Burning Fat the Easy Way

While there is nothing quite like the feeling of accomplishment you get when you hit the gym for an hour of serious weight training or cardio, sometimes you just can’t get there. Whether due to schedule changes, too much on your plate, or a host of other reasons, skipping your workout doesn’t mean you can’t continue burning fat throughout the day. In fact, the following are ways that you can burn fat the easy way, even if it doesn’t feel like it.

Don’t Skip the Stairs
Instead of following the herd to the elevator or escalator, take the stairs instead. Every minute you spend climbing stairs (at 25 seconds per flight) will burn around 9 to12 calories. While that doesn’t seem like much, if you spend 60 minutes each week on the stairs, that’s an extra 540 to 720 calories burned each week (compared to 60 to 120 calories spent in the elevator in the same time), and you didn’t even have to sweat to do it!

Clean the House
While no one really enjoys house cleaning, it can actually qualify as fat burning exercise. Cleaning the whole house, including sweeping, dusting, vacuuming, and the like, at a moderate effort can burn as many as 175 calories per hour for someone weighing around 150 pounds. Since this is something that most do anyway, it doesn’t get much easier to burn fat!

Ride Your Bike
We all know biking is great exercise, and it’s actually quite easy to fit into your day. Instead of driving to work every day, hop on your trusty bicycle. Every 30 minutes that you spend riding at a moderate intensity level can burn up to 366 calories or more. When you add in the money you’ll save on gas, this is definitely a win-win situation.

Stretch Those Muscles
Whether you sit at a desk all day, or you just want to stay limber and flexible, 30 minutes of light stretching can burn nearly 90 calories. Not only will this add to the amount of fat you burn each day, it will also keep those pesky aches and pains away that come from lack of movement, or over-exertion.

Play Some Badminton
Everyone loves an impromptu game of badminton, and since it doesn’t take much to play, that means you can do it nearly anywhere. A person weighing around 150 pounds can burn as much as 314 calories in just one hour of chasing the birdie around. Not only will you be burning fat, you’ll also be having some fun with your friends at the same time.

Mow the Lawn
You know you have to do it anyway, but when you take care of that overgrown grass you burn serious fat. A 160-pound person that spends an hour mowing the grass burns off nearly 400 calories. Since this is something that has to be done, you get two benefits at the same time.
There are plenty of ways to burn fat, without even realizing you’re doing it. If you can’t make it to the gym, these activities will help keep your body in fat burning mode.