>
<p>We had to use a laundromat for about a year or three when oldest was in highschool/college. Our washing machine had been handed down from my MIL, and had lasted almost 16 more years for us ( our dryer still worked). I wasn’t going to wash things at the laundromat and take them home to dry though, 
so I just used it as forced time to read or sit & think.
It was actually not that bad as the laundromat was only a couple blocks away.</p>
<p>( As opposed to when my mom lived in a “fancy” suburb & we were looking for a place to wash her comforter, because her condo had condo sized appliances. We couldn’t find one that was a reasonable distance. As there is a significant low income population, that was puzzling)</p>
<p>When we finally replaced it, when she was a sophomore in college, D was excited and told her friends.
Kids whose tuition is being paid by a trust are confused when a friend is excited that their parents got a washer.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Wearing a suit implies a low activity job. Most work is less physically active now than it used to be.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>While your laundry is washing, can you do things like pushups and core workouts on the floor, and run around the block for cardio (if there is a nearby park with pullup bars, do pullups there when you run by)?</p>
<p>I’ve been doing a big clean and loads of laundry all day. 
</p>
<p>My H had been working extremely long hours lately, hasn’t gone running in months now and has put on about 20 pounds. I’m hoping now that it’s getting lighter later he’ll be able to start up again and with the nice weather they’ll be lots of yard work needing to be done to burn up even more calories.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Probably, although trying to do anything on the laundromat floor would probably get in people’s way. Sorry if I wasn’t clear. I’m fine, I have no children, I’m in my first job, I can deal with the laundromat. My point was really that it’s ludicrous to think that going to a laundromat provides a workout, especially when you are talking about people who are lower-income but older than me and have families to support and much less free time. I am perfectly happy bringing a book.</p>
<p>Agreed that it isn’t lack of housework so much as lack of movement. I’m guilty for sure. I can spend hours in front of the computer and wonder where my day went. sigh…</p>
<p>The bad part of this study is all the men who will now not just tell women to “go make me a sandwich” now we will have to hear “fat lack of house work jokes.”</p>
<p>It’s actually quite sad how many factors contribute to the American obesity trend. My favorites are portion sizes, processed food, and inactivity. </p>
<p>Remember when a current McD Happy Meal was enough lunch for a grown adult? Granted, Ranky Ronald never served up healthy stuff. But, triple burgers and super sizes really have no place in our diets. Ah, I could go on and on forever. But I won’t. </p>
<p>On the topic of laundry, I love the laundromat. It lets me do all my loads at once. At home that takes all day. I only use the mat when something’s broken or I’m in rush. I find it very pleasant and productive…but not necessarily cost effective.</p>