6 ways to burn calories without 'exercising'

If you want to see and feel noticeable results in your health & fitness you should be hitting the gym, or doing some form of intense exercise 2-3 times a week.

However, that doesn't mean that you should sit around all day for the rest of the week.

Although you need to ensure you allow your body to recover and repair following an intense workout, it is important that you still remain somewhat active.

I call these days 'Active Rest Days'.

Essentially you're looking to get some form of low intensity continuous exercise from your active rest days.

This will promote blood circulation (which will help with repairing muscles and reduce the soreness that can follow an intense workout), keeps your metabolism active and allows you to burn some extra calories at the same time.

Of course, you aren't going to burn as many calories on these active rest days, but when you stack these activities I'm about to share with you, over multiple days, you will be surprised how much the calorie burn adds up to.

Here are some activities you can do on your rest days when you aren't at the gym:
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1. Shopping
Although this may not be great for your bank account, you can burn up to 243 calories an hour by simply pushing a shopping trolley around or carrying bags around the town if it's retail therapy you're doing.

Then, when you get home, put the shopping away yourself and you will burn even more. Not only are you being active, but you’re using your muscles too, especially if your bags are heavy.

2. Sex
If you haven’t already, consider making sex an everyday activity. Depending on how active you are with your partner, you can burn approximately 144 calories per half-hour of sex. The more you engage with your partner, the more calorie burn you’ll receive!

3. House work
Those hours you spend wiping, sweeping, vacuuming, mopping and doing other similar chores, will not only get your house clean but also count as light exercise. An average person burns around 100 calories for each activity they do.

For example, vacuuming can burn as much as 170 calories!

4. Dancing
This could count as an intense workout if you treat it like Strictly Come Dancing, but even some casual dancing at a party, karaoke or music festival can really burn calories.

It turns out that we actually burn off a staggering 9,000 calories during a three-day music event.

Tech company Withings have found out that the average festival goer will spend up to eight hours dancing per day, burning an average of 400-700 calories during each act!

With all the dancing and jumping combined, the calorie expenditure soon adds up.

5. Take the stairs
It’s very tempting to just wait for the lift or use the escalator, but you’ll do your health a favour through a commitment to climbing the stairs.

For 10 minutes of stair climbing, you can burn 92 calories. More if you run up them. Although this may seem low to some, standing in the lift for a minute burns only 1 or 2 calories.

TIP: Take regular breaks from your work, and allow your eyes to rest from your computer screen by taking time to make a drink or walking the block.

6. Sleeping
Yes, that’s right, sleep.

The promise of losing weight in your sleep may sound like a joke but the truth is, your body does burn calories at night.

Calories burned during sleep are used to sustain vital functions in the body.

A person who weighs 68kg will burn at least 95 calories per hour.

You burn more calories when you are in a deep sleep than when you are just lying in bed reading.

This is because your brain is highly active during this stage. Plus, during REM sleep your internal temperature spikes, which means your body is working harder to produce heat.