Burn Those Calories

Intense, continuous, and regular exercise programs are great for weight loss or overall health improvement, but you don’t have to pump iron or sweat to aerobics to burn calories. Enough activity can be worked into your daily routine to benefit your health and body.

Burning calories is as easy as sleeping or reading, as productive as washing windows or planting flowers, as gratifying as flying a kite or coaching your kid’s soccer team, and as simple as walking from point A to point B. All physical activity (even sitting or sleeping) burns calories—just get moving.

Sure, the more intense and the longer the duration, the more you burn. But any exercise contributes to weight loss or management, muscle building, increased metabolism, improved self-esteem and body image, and stress reduction.

Although your weight, workout intensity, and performance efficiency affect the number of calories burned, any activity is worth the effort. Before adding up those numbers, take these facts into consideration:

A calorie is a measure of energy expenditure. One pound of fat stores 3,500 calories. To lose a pound of fat a week, you need to burn an extra 500 calories a day.

Sitting on the bench does not count. Although you may be burning minimal calories just sitting (about 1-1.5 calories per minute), your energy expenditure multiplies when you start moving.

Weight counts. The more you weigh, the more you burn. While a person weighing 125 to 174 pounds burns 52 calories in 10 minutes walking 4 mph, a person weighing 250 pounds or more will burn 102 calories performing the same activity. Most calorie-burning charts are based on the average 150-pound person. If you weigh less, you’ll burn less; if you weigh more, you’ll burn more. Focus on moving, not on counting, and you’ll benefit even more.

Jyl Steinback is a lifestyle trainer and author of Superfoods: Cook Your Way To Health.

Simple Ways to Burn 100 calories*
Activity	Duration
Jump rope	11 minutes
Play volleyball	11 minutes
Run a mile	12 minutes
Swim	12 minutes
Climb stairs	12 minutes
Roller-skate	13 minutes
Play soccer	14 minutes
Weight lift	15 minutes
Walk briskly	17 minutes
Aerobic dance	17 minutes
River raft	18 minutes
Dance	18 minutes
Put groceries away	18 minutes
Bowling	18 minutes
Wash the car	20 minutes
Mop the floor	20 minutes
Horseback riding	22 minutes
Take a shower	22 minutes
Practice yoga	24 minutes
Rake the lawn	24 minutes
Play the piano	24 minutes
Fly a kite	29 minutes
Play miniature golf	29 minutes
Housework	34 minutes
Sweep the garage	40 minutes
(*These figures are based on a 150-pound person. If you weigh less, you burn less; if you weigh more, you burn more. For every 50 pounds, you burn approximately 40 percent to 50 percent more calories in 10 minutes. )

Jyl Steinback is a lifestyle trainer and author of Superfoods: Cook Your Way To Health.

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