10 Strangest Ways to Burn Calories | Physical activities slideshows | Well Being center

Burning Calories While Grocery Shopping

If you weigh 150 pounds, pushing a shopping cart through a grocery store for half an hour will burn 70 calories. If you weigh 300 pounds, pushing a shopping car through the supermarket for a full hour (you need to buy more stuff, right?) will burn nearly 300 calories. And if you want to burn even more calories, carry your groceries as you walk home, don't drive or take a taxi or bus. Don't forget to look at those higher shelves. Reach for the newer items at the back of the shelf. The more you move when you buy your food, the fewer calories you will have to restrict from your diet.

Sources & Links

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Photo courtesy of Mike Schmid by Flickr : www.flickr.com/photos/mikeschmid/1400021633/
www.realbeauty.com/health/fitness/weird-and-wacky-fitness-burn-calories#slide-2
http://www.nairaland.com/1128716/20-bizarre-ways-burn-calories

Burning Calories While Cleaning House

Sweeping, mopping, organizing drawers, doing laundry, and pushing a vacuum cleaner (using a Roomba doesn't count) burn about 200 calories an hour if you weigh 150 pounds, and about 300 calories an hour if you weigh 225 pounds. That is about half as many calories per hour as you will burn if you do cardio at the gym or maybe some kickboxing. Raking leaves, cleaning out gutters, washing the car, and scrubbing floors burn about 400 calories an hour if you weight 150 pounds, and about 600 calories an hour if you weigh 225 pounds, and about 800 calories an hour if you weigh 300 pounds. The hard-to-do chores burn every bit as many calories as a hard workout at the gym.

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Photo courtesy of Maarten Takens by Flickr : www.flickr.com/photos/takens/5687744617/
Calories Burned Doing Household Chores. Fitday, accessed 14 August 2013.

Massage Those Calories Per Day

Massage is relaxing. It's also a great way to burn extra calories. An hour you spend receiving deep tissue massage burns up maybe 100 to 200 calories, depending on your weight (100 calories if you weigh 130 pounds, 200 calories if you weigh 250 pounds). Giving massages also takes energy. A 130-pound masseuse burns about 130 calories in a one-hour massage session. A 200-pound masseur burns about 250 calories in that same one-hour massage session. Massage really isn't a great way to lose weight, but that isn't what massage is all about, is it? The more you stretch or the more you are stretched, however, the more calories you burn.

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Photo courtesy of Matt Chan by Flickr : www.flickr.com/photos/eggplant/608925035/
Troncao, J. How Many Calories are Burned During a 1 Hour Massage? Livestrong, accessed 14 August 2013.

Do A Happy Dance

Does losing weight make you happy? Happy enough to do a little happy dance? If it does, the reward is losing even more weight. If you weigh 150 pounds and you do belly dancing for an hour, you will burn 321 calories. If you do the tango for an hour, you will burn 214 calories. An hour of ballet burns 343 calories, an hour of fast ballroom dancing burns 322 calories, an hour of slow ballroom dancing, 214 calories, the flamenco, 321 calories, hula, 322 calories, waltzing, 215 calories, and an hour of tap dancing, 343 calories. If you weigh more, you will burn more calories, if you weigh less, you will burn fewer calories, and if your partner steps on your toe, you get extra credit for hopping on one foot.

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Photo courtesy of D. Sharon Pruitt by Flickr : www.flickr.com/photos/pinksherbet/3640637459/
Danching Calories Burned. Self Magazine. Accessed 14 August 2013.

Taking A Shower

You can burn calories just standing in the shower. Who knew? A 150-pound person burns about 70 calories during a 15-minute shower. A 200-pound person burns about 95 calories during a 15-minute shower. If you weigh 300 pounds, you can burn a whopping 300 calories just by staying in the shower for half an hour. How does taking a shower burn calories? Your body expends extra energy staying upright on a slippery surface. And if you take a cold shower for 15 minutes, your body will burn even more calories while you are in the shower to keep you warm.

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Photo courtesy of espensorvik by Flickr : www.flickr.com/photos/28478778@N05/5729030772/
Johnson, S. Taking a Shower Burns Calories. weightlossblogger.com, accessed 14 August 2013.

Laugh Your Calories Away

Researchers at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee found that enjoying a joke that is funny enough to laugh out loud burns about 1.3 calories per minute. That is about the same number of calories burned when you type, surf the Internet, or talk with friends, but burning calories during laughter has other advantages. Laughing reduces muscle tension. It stimulates the immune system. It normalizes heart rhythms without increasing blood pressure. All of these beneficial effects derive from mirthful laughter. laughing at something that is funny, rather than derisive laughter, laughing at someone or something. And when you are feeling tired, find something to laugh at. Mirthful laughter gently raises bloodstream concentrations of epinephrine, a hormone that gives you a boost of energy to keep you going.

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Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Anne by Flickr : www.flickr.com/photos/elizabethannephotography/4616469771/
Bennett MP, Lengacher C. Humor and Laughter May Influence Health: III. Laughter and Health Outcomes. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2008 Mar. 5(1):37-40. doi: 10.1093/ecam/nem041.

Take The Stairs Instead Of The Elevator

Want to burn a few extra calories on the way to the office? If you work in a high-rise building, or if you work anywhere other than on the first floor of your workplace, take the stairs rather than the elevator. Climbing stairs, if you weigh 150 pounds, burns 0.1 of a calorie per step. If you go up three flights of stairs, that is an extra 10 calories or so. Walking down the stairs burns about half as many calories, maybe 5 calories as you go down from the third floor to the ground floor. That's not a lot of calories, but every little bit helps, and the cardiovascular stimulus will help keep you alert on the job or on your way home.

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Photo courtesy of Sven Schneider by Flickr : www.flickr.com/photos/permanentmedia/8115811887/
Marshmallowman.com, Calories Burned per Stair while Stairclimbing, 11 January 2011, accessed 14 August 2013.

Walk The Dog

Want a dependable way to burn calories every day. Get a dog, preferably a large breed, like a Lab, a Pyrenees, or a Great Dane. Or maybe just become the loving human for a very curious Chihuahua. Walking the dog burns a lot more calories than walking without the dog. For instance, if you weigh 165 pounds, walking for 45 minutes at 2.5 mph without a dog typically burns about 175 calories. Walking with a dog constantly tugging at its leash for the same 45 minutes at 2.5 mph can burn as much as 350 calories, nearly twice as many calories as walking by yourself.

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Photo courtesy of galawebdesign by Flickr : www.flickr.com/photos/galawebdesign/3583699018/
The Weather Channel, Dog Walking Calculator, accessed 14 August 2013.

Make Love

Want to lose a pound of fat while making love? Arrange 42 trips to the boudoir each lasting 30 minutes each, advises WebMD writer Kathleen Doheny. Actually, those 42 rounds of sexual intercourse burn, on average, 3570 calories, more than the equivalent of a pound of fat, although researchers have not told us if certain sexual positions, yelling during lovemaking, or playful running around the bedroom will burn more. Sex is great exercise, the sex doctors tell us. The more inventive the sex, the more calories you burn. And sex also stimulates the immune system, regulates blood pressure, reduces the risk of prostate cancer in men and urinary incontinence in women, and helps both partners feel better about themselves.

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Photo courtesy of MaloMalverde by Flickr : www.flickr.com/photos/malomalverde/8700189053/
Doheny, K. 10 Suprisingly Health Benefits of Having Sex. WebMD.com, accessed 14 August 2013.

Text Your Friends

Texting burns calories. Keeping those thumbs in constant motion costs your metabolism about 40 calories per hour above the energy needed for breathing, thinking, standing still or sitting up, and maintaining a heartbeat. Of course, if you are munching away at something while you text you will cancel out all the metabolic benefits, such as they are, of your texting exercise. You burn considerably more calories if you text while walking, text while biking, or text while driving a car, but aside from the fact that these activities may be against the law where you live, you want to avoid burning lots and lots of calories as you get around in a cast after breaking bones because you weren't paying attention to where you were while texting on your phone.