Move more

The human body is a machine that is constantly burning calories from the foods we eat to provide us with energy for movement and to keep it’s systems running smoothly. When burning more calories than are being taken in, the body turns to fat stores as a source of fuel, resulting in weight-loss. Aside from slogging it out at the gym, what can we do to increase the number of calories we burn?

Move more! Incidental activity or exercise is a great way of increasing your daily calorie expenditure.

Here are 15 ways to increase your daily activity and burn more calories:

1)   Take the stairs rather than the escalator or lift.

2)   Park further away from your destination and walk the rest of the way.

3)   Get off the bus or train a stop early and walk.

4)   Walk or cycle to work.

5)   Meet friends for a walk, run or exercise class rather than coffee and cake.

6)   Take the batteries out of the t.v. remote and get up to change the channel.

7)   Wear a pedometre, challenge yourself to double your average daily steps!

8)   Clean the house or do some gardening in your spare time.

9)   Walk to the shop for bread and milk rather than drive.

10)   On the hour, every hour, get up and take a 5 minute walk.

11)   Volunteer to do the coffee or lunch run at work.

12)   Walk over and speak to colleagues at work instead of phoning or emailing them.

13)   Join a local sport team that practices once a week.

14)   Walk the dog. If you don’t have one, offer to walk the neighbour’s dog!

15)   When watching t.v., get up during the ad breaks and do some squats, lunges, push-ups, crunches or another exercise until the program resumes.

If you were to implement just a couple of these, you could see noticeable changes.          For example, if you:

-Took the dog for a 30 minute walk, three times a week.

-Did the 15 minute coffee run each day at work.

– Got off the bus 1km from home and walked the rest of the way

you could be burning enough additional calories to potentially lose 1kg in 3 months if nutritional intake remains the same. (This will vary slightly depending on a person’s weight). That’s 4kg a year!

So make a few small changes to move more and weigh less!