If you can’t afford the gym and don’t have time to go, that doesn’t mean you can’t get in your recommended dose of daily exercise—you just need to think outside the box! Follow these four tips to burn calories at home without visiting the gym and watch your weight-loss efforts soar.
1) Lying Down
You’ve likely heard that lying down is a good way to burn calories and improve blood flow (and you probably learned in health class that sitting is a disease in and of itself). While there is some truth to these statements, it’s important not to overstate their benefits. You should be careful with how much time you spend on your back as it can lead to circulation problems. But if you want an easy way out of hitting up the gym, it might be a good place for you start. Plus, according to research from Japan, simply laying down after eating can help us feel full faster than just sitting or standing alone. So don’t think of it as another task you have to do—think of it as a fun activity that gets you closer to those weight-loss goals!
2) By walking
We tend to overlook our most basic daily movement when trying to burn calories. Walking is a great exercise that can burn hundreds of calories over time. If you have a desk job, or if you just want an excuse not to take another trip for coffee, try parking your car farther away from work and walking in. You’ll get some much-needed exercise in without having to change into workout clothes.
3) kissing
A workout that doesn’t seem like a workout, kissing can help you shed weight. Every kiss burns approximately six calories—so with each kiss, we’re taking in less food. A 30-second smooch may burn 15 calories—that’s almost as much as a blueberry! That might not sound like much, but considering we consume our body weight in food each year, it all adds up and you could lose up to 9 pounds just by kissing more often. Next time your sweetheart leans in for a kiss, make sure there are enough blueberries in your breakfast smoothie to keep you going all day.
4) Drink more water!
When you’re trying to lose weight, it’s important to stay hydrated. Drinking more water will help curb your appetite and keep you feeling full, so that you can exercise without worrying about being famished. If drinking plain water is difficult for you, buy a bottle with a flavor infuser or a pitcher that filters your tap water. A lot of people also find consuming more fluids stops them from obsessing over food. Switch out sugar-laden drinks like soda and fruit juice for tea or plain sparkling water. And don’t forget coffee! That morning pick-me-up is calorie free if you order it black with an extra shot of good cheer—though adding milk or half & half is fine too!
Workouts
The best way to burn calories, period, is to get your heart rate up by working out.
Exercise can be broken down into three components:
Intensity,
frequency and
duration.
Intensity: refers to how much oxygen you’re consuming—and thus how hard you’re working. If you want to burn calories quickly, work out harder; if you want to burn fat over time, keep it moderate.
Frequency: refers to how often you exercise—the more frequently you work out, the more total calories (and fat) your body will burn over time.
Duration: refers to how long each workout lasts; for example, a 30-minute workout burns about 50 percent more total calories than a 15-minute workout does in half that time.
kettle bell
If you’re looking for a more rigorous way to burn calories, consider using weights.
Kettle bells are an incredibly effective tool for fat burning and can be used by people of all fitness levels.
Kettle bells come in different weights, but you don’t need to invest in expensive equipment; some research suggests that a 10-pound kettle bell is ideal for most exercises.
Try these moves:
Grab a kettle bell with both hands and stand upright with your feet shoulder-width apart.
Bend your knees slightly and bend forward from your hips until your back is almost parallel to the floor.
Use your arms to raise up into a squat position as you squeeze through your glutes (the muscles on either side of your butt).
As you squat down, push through with your heels and extend upward into a full standing position as you straighten out through each leg.
This move targets multiple muscle groups in one go—namely, hamstrings, quads, glutes and calves—while also burning calories quickly.
Conclusion
Each day, it seems we’re presented with more and more health tips. But it can be difficult to discern which suggestions will help us reach our weight-loss goals.
Exercise is a simple way to shed pounds and boost your health, but some exercises require costly gym memberships or a lot of space in your home.
Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to burn calories without visiting a gym—you just need to know where to look. Here are four great ideas for burning calories without leaving your house
