ways to burn calories without exercise

Walk or bike everywhere

Let’s admit it—we’ve all been tempted to drive to places that we could easily walk to, whether it’s classes or the library or the nearest grocery store. Melanie Ludwig, owner of Prestige Fitness, also suggests walking a lap around the buildings that you have classes in before class starts. For a 150-pound collegiette, walking for 40 minutes at a pace of three miles per hour burns 200 calories. Calculate how many calories you burn from walking here!

If walking isn’t your thing, biking for 23 minutes can also burn 200 calories. Not really into pedaling? Try rollerblading, riding a scooter or getting off the bus early to walk to class. These little decisions can accumulate and make a huge difference for your health!

Have a stair-ing contest

Don’t think we’ve forgotten about those dreaded stairs! We all know it’s a no-brainer to take the stairs instead of the elevator, but sometimes we can’t help avoiding and hating on the stairs, especially when we have to lug around our own body weight in textbooks on a daily basis. But if you choose the stairs every day, your body will thank you in the long run. After all, a 150 to 160-pound person can burn 10 calories every minute she climbs stairs. That means that only 20 minutes of climbing a day will burn 200 calories

Exercise while studying

It’s really easy to stay in one place for hours on end when you have reading to do or an exam to study for. But it isn’t good for your health, because as soon as you sit down, calorie burning drops down to one calorie per minute and enzymes that help break down fat drop by 90 percent.

“We are made to locomote, and inactivity leads to poor health,” Ludwig says. To increase activity, Ludwig suggests sneaking in movement while you are otherwise preoccupied. “Have a lot of reading to do? Do it on a recumbent bike at a low resistance so that it’s easy [and] your reading or studying is all you think about,” Ludwig says. “I don’t suggest this on a treadmill or elliptical as it is harder to balance, but you can try.”

For a 150-pound collegiette, only 26 minutes on a recumbent bike, 26 minutes on an elliptical trainer at a moderate pace or walking on a treadmill at three miles per hour for 56 minutes will burn 200 calories. And you’ll get your work done, too! If you don’t have access to any of these exercise machines, check out these other exercises that you can do at your desk. Talk about multitasking