Creative Ways to stay Active
Today I present you with an awesome guest post from Emma Green with the Treadmill Review Guru. Emma writes about staying fit and today she’s going to share some ways to burn some extra calories throughout the day. She has a great outlook on making fitness applicable to anyone, even if you don’t have time for the gym for a few days.
Hope you enjoy!
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Guest Post: Emma Green
Hi everyone! My name is Emma, and I feel so honored that Alex is allowing me to contribute a post for her blog! A little background about myself is that I absolutely love staying in shape and being healthy, but I also have a major sweet tooth. I also love writing about fitness, and regularly post for TreadmillReviewGuru.com, and a few other health and wellness sites!
Several months ago, my life was totally changed when my husband and I found out that we have a baby on the way (I’m due at the end of next month!) So I have had to adjust my workouts greatly as I have started adapting to my awkwardly growing body. When I talked to Alex about doing a post on creative ways to burn calories, I knew that it was the perfect topic for me at this point in my life, since I’m trying to stay in shape, but can’t do a lot of the more “traditional workouts.” But it doesn’t only apply to pregnancy! I plan on using some of these ideas even after our little guy arrives because they are so easy and they will help me to get back on track! I love the fact that I am able to get in a “workout” without technically setting time aside to workout!
Counting Burned Calories
First, let me tell you a little bit about calorie burning, for anyone who may not know yet (I only figured this out several months ago, and it has made a huge difference in the way that I think about calorie counting/burning!)
Most of us don’t think about the fact that we are constantly burning calories, even in a sedentary state. On average, a 140 lb person will burn about 1 calorie per minute doing what the body normally does – pumping blood, breathing, digesting your food, and maintaining cell health. This calorie burn takes place no matter what you are doing, even while you are watching TV or sleeping! That amounts to about 1440 calories burned every day – automatically!
Note: If you weigh more than 140, you will burn slightly more than 1 calorie per minute in a state of rest, and if you weigh less than 140, then you will burn a bit less.
So when I took this fact into consideration, I realized that any calories burned through exercise or other activities need to be what you are burning ABOVE and BEYOND what your body automatically burns. As a really quick example, if I walked at 2 mph for an hour on a treadmill, the calorie counter would probably show that I had burned around 160 calories. But even if I wasn’t walking on the treadmill for that hour, I would have burned 60 calories, no matter what I had been doing. So in reality, I burned about 100 calories from walking for an hour. Does that make sense?
The reason that your automatically burned calories aren’t often talked about, and generally don’t count towards your calories burned for the day is because you should be eating at least that many calories every day in order to remain at your current weight.
I point this out not to discourage anyone from working out (since you are burning calories no matter what you do), but so that you can have a more accurate count of how many calories you are burning per day. For someone who is trying to lose weight, or follow a diet plan that takes calories burned into consideration, having an accurate measurement of how many calories that you burn can be of the utmost importance. By using a combination of keeping track of your calories burned, and having healthy snacks, you can have so much control over your weight!
Creative Ways to Burn Calories
So without further ado, here is a short list of some of the creative ways that I burn calories!
Grocery Shopping: All of the walking combined with pushing a heavy cart around will burn 100-150 calories every 30 minutes. (So 60-75 calories more than you would burn sitting on your couch for an episode of Seinfeld!)
Cleaning Your House: For every hour of housework that you engage in, you should be burning an average of 110 calories above and beyond your automatic calorie burn. So if you can’t make it to the gym, just set aside an hour for cleaning – it’s totally a win/win because you get a clean house, and a good workout substitution!
Playing and Taking Care of Kids and Pets: Did you know that carrying a baby around for an hour will burn around 140 calories above your normal burn rate? I guess I have something to look forward to pretty soon! If you don’t have kids, going to the dog park, washing your pets, cleaning out cages, and even teaching your furry friend new tricks add to your calorie burn for the day!
Simply Standing: Compared to sitting, you will burn about 10-15 extra calories per hour, just by standing. By standing when you put your makeup on, watch tv, fold laundry, play instruments, or any other activities, you will increase your burn with minimal effort!
In conclusion, I hope that this post has helped you to learn a little more about calorie burning, and has helped you to think of some new ideas to burn off some extra calories throughout the day. For a great calorie counter that will tell you how many calories are being burned during some activities that you may not have even thought of, check out this website!
Note: Cardiovascular exercise is very important, so don’t replace every workout with one of these creative ideas! I like to get in a “real workout” for at least ½ an hour 3-4 times per week, and I just make sure that I do some of these alternate activities on my off days!
Feel free to keep me and keep up with my articles on Twitter @emmalimegreen or email at [email protected] 🙂
