How to Easily Burn 1000 Calories a Day
Trying to lose weight and get fit? With more and more people these days opting to live healthier lifestyles, you are certainly not alone. The first step towards achieving your fitness goals is to understand the most basic formula for weight loss: you have to burn more calories than you take in. While this may seem like a daunting task at first, you'll find that it is really quite possible to burn 1000 calories a day without making drastic changes in you day-to-day activities. In fact, you can even achieve this without having to spend time at the gym.
Before considering any type of weight loss method or fitness activity, it is best to consult with a physician to determine your level of health and what types of food or activity are recommended for you. Always make sure your food and diet is safe!
- Eat Less, Move More
This is really the essence, in simpler terms, of burning more calories than you take in. Proper nutrition in conjunction with adequate physical activity should be the core of your daily fitness goals. If your target is to burn 1000 calories a day, then you need to do the right amount of physical activity to match your target. Reducing your calorie intake will ensure that your body burns the excess fat, which will eventually lead to successful weight loss. If you're taking in too many calories and not doing enough physical activity, the extra calories won't get burned and will simply be stored as fat. What you really need to do is to create a sort of calorie deficit so that your body burns the stored fat instead of storing more.
- Tips for Eating Less
Forget crash dieting, that never works. What is important is to reduce calorie intake through a healthy diet. That is, switching out those high-calorie foods with low-calorie ones. Some people like to keep a food diary to monitor their daily calorie intake. Fortunately, there are now mobile apps and devices that can automatically calculate your calorie intake. You just enter what you had for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, and the app searches a database of ingredients and the typical number of calories for each. For example, if you input coffee, bacon, and eggs, the app will calculate the total amount of calories for that breakfast set based on the individual calorie value of each ingredient and compare this total to your daily calorie target. This is one way to train yourself to avoid those high-calorie foods because—let's face it—weight loss is both a physical and mental journey.
When you see just how many calories were packed into that quarter pounder you had for lunch, you'll surely have second thoughts about ordering one again. The psychological effect of this knowledge on your ongoing fitness endeavor certainly cannot be ignored. You will be even more motivated to avoid those calories!
But what if you're a very busy person? When you have a demanding job or have your hands full taking care of family, remembering to monitor your calorie intake can be a challenge. If that's the case, simply start with noting which foods have the highest calorie counts and avoid them as much as possible. This can already go a long way towards reducing calorie intake.
Here are a few more tips for avoiding those calories:
1. Pack in some fiber. Instead of going all-out on those bacon and eggs for breakfast, have a bowl of oatmeal instead. Add some fruit for a healthy dose of flavor!
2. Reduce your portion sizes and have small, frequent meals instead of the usual three large meals. You have more time to feel hungry between each large meal, so you tend to take in more food to appease your hunger. In contrast, eating frequently in smaller portions keeps you feeling full all day and helps you avoid binge-eating mishaps.
3. Eat slowly. Relative to the previous scenario, you tend to eat faster when you're hungry. This doesn't give your digestive system enough time to process its natural reaction, meaning it can take longer for your body to register that you are actually already full. This can result in over-eating. (Have you ever felt like you're experiencing heartburn after a heavy meal?)
4. Switch to skim milk. Full cream milk has a higher calorie count, while skim milk has significantly less. Use skim milk in your coffee or cereal to shave off some calories from your daily intake. It doesn’t even taste that different either which is great!
5. Get to know your dressing. You may think you're going healthy with that bowl of salad, but if you're adding on generous helpings of the dressing, that still counts towards your calorie intake. Tone down the dressing, and it's probably much better to ditch the mayo and opt for healthier versions such as olive oil-based ones.
Burn 1000 Calories a Day with Exercise
Exercise doesn’t always have to be done at the gym, especially when you’re an extra-busy person or just starting out on your weight loss goals. Leave the complicated and specific workout routines for later. Any good physical activity can burn those calories off and help you get fit easily. When your body has gotten used to moving more, then you can start considering some paid gym time.
Here are some great physical activities that are guaranteed to get rid of those calories:
- Running
So, if you run for an hour at least twice a day, you’re saying goodbye to more than 1000 calories! But don’t get too excited. Always run at a pace you are comfortable in. Otherwise, you’ll exhaust yourself and that’s not going to help your fitness goals.
- Biking/Cycling
Once again, the number of calories burned while biking or cycling depends on the intensity of the activity. But this time, you also have to consider terrain, as well as whether you are biking outdoors or indoors on a stationary bike.
According to CalorieLab’s calories burned calculator, a 150-pound person biking at a leisurely pace that is slower than 10 mph burns approximately 51 calories in 15 minutes, while BMX or mountain biking can burn 128 calories in the same amount of time. On the other hand, a 15-minute session on a stationary bike burns around 102-168 calories with moderate to vigorous effort.
- Jumping Rope
This is another high calorie-burning activity. Jumping rope at a slow rate burns around 476 calories an hour, and as much as 748 calories an hour at a fast pace. If you don’t have a jump rope on hand, you can still do the exercise and simply imagine holding one, or why not try some jumping jacks instead?
- Swimming
Swimming is a great calorie-burner and it doesn’t tire you out as quickly as some forms of exercise. You can easily burn 1000 calories a day while treading water at the beach or enjoying a few laps in the pool. A moderate effort at treading water can burn as much as 204 calories an hour while light, freestyle swimming burns approximately 408 minutes an hour for a 150-lb person. If you’re really going for the gold with this, do the butterfly for a whopping 680 calories burned in an hour!
- Interval Training
Interval training is a popular high calorie-burning workout regime that you can do outside of the gym. On a basic level, it involves doing short, intense bursts of activity followed by a period of rest or recovery. For instance, a 2-minute sprint is followed by 1-minute jog as your “rest” period. To burn 1000 calories a day, you will need 60 to 90 minutes of interval training.
Wait, There’s More
If you’re really short on time and can’t afford to spend at least 2 hours every day on exercise, what you can do is integrate some form of physical activity (like dancing!) in your daily routine. This is also one of those rare times when being less efficient can be the better choice. What do we mean?
You can find examples and more tips below:
1. Take the stairs when going up to your apartment unit or office whenever possible. It’s slower, but it lets you burn more calories than just standing inside the elevator. You can also take the stairs instead of escalators when out at the mall.
2. When bringing your groceries into the house, carry each bag in one by one. If you have four bags of groceries in your car, take four trips back and forth to maximize your movement.
3. Walk more. Pace around the office if you can, take the stairs to meetings (but don’t overdo it or you’ll get there in a sweat), or park a bit farther from your destination and walk the rest of the way.
4. Have fun with your kids. A bit of vigorous playing and horsing around with the children can already burn around 200 calories an hour.
5. Dance around the house. Shake those hips while doing the dishes, even. Do everything you can think of to make yourself move more while doing your household chores and this will contribute to burning those extra calories!
6. Fidget, and fidget some more. Studies have found that fidgeting can help burn calories. Fidgeting lets you move more, especially when you spend most of the time sitting down. Many office workers are in their seats 8 hours a day, so any form of light physical activity you can do will help. Don’t sit still the whole time!
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