5 Ways to Burn Calories Outside the Gym
Dec 03, 2018
Signed up for a gym membership and haven’t gone back once? Working long hours and lost motivation? Whatever the case, don’t let this stop you from reaching your weight loss goals. Instead, be more mindful of every environment you’re in whether it’s work, home, or the grocery store, and put a simple fitness spin on your usual routine. You’ll be burning calories without even realizing it!
Calorie burning is usually associated with training, but you burn calories 24/7, without even realizing. Going to the gym gives you the intense pump to burn calories, but we're talking one hour of training versus 23 hours of non-training. You can benefit from a much smarter approach to burning more during the other 96 percent of your day.
We live on a 24-hour clock. Each hour affords you an opportunity to burn fat; that gives you all the more reason to incorporate small bouts of activity and, of course, the following five calorie-burning strategies into your daily routine! Although it’s clear that hitting the gym hard is a great way to lose those extra pounds; it isn’t the only way for you to start seeing results
1. Get on Your Feet
We live in a culture that revolves around sitting: sitting at your desk eight hours a day, sitting in the car for your commute, sitting at home on the couch, sitting at the dinner table, sitting in the Jacuzzi and on your couch...
Sitting doesn't burn nearly as many calories as standing does. Any excuse to get up and move, such as walking to speak to a co-worker, getting a glass of water from the break room, or going to use the photocopier, will also prove beneficial to your long-term health and help increase the total daily calories burned. Think of it this way: If you burn 20-25 calories for merely five minutes of movement, you can accumulate up to a net calorie burn of 160-200 calories over an 8-hour work day. This simple change may allow you to burn up to an additional 300 calories over the course of a day.
2. Become a Stair Master
Take the stairs whenever possible. In some buildings, the stairs are hard to find. But if you see them, skip the elevator or escalator and hoof it instead. If you can’t make it all the way to your floor, walk a couple of flights and take the elevator the rest of the way. Remember, anything is better than nothing!
3. Increase Your NEAT
Non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT) is the energy expended for everything we do that isn't sleeping, eating, or exercise. Think walking, shopping, cooking, cleaning, fidgeting, and maintaining posture. Because of the wide variety of activities NEAT encompasses, it can be hard to define. But it's extremely significant and can make up anywhere from 15-50% of your total energy expenditure.
If you're someone who already trains and eats "mostly" right, this will be a game changer. Think about your naturally lean friends. The ones that seem to get away with eating a ton of food but always look in shape. Chances are, these people are more active in their daily lives, not just blessed with a racehorse metabolism that burns through everything they eat.
They'll tend to fidget more, always be on the go and have active jobs, while your sole activity in the day may only be a 45-60-minute weight training session... which might not burn as much as you think it does.
4. Tabata Training
When it comes to high-calorie burn activities, taking workouts you know and doing them Tabata-style gets a big caloric burn rate for your buck. Tabata Training is a style of working out that uses high-intensity training (HIIT) as a way to burn a large number of calories in a short time. You do 20 seconds of working out at your all-out, top pace, and follow up with 10 seconds of recovery. Then, you repeat the sequence — eight times.
While the first round may be easy, you’ll certainly feel the burn by the end. A typical workout in this style includes four exercises, such as squats, push-ups, burpees, and jumping rope. The great part about Tabata training is that not only does it burn a lot of calories, but it’s also easy to adapt to fit whatever limited amount of time you have to work out. Even if you can’t get to the gym, you can grab 30 minutes and amp up your favorite at-home workouts.
5. Get Under the Sheets
How about we told you it was possible to lose weight without even getting out of bed? According to University of Montreal researchers, women burn off 69 calories during the average lovemaking session, while men burn off 100! You probably didn’t need any excuse to get busy in the bedroom, but as far as reasons go, you have to admit that this is a good one!
