To lose a pound of body fat, you need to expend 3,500 calories. Therefore if your daily energy requirements are around 2,000 calories and you eat only 1,500 calories a day, after a week you would have lost 1 lb. However, if you find cutting your food intake difficult, you can lose weight by burning calories through increased activity. It is not imperative you take up a sport or spend hours in the gym; simply moving more throughout the day can also use up calories, according to Dr. James Levine of the Mayo Clinic.
Climbing Stairs
A simple way to burn more calories is by taking the stairs instead of the elevator. If you work on the 20th floor of an office building, you might find this too drastic to contemplate in one go; but you could start by exiting the elevator one or two or three floors before your own and gradually increase. The Health Status calories burned calculator estimates a person weighing 170 lb. will burn 10 calories a minute when walking up stairs.
Washing Dishes
Turning off the dishwasher and getting to work on cleaning the plates and cooking utensils will result in extra calorie burn. A woman weighing 150 lb. will burn around 26 calories every 10 minutes she spends washing dishes.
Parking at a Distance
If you are trying to reduce your weight, the optimal diet is one that is low in saturated fat and high in low-calorie, fiber-rich foods, according to the Mayo Clinic website. However, if you are buying food at a takeaway outlet, ignore the drive-through and park a few minutes' walk away. A person weighing 150 lb. will burn 26 calories when walking at a moderate pace for five minutes. In addition, he will use another 7 calories for each five minutes spent standing in a queue.
Housework
Doing general housework is an efficient way to burn calories while at the same time improving your living environment. Thirty minutes of general housework will expend around 100 calories.
Shopping
You might enjoy the convenience of ordering your weekly groceries online, but your waistline could be paying a price. According to the CBS Money Watch website, a person weighing 155 lb. can burn around 245 calories during an hour of grocery shopping.
Considerations
By doing without mechanical aids such as dishwashers and remote controls, and additionally walking instead of driving short distances, a person could burn an extra 100 to 200 calories a day. Dr. Levine says this could potentially be sufficient to resolve obesity over a period of time.
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