15 Ways to Burn More Calories During the Day


burn-more-caloriesSometimes, you just crave the muffins on that famous bakery on the corner of the street. Other day, you just want to have that sundae on the ice cream parlor near your office. But, you have to hold back your craving most of the time, or in the rare time when you decide to spoil yourself, you say that you’re having a guilty pleasure.
The pleasure of eating such delicacies are considered guilty because they contains a lot of calories. Calories is the measurement unit of energy you can get from food you consume. You need calories to provide enough energy for your activity, but too much of calories can lead to many health problem, including obesity, heart disease, and stroke.
So, everybody needs a balanced calories intake. When you take more calories then necessary, you will have to burn the excess. You burn these excess calories with activities. Traditionally, people will think of exercise. This is true, because exercise can burn calories effectively. But, there are other ways to lose calories too, especially if you can’t spare enough time for full session in a gym. Here are 15 ways to burn more calories during the day.


do-things-with-your-own-hand1.    Do things with your own hand
Who even wash dishes with hand when there are dishwasher nowadays? Who writes during meeting when you can type? Who wash the car when there are car washing service all over the town?
These small chores may not seems like an exercise, but they can burn your calories. They make you move a part of your body and use more of your energy. For example, doing laundry can burn your calories as much as when you do 100 sits up. Each chores has each number, but the more tiring it is, the more calories it burns.


drink-water2.    Drink enough water
When you have enough water in your system, your body can have a metabolism system in normal speed. But, if you’re dehydrated, your body will slow your metabolism down. On the contrary, if you are well hydrated, your body will fasten your metabolism by 24-30 percents.
So make sure to drink at least eight glasses of water throughout the day. You can also have a big bottle of water with lines that indicates how much water you have to drink for a certain time of the day.

take-a-walk3.     Take a walk
Forget the phone, forget the chat. Don’t call your office mates through the landlines, but walk to their cubicles when you have to talk to them. Don’t call your neighbor through the phone, but walk to their door and meet them face to face. If you make frequent enough trip, you can reach amazing miles. As a bonus point, they’ll less likely to ignore or put your request on hold. You can also forge a deeper relationship with them.
The calories you can burn from walking is roughly equal to your weight per kg per kilometer. For example, if you weight 80 kgs, then you burn 80 calories per km you walk. Sweet, isn’t it?

drop-things4.    Drop things
Drop at least ten things from your desk every hour and pick them back up again, but with the right position. Don’t pick them up by bending your waist, but pick them by bending your knees. Pick up one thing at a time. This way, you’ll unconsciously doing 10 squats every hour.
There is no exact number of how much calories you burn for every squat you do, but it definitely takes your energy. The more intense and the longer you do it, the more calories you burn.

stand-up5.    Stand up as long as possible
If you lead a modern day lifestyle, there is a high chance you’re spending most of your day sitting. Simply change this sitting habit into standing habit. Take a phone call while standing, read newspaper while standing, or if you’re serious, you can even buy a special work desk that enables you to type while standing.
Stand up for an hour can burn 50 calories. Don’t you think that it’s a sweet deal?

sitting-posture6.    Or sit down but in the right posture
Although you’ve spent your life sitting down most of the time, sometimes you still sit in the wrong posture. Wrong posture is including slouching and leaning to the side. The right posture is to sit up straight.
When you sit up straight, you’re giving more work to your abdominal muscles. This simple act strengthen those muscles as well as burn calories.

dance7.    Dance
Dancing requires energy. It’s like a workout, but way more fun. You can take this seriously and enroll yourself in a dance class. It doesn’t matter what style of dance you pursue, from samba to tango to modern dance. You can burn from 300-600 calories per hour of dancing!
If dance class is too time and energy consuming, you can do it like me. Simply put your favorite song on speaker and freely dance around your house.

lifting-something8.    Switch sides when you’re lifting something
You lift many things daily, from stacks of paper, groceries, to your own child. When you do, switch sides. It burns more calories than when you’re using only one arm. Besides that, the act of lifting things itself can fasten your metabolism and burn excess calories.
If you want to get more serious in weight lifting, spare some time to go to the gym and use their weight lifting facilities.

sugar-candy9.    Cut Sugar
Sugar contains very high calories. It is one of the major cause of obesity and type 2 diabetes. Obesity then can lead to many other health problem like heart disease and stroke.
Try to cut down your sugar intake. Instead of drinking coke, get used to drink water. Instead of snacking on cakes and bread, get used to snack on fruits and vegetables.

chew-gum10.    Chew gum
The simple motion of chewing gum can also effective to burn excess calories. The simple jaw motion can burn up to 11 calories per hour. Not only that, gum can also acts as distraction for your food craving. When you’re chewing gum, you’re less likely to crave snacks or take bigger portion during your meal.
But, be careful not to choose gum with too much sugar, as sugar contains very high calories.

be-fidgety11.     Be fidgety
Try not to sit calmly. Change your position every five minutes or so. Tap your foot on the floor repeatedly. Pace around your room while you’re talking on the phone. It may not look much, but you can burn 350 more calories a day compared to those who stay still.
Mayo clinic confirmed the number when they conducted an observation of 20 men and women, half of them were lean and the other half were overweight. The leaner one were more fidgety than the overweight one, who were more sedentary.


drink-coffee12.    Drink coffee
Caffeine can fasten your metabolism process, in other way it helps your body burn your calories faster. A cup of caffeine can boost metabolism by 3-11 percent. Not only that, it also increase the fat burning by up to 10-29 percent.
Any coffee is okay to drink, although I’ll advice you not to put too much sugar in it. Sugar has high calories that can cancel the effect of caffeine.

drink-coffee13.    Make love
If you have time to do it during the day, why not? Sex can burn up to 207 calories for 30 minutes long activities. This is because sex makes you work your thighs and butts.
Some research shows that woman burns more calories than man during sex, but it’s still a great calories-burning activities for both gender.

lime14.    Eat vitamin D
Vitamin D can fasten your metabolism. Study in British Journal of Nutrition showed that women who are deficient in vitamin D lose weight slower than those with sufficient vitamin D. You can take vitamin D from extra supplement. Expert recommends to take 2,000 milligrams daily.
Vitamin D also lifts your mood and strengthen your bones.

laugh15.    Laugh
Laughing is the best way to burn excess calories. 10-15 minutes of laughter can burn more than 50 calories away. Vanderbilt  University conducted a research by comparing the calories burned from two kind of group. The first group watched a 10 minutes comedy and the second watched a video of sheep running. The group who watched comedy and laugh lose 20 percent more calories.

Watch short comedic movies or stand up comedy episode. You can also read funny books or comic strips.

Ready to pick up one of these 15 ways to burn calories during the day and commit yourself to it? All of them are very easy to do. Pick one that you feel most feasible for you and start to burn those calories away!