To lose weight, you need to burn more calories. This is common knowledge and is probably the reason why many of us exercise regularly, but it’s a constant battle because the more you eat, the more calories there are to burn. Calories that aren’t burned through activity are stored by the body, resulting in unwanted weight gain.
Sometimes there are not enough hours in the day to devote even more time to exercise, so how can we increase our calorie burn rate during simple day to day activities? The answer is to think about what you’re doing and how you can use each activity as an opportunity to burn calories. Follow these tips to burn even more each day and increase your chances of losing weight.
• Start taking care of your own chores. For example; wash your own car, walk the dog, and mow your lawn. Not only will you burn extra daily calories, but you’ll also save some money, by not paying someone else to take care of it
• Be kind to the environment and burn extra calories by cycling to work instead of driving. Just ten minutes of cycling equals 100 calories burned.
• When you’re in an office building or anywhere else that has lots of stairs, don’t take the easy option with the elevator. Take the stairs and burn extra calories.
• When going out with friends, choose active activities. Bowling, dancing and hiking burn a massive amount of calories when compared to watching a movie or going out for coffee.
• Leave the prime parking spots for those who really need them and walk that little bit further to kill a few extra calories.
• In the office, don’t email or call your colleagues if they are in the same building. Get up and walk to them.
• Chew your food properly. Did you know that most of us do not chew our food enough? Aid your digestion and really chew your food. Even a minute task such as chewing can burn more calories.
• Snack on ‘negative calorie’ foods. Negative calorie foods burn more calories during digestion than is actually contained within them. Enjoy guilt free snacks and burn extra calories by eating raw foods such as celery, lettuce, cucumber and oranges.
• Stand when possible. Don’t sit down when you’re on the telephone, pace and walk around to burn extra calories. When you’re travelling on the bus, give your seat to someone who needs it. You burn more calories standing than you do sitting.
As you can see, small actions carried out regularly really can add up and help to increase the amount of calories you burn everyday without the need for extra sessions at the gym.
otrdiena, 2011. gada 1. februāris
Morning Workouts: Helpful or Detrimental?
Sometimes people prefer to exercise in the morning whilst some are not, and never will be, ‘morning people' and will find morning workouts a real chore. Well there are good points in working out as soon as you get up, or by setting the alarm clock an hour earlier to schedule a work out, such as:
• Exercise in the morning will help you to wake up and be ready for the day!
• Distractions are minimal as everyone else is likely to be still in bed, getting ready for the day or having breakfast.
• Morning exercise kick-starts the metabolism and helps to burn even more calories during the day.
• Morning workouts help to keep our brains focused and our ability to concentrate improves and lasts for hours after.
• Because glycogen reserves are depleted in the morning, your body will turn to fat to burn for energy.
• When exercising in a gym, facilities are less likely to be crowded, enabling a greater choice in exercise machines, with minimal waiting time.
• Eliminates the problem of exercising in mid-day heat.
This all sounds great, but there are also bad points to consider in choosing morning workouts. If you are exercising before eating breakfast, your body may burn muscle as well as fat for energy as energy levels are likely to be low at this time of day.
Risk of injury may be increased, as your muscles are likely to be cold and stiff after a night’s sleep.
Perhaps most importantly, if you are the type of person that has to drag themselves out of bed in the morning, a morning exercise regime is unlikely to help and will probably result in irritability, annoyance and a negative association with exercise, all of which are less than positive and do not promote healthy weight loss. This may lead to less effort given in work outs or abandoning workouts altogether.
Well, the most sensible approach to take would be that, if you are one of the lucky few who are able to get out of bed with no problem and revels in the thought of morning activity, then setting the alarm clock an hour earlier is a great idea to schedule in some uninterrupted work out time. This will set you up for the day and kick start that metabolism.
If you hate getting up in the morning, don’t worry too much. Afternoon and evening workouts are still preferable to no exercise at all. The key is to find a time of day that you can enjoy and benefit from exercise and stick to it. By keeping to the same time of day, your body will become accustomed to the work outs and it will become a regular routine. Consistency is above all, the most important aspect of exercise.
• Exercise in the morning will help you to wake up and be ready for the day!
• Distractions are minimal as everyone else is likely to be still in bed, getting ready for the day or having breakfast.
• Morning exercise kick-starts the metabolism and helps to burn even more calories during the day.
• Morning workouts help to keep our brains focused and our ability to concentrate improves and lasts for hours after.
• Because glycogen reserves are depleted in the morning, your body will turn to fat to burn for energy.
• When exercising in a gym, facilities are less likely to be crowded, enabling a greater choice in exercise machines, with minimal waiting time.
• Eliminates the problem of exercising in mid-day heat.
This all sounds great, but there are also bad points to consider in choosing morning workouts. If you are exercising before eating breakfast, your body may burn muscle as well as fat for energy as energy levels are likely to be low at this time of day.
Risk of injury may be increased, as your muscles are likely to be cold and stiff after a night’s sleep.
Perhaps most importantly, if you are the type of person that has to drag themselves out of bed in the morning, a morning exercise regime is unlikely to help and will probably result in irritability, annoyance and a negative association with exercise, all of which are less than positive and do not promote healthy weight loss. This may lead to less effort given in work outs or abandoning workouts altogether.
Conclusion
Well, the most sensible approach to take would be that, if you are one of the lucky few who are able to get out of bed with no problem and revels in the thought of morning activity, then setting the alarm clock an hour earlier is a great idea to schedule in some uninterrupted work out time. This will set you up for the day and kick start that metabolism.
If you hate getting up in the morning, don’t worry too much. Afternoon and evening workouts are still preferable to no exercise at all. The key is to find a time of day that you can enjoy and benefit from exercise and stick to it. By keeping to the same time of day, your body will become accustomed to the work outs and it will become a regular routine. Consistency is above all, the most important aspect of exercise.
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