Just sittin' Around Burning Calories...

My husband loves those books that have lots of little factoids and tidbits. I was flipping through one he had left on the bed and found some interesting calorie burning facts.

Until the last few years, it didn't really register with me that calories represents units of energy. Those units of energy represent fuel and fuel is food. So, the more fuel you put into your body, the more you better use and burn off. It also never occurred to me that just living, breathing, even sleeping requires some kind of energy, so you are in a constant state of burning calories no matter what you do. It's just going to be less significant the less you do.

That realization made me feel so much better. I always felt like I had to burn off all the food I ate in a day during a workout or else, there was no way I would lose weight. This is not true. Our bodies are constantly burning fuel just to stay alive! So, when your daily workout only burns off the calories equivalent to breakfast or lunch, don't worry! Congratulate yourself and remember that you just boosted your calorie burn for the day and helped invigorate your metabolism.

Here are some day to day things we all do and how many calories they burn
Calculations are based on an "average" person who weighs 150lbs.
The more you weigh, the more calories you will burn.
I would say that is good news for me and you :)

• Pushing a cart at the grocery store for an hour will burn 243 calories.
• 30 minutes of dusting can burn 80 calories.
• 30 minutes of ironing can burn 76.5 calories.
• Three hours of house painting can burn 1, 026 calories.
• Washing the car for 30 minutes burns 102 calories.
• Folding clothes for 30 minutes can burn 72 calories.
• Mopping the floor for 30 minutes can burn 153 calories.
• Pushing a lawn mower around for one hour can burn 324 calories.
• You'll burn 74 calories during the 30 minutes you spend preparing dinner.
• Every hour of moving furniture burns 504 calories.
• Thirty minutes of shoveling snow burns 202.5 calories.
• Vacuuming for only 20 minutes burns 56 calories.
• Eight hours of good shut-eye will burn 360 calories.
• Two hours of gardening will burn 648 calories.
• Watching TV for one hour burns 72 calories.

Taken from Armchair Reader: The Extraordinary Book of Lists.
Image provided by: www.toothpastefordinner.com