Secrets to No Effort Exercise

When I made the decision that it was time for me to start losing weight and getting in shape, there were two problems facing me: what I ate and what I did between meals. I'm not talking about snacking here, but about how much physical activity I was doing each day. So what did the typical day's effort look like? - let's face it, the most energetic thing I was doing was climbing into the car to drive to work! If I was going to make a difference to my weight, I was going to have to find some no effort exercise to work into my day!

There is an interesting calorie counter here: http://www.csgnetwork.com/caloriesmalecalc.html, which gives you an idea of just how beneficial adding even a small amount of activity to your lifestyle can be. Try the numbers yourself, but for me - going from a sedentary lifestyle to just a moderately active lifestyle means I burn an extra 400 calories per day!

For most diets - you tend to shoot for about 400 - 500 calories per meal - so this is the equivalent of burning an extra meal every day! Or it would mean that I could cheat a little more and still get my results - so all I have to do is find a no effort exercise so I don't have to change my life too dramatically...

First off then, it is recommended to walk at least 10,000 steps each day just to maintain your weight and keep your heart healthy. Well - that can be achieved as a very no effort exercise! To begin, get a good pedometer from a hiking or outdoor store and simply wear it for an average day. Next - start looking for ways to add extra steps to your day - maybe park a little further away from work or the grocery store. Or take the long way round the offices on your way to a meeting. You may be amazed at how many steps you do already, and it's very simple to increase that number to get your first no effort exercise. Incidentally, walking burns about 180 calories per hour, over 350 if you pick the pace up to a brisk walk!

Building on the walking theme - how many times a day do you use the elevator or the lift? Take the stairs instead!

Do you have kids? Get involved with their games - the more energetic the better, but in any case, you could be burning over 200 calories an hour. Our kids love the Mr Men musical CDs and games - I had no idea musical chairs could be such a workout - might look a little daft, but who cares!

Taking a shower is something most of us do regularly - there's another 300 calories gone!

Instead of driving through the car wash on the way home, save some money, do the job yourself and burn another 340 calories per hour.

This should give you some ideas of where to incorporate no effort exercise into your daily regime. Truth be told - there really is no such thing as no effort exercise - but you certainly can dramatically increase your calorific consumption with very small changes to your daily routine.

I'm next on the stairs!!