You don’t have to hit the gym for hours on end to burn calories and lose weight. With the addition of a few simple activities each day, you can burn extra calories and get fit in no time.
The American Cancer Society offers a fun, interactive calculator that helps you calculate how many calories you burn while doing a variety of activities. We share some of our favourite calorie-burning discoveries, but feel free to play around with this great tool yourself. Just keep in mind that these amounts are based on a 150-pound person, so your calorie burn will be a little more or less, depending on your weight, body composition and the intensity at which you take on each exercise.
Dancing your heart out
Do you enjoy getting your groove on with Ellen Degeneres in the morning? If so, extend that dance routine for a little longer after she sits down, and you’ll achieve a major calorie burn while having fun. Dancing burns 370 calories per hour, so keep at it for a little over 16 minutes, and you’ll have shimmied your way to an extra 100-calorie burn.
Playing with the kids
Whether you have kids of your own or a favourite niece or nephew you love to visit, here’s another reason you should celebrate spending time with them. Chasing after little ones can burn 216 calories an hour. So you can spend a half-hour playing tag and board games, and reap the rewards in more ways than one.
Check out these activities to do with your kids this spring >>
Taking a yoga break
Yoga might be all about relaxation, but don’t let that fool you. You can burn 360 calories in an hour-long class. Don’t have time for that big of a commitment? Taking a break in your busy work day to do your own 17-minute yoga session will get you that 100-calorie burn you’re looking for.
Vacuuming the floors
Mopping or vacuuming the floors of your home might not be your favourite pastime, but you might not dread it as much when you know that 40 minutes of this worthwhile task burns 100 calories. So you can get your workout in and achieve a clean home at the same time.
Going for a walk
Any excuse to get out in the fresh air is a good one, but if you’re having trouble motivating yourself, consider this: A casual stroll can burn 206 calories per hour. That means walking your dog or strolling in the park with a friend for a half-hour will land you a satisfying 100-calorie burn.
Performing office tasks
Have you been thinking all this time that work and exercise have to be separate? Then you’ll be happy to learn that the tedious office work you don’t particularly enjoy can actually burn 240 calories per hour. So the next time you head over to make photocopies or go get something from the filing cabinet, give yourself a pat on the back.
Gardening
Spring is on its way, and when the warm weather settles in, you can finally get out into your garden and get to work. And when you’re done, you won’t just have beautiful flowers and shrubbery to be proud of; you’ll also have burned an extra 100 calories for every 18 minutes you were out there.
Going for a jog
Jogging is a huge calorie burner, which is great because you don’t have to commit a lot of time to it to get big results. Just nine minutes of jogging can burn off 100 calories. So what do you have to lose? Even if you get on the treadmill or pound the pavement for five minutes, you’ll have added a nice bit of activity to your calorie burn for the day.
Take a peek at our tips for beginner runners >>
Cleaning your home
Here’s another reason you should dive right into your spring cleaning this season! Depending on how vigorously you get into your scrubbing and dusting, you can burn 100 calories in between 14 and 25 minutes.
Sleeping
Believe it or not, the time you spend fast asleep will have you burning calories at a rate of close to 100 every two hours. It might not be the biggest calorie burn, but you don’t have to do anything for it but fall asleep, and that’s worth celebrating!
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