Burn more calories every day

TGIF!!!!!

I have talked before about maintaining a calorie deficit in order to lose weight. Some days, though it is hard to get in enough exercise to have that deficit. That's why most days I try to do some little things that will increase my calorie burn that aren't too difficult or time consuming.

1. Park farther away from your destination. I try to do this every day when I go to class. I park in the parking deck as far away from the stairs as possible. And depending on how late I am (which I usually am), I try to park as close to the top as possible also so that I have more stairs to walk up and down. If I can't get a spot in the deck, I park in the farthest away parking lot, which is also easier because it is less crowded. So I get double the benefit from parking farther away from my class, exercise and less difficult to park! Sounds like an easy choice to me!

2. Turn off the TV. According to the RealAge doctors (Rozien & Oz...awesome docs), people who turn off the TV can easily burn an extra 100 calories a day. This is most likely because if you're not sitting on your behind, you're probably up doing something that burns more calories than sitting on the couch. However, the docs say that even if you are still sitting on the couch you will be doing something like reading or writing or typing which all burn more calories than vegging out watching TV. You can read the RealAge article here.

3. OR Do something productive while the TV is on. This can be anything from actual exercise to paying bills, updating your blog, washing dishes, and etc. You could even still sit, but sit on an exercise ball to tone up your core! During commercials, you could go put in a load of laundry or do some jumping jacks. Of course, you may want to do the jumping jacks when you're by yourself, I would feel silly doing jumping jacks or anything like that with other people in the house. But anything else can be done alone or with other people around. Anything that will burn more calories is better than staring zombie-like at the TV.

4. Drink more water. I talked about this in my last post (see it here), but to reiterate, water increases your metabolism, which increases the amount of calories you burn. Drinking cold water especially burns more calories because your body has to work harder to bring it to room temperature to process it. Water helps your body perform essential functions, so having enough of it is crucial to burning more calories every day. I try to drink at least 4 normal sized bottles of water each day, and I definitely drink more on days that I exercise.

5. Lift weights. Muscle burns more calories than fat. Building muscle doesn't mean that you have to bulk up though. Lean muscle can be gained by using light weights and more reps (bulk is gained by few reps using heavy weights). Even while resting, you will be burning more calories all day, every day if you have more lean muscle.


Okay, so there are 5 ways to help burn more calories every day. I'll give you 5 more in my next post. They don't require too much effort, and hopefully are easy enough to help you live a fit life!

Stay fit!