How many calories does cooking burn?
Cooking burns more calories than you might think. Standing and cooking has a MET (Metabolic Equivalent of Task) value of 2.0 — twice your resting metabolic rate. Active food preparation (chopping, stirring, kneading) reaches 2.5-3.5 METs. A 70 kg person burns about 150-180 calories per hour of cooking. Kneading bread by hand is especially vigorous at 3.0 METs. BBQ grilling, which involves standing in heat and moving between stations, burns 3.5 METs. Even washing dishes burns more than sitting (2.3 vs 1.0 METs). While cooking won't replace a gym workout, it contributes to daily caloric expenditure — and the homemade meals you produce are typically healthier than restaurant food, compounding the health benefit.