How to Burn Calories While Sitting

Burning calories and staying fit is a very important concern all over the world today. Sedentary lifestyles are pushing up the levels of obesity, heart disease, and other major illnesses. Research indicates that lack of exercise is a major factor that contributes to our increasingly ill society.

Let us understand in simple terms what it means to burn calories. When we eat we consume calories.

The body uses up these calories as energy to function smoothly on a regular basis. Contrary to what one may think, the body burns calories even during a sedentary state like sleeping or sitting. However, the amount of calories burned is tiny compared to the amount burned while taking part in intense physical activity such as aerobics or swimming. In order to stay fit, we must use up the extra calories that will be otherwise stored as fat.

The number of calories burned during various activities will depend on a lot of factors. The weight of the person, the age, as well as the duration of the exercise will collectively determine how many calories are spent. On average, 81 calories are burned per hour of sitting. This is usually not sufficient to take care of the extra calories consumed, and one may need to include exercise to take care of the rest. Burning calories sitting at a desk will also depend on the factors discussed earlier. We usually burn between 53 to 78 calories during the time we are at work. The range is about the same for number of calories burned sitting.

Trade Work Chairs For Exercise Balls

Spending long hours sitting at work is proving to be a direct factor that leads to many illnesses. People are coming up with unique ways to change this trend. Sitting on an exercise ball instead of a chair at work can help to burn at least 50 extra calories per hour. This is because sitting on an exercise ball requires more effort to balance. This makes our muscles do more work and thus, results in more calories burned.

Sitting in heat or using the sauna is another popular method that advocates the loss of calories. However, experts tell us that the weight lost through this method is only because of the loss of water due to perspiration. The body can easily gain this weight back without any benefit to the individual.

Ultimately, proper exercise is the only way to keep fit and lose the extra pounds. There is no shortcut to maintaining a healthy body.

References:

http://dining.byu.edu/eat/exercise_chart.html
http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsweek/Calories-burned-in-30-minutes-of-leisure-and-routine-activities.htm

Submitted on January 16, 2014