How Many Calories Do You Burn in a Day? More Than You Realize!

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.

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

This is a very simplistic example and so far we have expended 1,050 calories! 

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

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!

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

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.