Burning calories with day-to-day activities

The fact is that the more active you are, the more calories you burn, and in addition to regular exercise and cutting back on high-caloric foods, there are other simple day-to-day activities and hobbies which can boost your heart rate and help burn calories:

- Mow the lawn or garden: This is good exercise and gets your heart rate going. Any type of gardening activity in general is considered a beneficial way to burn off fat.

- Vacuum and clean: According to About.com, if you spend an hour vacuuming (and cleaning your house), you can burn nearly 250 calories (based on a person weighing around 150 1bs). So get out the old Hoover and bucket and mop, and make your home squeaky clean.

- Play Frisbee: If it’s a sunny day and you have time on your hands, enjoy a game of Frisbee out on the lawn. An hour can burn off more than 200 calories.

- Shoot some pool: The pool table has been sitting in your basement for years, and it’s time to dust it off and play. Nothing spells “leisure” as a casual game of pool with friends, which can also burn off more than 150 calories per hour.

- Walk, walk and walk again: The Harvard Health Letter recommends taking the “faraway spot”: Parking your car as far away as possible in the garage so that you have to walk a while to get to your destination. In addition, pacing around the house or your office (as opposed to sitting all day) is also good exercise.

- Go shopping: A number of health experts claim that walking around the mall or dragging your shopping cart around the supermarket help burn off calories. You don’t necessarily have to exercise your wallet, either: Stick with window shopping.

- Shovel that sidewalk: During winter snow storms, start shoveling your driveway. This is a great activity that speeds up your heart rate and burns off a lot of calories.

- Play a musical instrument: You’ve always wanted to learn how to play the guitar or piano, and now here’s your excuse. It may not qualify as a vigorous activity, but according to HealthStatus.com, a half-hour of strumming your guitar strings will result in (hopefully) harmonious melodies, as well as an easy 100-calorie burn.