Syracuse (WSYR-TV) -- A new study makes it pretty clear why so many women are overweight. Researchers looked at how much housework women did in the 1960s and compared it with today.
In 1965, women spent an average of 25.7 hours per week cleaning, cooking and doing laundry. 45 years later, in 2010, women were spending an average of 13.3 hours per week cleaning, cooking and doing laundry.
And, women at home were now spending far more hours sitting in front of a screen. In 1965, women typically had spent about eight hours a week sitting and watching television.
By 2010, between TV and computer time, those hours had more than doubled to 16.5 hours per week.
In essence, women had exchanged time spent in active pursuits, like vacuuming, for time spent being sedentary.
American women not employed outside the home were burning about 360 fewer calories every day in 2010 than they had in 1965, with working women burning about 132 fewer calories at home each day in 2010 than in 1965.
