Every minute of every day -- no matter what you're doing -- your body is burning calories. Whether you're relaxing by reading a book or exercising by going for a run, your body expends energy. The more you weigh and the higher the intensity level of your activity, the more calories you burn.
Weight and Calories
The more you weigh, the more calories your body burns. This is true for every activity, whether you're walking or running, biking or swimming, or simply sitting down. If a 130 lb. person, a 155 lb. person and a 180 lb. person were doing the exact same activity for the exact same length of time, the 180 lb. individual would burn the most calories, while the 130 lb. person would burn the fewest. The heavier the individual, the more energy that person must expend to complete a task.
Sedentary Activities
Your body needs energy -- and burns calories -- for functions such as regulating body temperature. Your body does this at all times, even when you are sedentary. For example, a 130 lb. person who spends an hour sleeping -- the most basic body function -- burns 55 calories. Up your activity level only slightly to sitting, and you'll burn more calories -- 62 an hour for a 130 lb. person.
Daily Activities
Spend five minutes in the morning brushing your teeth and burn 12 calories if you weigh 130. Got a 60-minute drive to work? A 130 lb. person burns 125 calories during that hour. Even daily chores such as cooking and ironing burn calories. A 130 lb. person burns 133 calories ironing for an hour, and approximately 156 calories an hour cooking.
Leisure and Recreation Activities
Recreation activities -- even those done with the idea of kicking back and relaxing -- have the potential to burn serious calories. An hour of billiards burns 148 calories in a 130 lb. person; that same person burns 179 calories in an hour of fishing while sitting along the shore. A more physically-exerting activity such as gardening burns more calories: approximately 320 calories an hour in a 130 lb. person.
Exercise and Sports
When you head to the gym to spend an hour working out, you expect to burn a large number of calories. Again, the intensity of your activity impacts your calorie burn. Casually shoot hoops for an hour, and you'll burn 265 calories if you weigh 130, but increase your intensity to a game of full-court basketball, and you'll increase your calorie burn by more than two and a half times, up to 647 calories an hour. An hour of casual cycling at 10 mph burns between 236 and 354 calories an hour if you weigh 130, but running for an hour at that same speed burns nearly 1,000 calories.
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