There are many things you can do to burn some extra calories. The great thing is that you don’t have to push yourself into misery in order to burn off that fat. If you’re the kind of person that loves lots of exercise then that’s fantastic. However, if exercise is something you struggle with then let me comfort you a bit. You don’t need to bust your butt in order to accomplish something worthwhile. I’m gonna list a few exercises and what you can expect to achieve.
1. Walking
This is one of the most basic, safe, and effective ways to burn calories. It’s something you probably do a lot of in a day anyways, so you’re used to it. If you don’t have an injury or ailment then it’s something you can probably do more of. Regular surfaces are perfectly fine for this activity whether it’s a park or just a walk around your block. However, it’s more effective if you add some variety. If your route includes a few sets of steps or a hill or two then you will burn significantly more calories. Treadmills are actually quite effect in this case. Most of the newer ones can apply inclines so you actually burn as many calories walking as you would running outside. Take advantage of this if you are able.
If you walk at a reasonable pace (3-4 mph) you can expect to burn anywhere from 250-400 calories per hour of walking. This depends on your size. Adding incline to this, like on a treadmill, will increase calories burned by around 60% on a 5% incline and around 120% on a 10% incline.
2. Additional Movements
This is something you can do during regular daily activities. Basically, you go out of your way to move more than what you would normally. For example, if you might normally talk while sitting down you could try walking in place or walking around the house while on the phone. Another example would be taking the stairs instead of the escalator or elevator. Also, you could walk in place or move your arms around as light exercise while watching TV. You don’t have to exert yourself or even break a serious sweat.
This type of activity can burn an additional 200-500 calories per day. It’s a fairly simple and easy way to burn those calories even if you don’t have 30-60 minutes to set aside for regular cardio.
3. Fidgeting
This may seem silly, but when you move you burn calories. This includes fidgeting. Whether you’re sitting around at home or waiting in the doctor’s office, if you can make a habit of fidgeting you can effectively burn an extra chunk of calories each day. If you train yourself to do this well, you can end up doing it and not even thinking about it. You’ll add all of that calorie burning to your day and it requires practically zero effort that never crosses your mind anyways.
You can expect to burn an additional 100-300 calories per day by making a fidget habit. This is one of the easiest ways to add those extra burned calories to your weight loss plan.
4. In Place Exercising
Most people are familiar with jogging in place and jumping jacks. Those are simple movements that do burn calories at a reasonable rate. In fact, they can burn more than walking depending on your intensity and the duration of your exercise. There’s actually a large number of these types of exercises that you can engage in to keep things interesting. For example, you could jog in place and every 5 or 10 seconds kneel to the floor then do a push up. You then stand back up and jog in place for another 5 or 10 seconds and repeat the action. This can burn quite a large number of calories. Basically, any type of movement you can create for yourself that causes your body to work will accomplish your goal. You can make up anything you like as long as it doesn’t involve strange twisting of the back or placing odd pressure on your joints or neck. If you keep it safe and make yourself sweat a bit then you’ll rip the fat off.
If you were to engage in these types of exercises for an hour you could easily burn 500 or more calories. This figure would be accurate if you made sure to keep moving and only take brief breaks to drink a bit of water. Don’t over exert yourself, but do keep moving for as long as you are able.
