Can #GNO Dancing at the club count as your workout for the day?

Everyone is always trying to make working out more fun and less like a mandatory chore of the worst kind – a la cleaning the bathroom.

So, it’s understandable to want to skip the bikini body guide in lieu of a girl’s night out dancing at the club; but are you just kidding yourself when you log your night of hip shaking and booty popping as your cardio for the day or can you do real damage when it comes to calorie-burning simply by tearing up the dance floor?

The answer is, the ubiquitous and very vague, it depends –

If you dance pretty much non stop for a minimum of one hour, really move your arms, legs, hips and waist, elevate your heart beat and keep it high, then yes. Working up a good sweat because you are working your muscles as opposed to the fact that you are in a packed cramped space lacking in proper ventilation can definitely count as cardio. This is pretty much why people can lose weight doing zumba or just taking dance classes (hip hop, ballet, etc.)

However, if you are doing the two step, your towering heels have relegated you to shimmying every now and then while you sway from side to side, or you dance for one song before sitting out the next three and repeat, then yes, you are in fact kidding yourself by trying to kill the #gno and #cardio workout birds with one stone.

Now, if you have in fact danced the night away but you’ve also been shooting back sugary alcoholic drinks from the bar, just know that all your hard effort will be for naught. Those drinks are full of sugar/carbs and therefore calories! So, do your wallet and your waistline a favor by skipping it, and if you’re one of those people that needs a drink in your hand opt for water or seltzer water with lemon instead.