Shape Up with Shopping

If you hate going to the gym but love to shop ‘till you drop’, new research suggests you can burn off calories by enjoying marathon shopping sprees.

“'We all know that women love to shop, so what better way to get into shape than to exercise at sales?” said a spokeswoman for Skinny Cow, producers of low fat, iced desserts.

The company, who polled 3,000 women, found that they made up to 132 trips to the shops every 12 months and, on average, spent a total of 159 hours and 56 minutes walking at a fast pace.

Based on the survey answers, experts determined this amounted to a total of 48,000 calories being burned off a year. “If women planned to spend two hours at the shops, rather than the average one, they could double their calories burned each month to a staggering 8,000 — just through shopping.”

If that’s not motivation to get you shopping, 52 percent of the polled women said they felt more tired after a shopping trip than a visit to the gym.