How Many Calories Do You Burn in a Day? More Than You Realize!
How Many Calories?
How many of you out there run….I mean walk, away from exercising? Do you think strenuous exercise is what is needed to burn calories? Well, you will be glad to know that you expend calories with every activity you perform, even sitting there reading this article!
Let’s go through an example of a 24 hour day at home and see just how many calories you could burn in a day.
These calorie estimates are based on a person weighing 150 pounds. The more you weigh the greater the amount of calories you will burn.
Starting at Midnight
420 minutes - Sleeping - 1 calorie/minute - 420 calories
10 minutes - Take a shower - 4 calories/minute - 40 calories
10 minutes - Breakfast - 3 calories/minute - 30 calories
10 minutes - Wash dishes - 2 calories/minute - 20 calories
5 minutes - Brush teeth - 2 calories/minute - 10 calories
60 minutes - Housework - 3 calories/minute - 180 calories
30 minutes - Read newspaper - 1 calorie/minute - 30 calories
15 minutes - Driving to the store - 2 calories/minute - 30 calories
45 minutes - Shopping - 2 calories/minute - 90 calories
15 minutes - Drive home - 2 calories/minute - 30 calories
10 minutes - Unload the car - 3 calories/minute - 30 calories
15 minutes - Put groceries away - 3 calories/minute - 45 calories
30 minutes - Talking on phone - 1 calorie/minute - 30 calories
15 minutes - Lunch - 3 calories/minute - 45 calories
10 minutes - Wash dishes - 2 calories/minute - 20 calories
How are we doing so far?
This is a very simplistic example and so far we have expended 1,050 calories!
Afternoon/Evening
60 minutes - Wash the car - 5 calories/minute - 300 calories
60 minutes - Gardening - 6 calories/minute - 360 calories
60 minutes - Reading a book - 1 calorie/minute - 60 calories
30 minutes - Walking - 2 mi/hour3 calories/minute - 90 calories
60 minutes - Working on a hub - 1 calorie/minute - 60 calorie
60 minutes - Dinner - 3 calories/minute - 180 calories
20 minutes - Dishes - 2 calories/minute - 40 calories
60 minutes - Watch the news - 1 calorie/minute - 60 calories
10 minutes - Driving - 2 calories/minute - 20 calories
120 minutes - Bowling - 3 calories/minute - 360 calories
10 minutes - Drive home - 2 calories/minute - 20 calories
90 minutes - Watch TV - 1 calorie/minute - 90 calories
20 minutes - Sex with spouse - 4 calories/minute - 80 calories
90 minutes - Sleeping - 1 calorie/minute - 90 calories
On Your Way to Losing Weight!
This afternoon and evening we expended 1,810 calories for a 24 hour total of 2860! And we have not accounted for every minute of the day so this total is probably higher.
Of course we haven’t added in the amount of calories we ate and drank in this time period. But if we had eaten sensibly, we could have been on our way to losing weight with not a whole lot of strenuous activities!
Ramp up the Calorie Burning!
If you wanted to ramp up the calorie burning here are a few other activities:
walking 3 mph expends 4 calories/minute
walking 4 mph would be 5 calories/minute
playing with the kids would be 4 calories/minute
a stationary bicycle, a stair stepper or jogging would be 7 calories/minute
walking up stairs or running 5 mph is 9 calories/minute
an elliptical or cross country skiing would be 12 calories/minute
Go Burn Some Calories!
Just keeping busy all day, along with watching your calorie intake would get you on your way to a healthier life. Adding in more exercise a little at a time is a goal everyone who is physically able should be able to accomplish.
