Women burn more calories than men when shopping, according to research carried out by Kingston's Bentall Centre, which is claiming that shopping is officially good for your health.

Shopping centre bosses recruited six volunteers, fitted them with pulse rate monitors and pedometers and sent them on a shopping spree in a bid to discover the health benefits of scouring the shops.

The volunteers, all aged between 33 and 57, all burned around 150 calories during the two-hour experiment and walked one mile - the equivalent of 15 minutes jogging.

And their heart rates soared when faced with situations such as making a bargain purchase.

Heather Lugton, marketing manager of the Bentall Centre, said the results were "amazing".

And she said that thought women burnt more calories when shopping because they spent more energy hunting out bargains and rifling through sale rails.