It’s no secret that exercise and healthy eating are effective ways to lose weight and maintain a healthy weight. However, there are unconventional ways to boost your calorie burn throughout the day without hitting the gym.
While age, gender, height, and weight affect how your body uses calories, activities like cleaning your home, getting enough sleep, chewing gum, and even laughing can all contribute to increased calorie burn.
What Natural Activities Burn Calories?
Here are 9 easy activities that will help you burn calories and aid in weight loss:
1. Cleaning and Housework
Subtle forms of physical activity called non-exercise thermogenesis (NEAT), such as housework and daily chores, can boost your metabolism and burn extra calories.
In addition to improving your overall physical health, a deep cleaning session can increase the number of calories you burn. 4 5 Some reports suggest that increasing your cleaning speed can burn about 150 calories per hour in a 150-pound person.
2. Laugh
Sharing a laugh with a friend can do more than just make you feel good.
Studies show that giggling for 10 to 15 minutes can burn up to 40 calories. Researchers theorize that laughter can help reduce cortisol levels, which can temporarily boost your metabolism and prompt your body to burn more calories.
3. Chew gum
Some evidence suggests that the effort and energy required to chew gum can help speed up your metabolism. One study found that participants burned more calories when they chewed gum before meals. Other research suggests that chewing gum may signal to your body that you’re full, which may help limit your calorie intake.
4. Fidgeting
Fidgeting, which is small movements like tapping your foot or shaking your leg throughout the day, may help burn calories.
When one or more of your body parts are constantly moving, you can burn more calories, whether you’re standing or sitting. Some studies suggest that fidgeting all day can burn up to 10 times more calories than sitting still. In some people, this can be equivalent to burning an extra 350 calories per day.
5. Drinking cold water
Drinking water can temporarily boost your metabolism. Research shows that drinking cold water burns more energy, which can maximize these benefits.
Some evidence suggests that this can be equivalent to a 40% increase in metabolic rate as your body warms the water you drink to internal temperature.
6. Shopping
Occasional shopping can also be a useful way to increase your calorie burn. Experts generally recommend that most adults should aim to walk 8,000 to 10,000 steps a day. Since activities like shopping or running errands increase your daily step count, they can also increase your calorie burn, which can be as much as 180 calories per hour, according to some estimates.
7. Gardening
Gardening requires a lot of full-body movements, such as weeding, bending or squatting, raking, shoveling, and repetitive use of heavy tools. While the exact amount of calories burned will vary by activity and person, experts say spending an hour doing yard work is enough to burn calories efficiently and strengthen upper and lower body muscle groups.
8. Get more sleep
Calories are naturally burned during sleep as the body uses energy to maintain normal functioning throughout the night. Research shows that regularly getting the recommended seven to nine hours of sleep supports metabolism and regulates appetite hormones. This can ensure you burn as many calories as possible overnight.
9. Drink green tea or coffee
Drinks containing caffeine can temporarily speed up the body’s metabolism. That’s why drinks like green tea or coffee can help support burning a small amount of extra calories each day.
One study found that obese men who drank multiple cups of green tea burned about 183 more calories per day. While more evidence is needed, some studies suggest that beverages like green tea and coffee that contain antioxidants may boost energy expenditure, increasing the total number of calories burned.
So, losing weight doesn’t have to start at the gym. Small habits like moving more, getting enough sleep, or simply laughing more can make a difference. If you consistently combine these activities with a reasonable diet, your body will gradually change naturally and comfortably.
