For anyone who is losing weight, burning calories is a number one priority. Excess calories in our bodies get transformed into fat that gets stored around our body and it is these that are responsible for poor physiques and a number of health issues.
If you want to enjoy a good physique and good health then, it is important to ensure that you use up more calories than you eat and that means finding ways to burn calories. Burn enough calories and your body will then need to start getting calories from elsewhere and that will mean plundering your fat stores and converting that into useable energy so that you not only stop gaining weight, but also start losing it.
For the most part that means exercising and this means in turn grueling work in the gym or jogging down the park and bead of sweat and chaffing and breathlessness… it’s easy to see why many people give up before they start on losing weight.
The good news is though that it’s not just these intense exercises that help you to burn calories – in fact everything you do burns calories. This goes all the way down to the very most basic activities and functions of the human body – even just breathing and having a heart beat will burn calories and this means that you are losing weight all the time. This is called your ‘basal metabolic rate’ and this refers to the number of calories burned just through your usual behavior.
Then you need energy for everything else you do on top of this too – and that means walking around, talking and thinking. Literally anything that requires movement or thought from your body will burn some calories (even eating and digestion burns calories and even storing fat burns calories). However of course there are some activities that burn more calories than others and certain things that you can count as ‘every day’ will help you to burn enough calories to make an actual difference to your weight.
Here we will look at which every day activities burn the most calories so that you can start living your life in such a way that simply by going through the motions you burn more fat. That said though you will still burn the most calories by running and lifting weights – so these are things you should do on top of your workouts – not instead of.
Note: Be weary of exact numbers of calories burned given when you read similar articles. While it is possible to report an average number of calories burned (per hour) it is nevertheless dependent on many other factors which make it impossible to predict – these factors include the effort you put in, temporal changes in your body, your weight, your metabolism, your technique, the conditions you are in (cold weather will make you burn more calories) and more.
Activities That Burn the Most Calories
Climbing the Stairs
Climbing the stairs burns a lot of calories as it requires more energy in order to climb the incline and requires more muscle work from your quadriceps to push yourself up and over the steps. Thus if you have the option of doing either… you should always opt to use the stairs instead of the lift.
Eating
Weirdly, eating will burn calories and more than you think. This means that if you eat the right foods you can actually lose weight by eating. For instance by eating celery you will gain only six calories but you will burn an impressive 40 in the process.
Dancing
A night out is something we consider to be unhealthy and costly on the calorie front – and it certainly is if you’re going to be drinking a lot of lager and Guinness which are almost as full of calories as chocolate bars. However dancing is your saving grace here and not only burns a lot calories but also tones a lot of muscle. So hit the dance floor early on and give it some effort.
Walking
Walking places of course burns a lot of calories, but again you can maximize this by power walking which involves moving your arms more and your legs faster in order to generate more speed. At the same time you should of course always walk instead of getting the bus when you are going anywhere.
Cycling
Or even better than walking from a calorie perspective is cycling – which involves more effort and it gets you there quicker.
Maintaining Your Temperature
Your body is performing many processes all the time that take up calories, but one that takes up the most calories is just maintaining your body temperature – cooling you down if you’re too hot and warming you up if you’re too cold. This is particularly true of your internal organs and it’s especially important that these stay the right temperature. Thus if you are out in the cold, you will shiver and your heart rate will increase and this in turn will burn calories, while at the same time going in the sauna can burn calories too. Even just drinking cold water can help you burn calories as your body fights to heat it back up.
RLS
RLS stands for restless leg syndrome and it involves bobbing your leg up and down constantly in order to feel comfortable. This is a somewhat annoying condition for those who suffer with it and for others who are nearby, but it has one benefit – it burns a lot of calories. If you want to lose calories then, make a habit of bobbing around and you can be burning them 24/7.
Stress Ball
Of course this can be irritating, so perhaps a stress ball or another subtle repetitive activity can provide the same benefits more discretely. You may just look very stressed…
Sex
If you needed a reason to convince your partner to sleep with you then tell them that it will help burn calories – a full session of sex is akin to doing a complete workout.
Cleaning
Unfortunately another activity that is slightly less fun also makes you burn calories – cleaning the house. But at least it’s some consolation…
Thinking
You don’t need to be moving around though to be burning lots of calories either and just working out the old gray matter will also help you to burn calories – especially if it’s something that is very taxing or that requires a lot of concentration. Write a book, play some chess or do some reading and you’ll burn off more calories than just watching TV.