Any activity you engage in uses calories. The more vigorous the action, the higher the rate you will burn them, but everyone constantly consumes calories no matter what they are doing. The rate you burn calories is also dependent on your weight because almost any activity requires more effort if you are supporting or moving around a larger amount of weight.
Background Tasks
Even when you are at rest your body is engaged in normal metabolic processes and performing its housekeeping functions. An average size person while asleep consumes about 45 calories every hour. Being awake and engaging in reading or watching television increases that rate to 60 to 80 calories per hour.
Working
When you cook you burn almost 200 calories per hour and pushing a cart around the grocery store for an hour uses up 260 calories. Office workers and students sitting in class consume 130 calories for every hour of their day. Truck drivers burn 140 calories per hour operating their rigs. Doing more strenuous physical work, of course, uses even more calories. Gardening can consume 230 calories an hour, while a carpenter working with hand tools may burn them at a rate of up to 600 each hour.
Exercise and Sports
Recreational activities consume various amounts of calories depending on how vigorous they are. If you walk at a moderate speed and cover 3 1/2 miles in an hour you will use about 300 calories. Riding a bicycle for this length of time consumes between 800 and 1,200 calories, depending on the speed and terrain. An hour of bowling or playing billiards uses only about 200 calories while golf and tennis consume 400 and 500 calories respectively. Swimming uses about 450 calories an hour and running at a brisk 10 mph burns 1,200 calories.
The Effect of Body Weight
These rates for burning calories apply to an individual with a weight of 155 lbs. Those weighing more or less use up calories at different rates. A 125-lb. person consumes about 20 percent less calories per hour for most activities while someone weighing 185 lbs. may consume about 20 percent more.
Increasing Your Use of Calories
Because normal everyday activities do contribute to the consumption of calories, you can easily increase your rate of calorie usage with small adjustments to your daily routine. Walking or riding a bicycle instead of driving, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, and walking a dog or keeping up with yard or house work will increase your metabolic rate and may burn as many as 300 extra calories each day
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