Easy ways to burn calories

By Dr Mike Edgley - Docklands Health

There are loads of people out there who want to lose weight or keep in shape, but simply don’t like going to the gym. Good news! You don’t have to be a gym junkie or exercise fanatic to burn calories. There are plenty of ways to get your body moving and burning off those tasty treats without running a marathon.

Choose the path of more resistance

Whenever you’re out and about in the daily grind, there are lots of little opportunities to burn extra calories. If you’re in an office building, take the stairs. On average, climbing one step burns 0.75 calories. Now, times that by a few flights and you have yourself a neat little workout. If you’re in the car and looking for a park, skip the ones closest to your destination to burn a few more calories on a walk. When you’re walking, make a conscious effort to pick up the pace a little to get your heart pumping and blood flowing.

Clean while you binge TV

Enthralled in a good series and can’t stop? That doesn’t mean you have to sit idly on the couch while you binge your favourite show. If there’s something that needs cleaning up in the vicinity of your television, then get to cleaning! Housework can burn up to 175 calories an hour. By the time you’ve watched a few episodes of something while you’re scrubbing away, you’ll have a clean house.

Bounce away your day

Office chairs or your couch can seem like a pretty comfy option for sitting, but whenever you’re eyeing off those cushy seats, consider an exercise ball instead. When you’re sitting on an exercise ball for lengths of time, you’re constantly shifting around to stabilise your body, meaning you’re constantly moving. Movement equals energy expenditure, which equals extra calories burned. It’s a no-brainer!

Dance like nobody’s watching

Everyone has a song (or many more than one) that they can’t help dancing to. Now’s the time to bring out your favourite jam and bust out your favourite moves! Dancing is an incredibly efficient and fun way to burn calories, with up to 180 calories burned in just 30 minutes. So, whether you’re in your car with the windows shamelessly rolled down or can spare some time to pop on the music that gets you moving around the house, dancing will lift your spirits AND your calories burned.

With not only a few extra COVID kilos but with festive season eating we will all need to deploy extra strategies to burn those calories! From all of us at Docklands Health, we wish every Docklands resident and worker a well-deserved rest and may 2022 usher in a little normality •