7 Ways to Burn More Calories

If you’re trying to lose weight or want a healthy lifestyle, you might look for ways to burn more calories. When trying to lose weight, you’d like to aim for a calorie deficit by watching your intake and understanding how many calories you should burn a day. The most popular way to burn them is through exercise. However, this is not the only way you can help your body do so.

Some lifestyle changes and choices can help you burn more calories. From watching the protein you eat to choosing your mode of transportation, these can significantly impact keeping your metabolism going at a healthy rate. Curious to learn more? Here are seven things that you can do to burn more calories.

 

1. Enough Protein Intake

Did you know that eating enough protein can help you lose more calories? Protein is an is an essential building block of muscles, and having enough of it should be a part of your diet, even if you’re aiming to lose weight. But how does it help?

First, it can help you meet your weight loss goals by lowering your hunger and cravings. Since protein is a building block of muscle, it helps prevent muscle loss as you lose weight.

Second, it helps boost your metabolism as, compared to carbohydrates and fat, protein has a higher thermic effect. This means your body would need to burn more calories while digesting protein. 

If you want to help your body burn more calories, try to have protein be 30% of the daily calories you intake.

 

2. Drink Water Before a Workout

Water is essential for our body, and drinking enough is part of a healthy lifestyle. It also has numerous benefits when it comes to burning calories.

Before you work out, drink around two cups of water. A study published in 2003 has shown that doing so can help increase your body’s metabolism by around 30%. 

How?

Experts tout that drinking water before a workout decreases your fatigue. This lets you exercise for longer, resulting in more calories burned. According to the study, the increase in metabolism can happen 10 minutes after drinking water and peaks at around 30 to 40 minutes.

 

3. Add Intervals to Your Workout

If you want to increase your body’s metabolism, you should break apart your workouts in intervals instead of having one long but low-intensity session. Doing so has numerous benefits, including burning more fats and calories. 

You can reap significant benefits by having your body do bursts of high-intensity exercises separated by short recovery periods. This happens since those bursts of high-intensity intervals can burn more calories and fats than low-intensity workouts in the same amount of time.

 

4. Get Enough Sleep

Looking for an easy way to help your body burn more calories? Getting a good night’s sleep is one way you can do so. Getting enough sleep every night is a part of a healthy lifestyle that brings many benefits.

Sleep is crucial as getting enough of it helps our bodies work better. Some studies have found that people who regularly get less than six hours of sleep daily have a slower metabolism than those who get enough sleep. Additionally, people who chronically lack sleep are also more at risk of weight gain and developing chronic diseases. 

 

5. Move More

Movement, in general, burns calories, and this means everything you do burns calories. However, did you know that you can prevent the slowdown of your metabolism by moving more? 

According to a study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, as little as six minutes of movement for every hour can offset the slowing down of your metabolism caused by sitting or being idle for long periods. Of course, the more movement you do – not just six minutes an hour – the better!

 

6. Traveling on Foot or by Bike Instead of Driving

Given the wide accessibility of transportation, traveling, even for short distances, made many rely on cars. Instead of walking or cycling to nearby destinations, many still opt to drive their car. Yes, driving a car may seem more convenient, but choosing to walk or bike provides you with many health and fitness benefits.

The most obvious benefit this change can give you is that it burns more calories and fat than driving. Walking and biking involve effort and movement, and these two activities are good ways to add a bit of exercise to your daily routine. 

Additionally, as per an observational study conducted by the University of Cambridge, people who opt to use a more active mode of travel tend to have a lower risk of developing cardiovascular issues.

 

7. Use Heavier Weights in Exercises

Exercise in itself is good for your metabolism. Regular exercise helps you burn enough fats and calories that can help you stay in a healthy weight range. However, did you know that you can tweak something in your exercise that could help you burn more calories?

Try using heavier weights when you exercise, especially when doing bodyweight exercises. This turns simple cardio exercises into resistance exercises. For this, you can choose to use free weights or weighted vests.

Heavier people tend to burn more calories since their bodies expend more effort to move. This doesn’t mean you have to gain weight to lose more calories. Instead, by using heavier weights, you can mimic this tendency. Your body expends more energy and burns more calories.

Additionally, the body burns calories during rest and recovery following a workout. Heavier weights tend to break down muscles more, so the body will also need to expend more calories during recovery. 

Changes and Choices

A healthy weight doesn’t rely solely on pure exercise and diet. There are many lifestyle choices you make that can have a significant impact on your metabolism. Many people overlook these but choosing to do them and making them a habit brings many benefits beyond burning more calories. 

If you want to help your body burn more calories and transition to a healthier lifestyle, try to be more attentive and tweak your workout and daily routines. Incorporate these steps to help your fitness journey become more efficient in the long run!