Ways to Burn More Calories Throughout the Day
By Paul Rothbart
The battle to maintain a healthy weight can be a tough one. There is a limit to how low your daily caloric intake can go without endangering health. Fortunately, burning more calories will also contribute to losing and maintaining weight. With a busy schedule of a full-time job, household chores, and family obligations, it's not always easy to get in regular workouts of any length. There are other ways to burn extra calories throughout each day. This is a great way to assist in maintaining a healthy weight without spending hours at the gym. Here are some things you can try.
Start First Thing
Try setting your alarm 15 minutes early. Get out of bed and do some light calisthenics to get your metabolism going. Jumping jacks, squats, and push-ups are exercises that require no equipment and can be done without leaving the bedroom. Doing this can burn an additional 140 calories daily and sets you up to burn more no matter what you are doing. By doing it as soon as you awaken, you don't have a workout hanging over your head all day.
Try the "1 Times 10" Trick
The way this works is to find 10 opportunities each day to raise your heart rate for 1 minute. It will keep your blood flowing and improve respiration. You can burn as many as 300-400 extra calories and, as a bonus, you will be more alert all day long. You can try taking a brisk pace each time you walk to the bathroom or do a set of squats to start each hour. Be creative and find things you can easily incorporate into your daily routine.
Lower the Temperature
Try setting the thermostat to a cooler setting or turn on a fan or the air conditioning. A study showed that keeping the temperature cooler can increase your body's brown fat by as much as 40 percent. When the environment is colder, brown fat will burn calories to keep the body warm. You don't even have to be active to get this benefit.
Try Sitting on the Floor
While lounging in the evening watching television, have a seat on the floor, rather than the cozy couch or comfy easy chair. While seated on the floor, your muscles have to work harder to keep you upright. It also requires more effort to get up. This will burn additional calories during your leisure time.
Burning enough calories to reach weight calories can be challenging to people with busy schedules. By trying some of these tips, you can increase the amount of calories you burn each day without having to find the time for lengthy workouts.
To learn more about your health, wellness and fitness, see your local chiropractor at The Joint Chiropractic in Long Beach, Calif.