Sneaky ways to burn extra calories

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scagneti
scagneti Posts: 707 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I know that a lot of people already use the "park as far as you can away from the door" and "use the stairs instead of the elevator", but here are some more sneaky ways to get your body to burn extra calories. Granted, these won't drop pounds overnight, but done daily and in conjuction with other things will add up over the months.

1. Drink your water as cold as you can stand it. The body has to lower to body temp (that's why pee comes out warm!) and it burns calories when it does that. I drink at least 12 cups a day, so if I drink it near freezing, it' has to burn more calories than if I drank it warm or less cold. Without doing difficult math, I'd guess that's at least 75 calories per day extra burned just drinking 12 cups very cold instead of warm. Over two months, that's 1 1/3 lb, which isn't too shabby!

2. Fidget. When you're at a desk job, you can go hours without moving. So use your desk as a camoflague and tap your feet, pretend you're riding a bike, bounce your legs, etc. Again, even if you only burn an extra 100 calories a day (which if you do it conisistantly over an 8 hour day, you should be burning a lot more!), that's another 1 2/3 lb, so 3 extra pounds if done with the water!

3. Run in spot during x-number of commercial breaks or walk up and down the stairs when talking on the phone.

I've heard that chewing gum and eating spicy foods burn extra calories because your body has to constantly do something (chew for gum, sweat for spicy foods), but I couldn't quantify those.

I'm sure others have other sneaky ways to share!! :tongue:

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  • kristilovescake
    kristilovescake Posts: 669 Member
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    Thanks for sharing! It will be interesting to see what others say since I'm trying to find some other ways to sneak in some extra calorie burn at my desk job.

    One thing I like to do is little exercises in the restroom (we have a single-toilet restroom so I don't look a fool). I'll do a few squats, run in place, wall push-ups, just little things that add up since I go to the restroom pretty often when I drink 8+ glasses of water at work.

    There's also sitting on an exercise ball instead of a chair (I think it helps at least a little since I tend to fidget and move around a bit more).

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