Have you ever wondered how many calories burned doing a sport activity? How many calories are burned when you sleep or eat? How many calories burned when jogging? Or one big question how many calories I burned in a day?

Energy expenditure or burning extra calories is very crucial aspect as excess calories can turn in to extra pound in no time which is one of the main reasons for weight gain. Causes of obesity or excess weight are multifactoral but it is sure that weight gain is due to an imbalance between energy intake and expenditure. Three main components of energy expenditure are basal metabolic rate (BMR), physical activity and dietary thermogenesis.

Using these three components prudently will help you to maintain your ideal body weight effectively.

BMR or Basal Metabolic Rate of Calories Burned

BMR is the amount of calories you burn just by performing the task of living. For example if you consume a 2500 calories diet and your body burns 2500 calories a day then you will be successful in maintaining your weight. However if you consume a 2500 calories diet and your body just burns 2000 calories then you can gain approximately one pound per week. This should make clear that why a person doesn’t gain weight even if he eats all the junk food and you gain weight even by gulping a small piece of cake. You can speed up your basic metabolism by knowing what determines your metabolic rate and steps to take to increase it.

Physical Activity

The number of calories burned will be directly proportional to your weight, sex, activities you perform, time and intensity level at which you are exercising. Simple activities you perform will help you to burn calories but remember a heavier person will burn more calories than compared to a person with less body weight. So a particular physical activity done for a set time can burn same number of calories more quickly in a heavier person compared to the other counterpart. Calories expended however are only slightly increased by exercising harder and faster; to burn more calories it is important to exercise for a longer duration of time.

You will find various calorie calculators on different sites which will answer your question – how to calculate calories burned depending on the activities I perform daily? But remember to use these numbers only as an estimate of calorie expenditure, as they are designed by feeding average approximate values which may not resemble your profile.

For example – A person weighing 150 pounds when performs the following activities for 10 minutes will burn different amount of calories (calories burned per pound will also vary).

Gardening – 49 calories/10 minutes

High intensity aerobics – 115 calories/10 minutes

Sleeping – 12 calories/10 minutes

Standing and doing light activities – 24 calories/10 minutes

Walking - 53 calories/10 minutes

Climbing stairs up – 175 calories/10 minutes

Playing volleyball – 34 calories/10 minutes

Running (9 minutes/mile) – 131 calories/10 minutes

Tennis (singles) – 70 calories/10 minutes

Swimming (fast crawl) – 100 calories/10 minutes

Weight training (muscular strength) – 50 calories/10 minutes

Remember these values are just an approximate number of calories you expend. How much calories burned vary if your duration and intensity level is high or low; accordingly you will expend more or less calories.

Dietary Thermogenesis

Diet-induced thermogenesis literally means ‘heat-production’ by the body. Your body requires a certain number of calories to perform its function and maintain good health. The calories burned in this intricate process are minimal but essential for life.

Is It Healthy If I Burn 1000 Calories In A Day?

If you have a healthy diet on average and retain a healthy lifestyle as well, you can maintain your weight if you burn 1000 calories per day. However, if you consume more than 2500 calories a day, burning just 1000 calories a day cannot help you.

Whether or not burning 1000 calories in a day is healthy depends entirely on how many calories you are consuming and what kind of diet you are consuming. Foods that have a high glycemic index often cause you to put on a lot more weight than you would if you were consuming a healthy diet.

What Does A 3000 Calorie Diet Look Like?

There are a lot of different 3000-calories diet meal plans, and you can choose one which suits you the most. The best kind of 3000-calorie diet is one in which you consume six meals a day, 500 calories each. You can start off with foods that are high in proteins as well as carbohydrates. A diet high in nuts, dry fruits, fruits, and high starch foods will help you add up to the 3000 calories a day diet that you are on. Add a few fruit juices to this diet and you will have all the nutrients you need in a day as well.

Do I Have To Burn 3,500 Calories To Lose 1 Pound?

If you talk to any dietician or any bodybuilder, they will tell you that 3500calories make up a pound. Once you are able to burn off 3500 calories, you will be able to lose one pound. So burning 3500 calories a day or opting for a 3500 calorie diet are ways in which you can either lose or gain weight by the pound.

Energy balance is what makes fat loss possible. While 3500 calories to one pound is the rule of thumb, it is assuming that you are only burning off adipose tissue. In reality, that does not really happen, and therefore, you may not be losing a pound with every 3,500 calories.

Does Wearing A Sauna Suit Burn Calories?

Wearing a sauna suit can help you in a lot of ways, and though a sauna can help you remove toxins from your body and lose some pounds, there is not much that a sauna suit can do for your weight loss plans.

A sauna to burn fat can be a really great idea. You will lose weight more readily when you wear a sauna suit because it increases your body temperature and makes your body burn off weight more readily. You can go to a sauna to burn calories, but what it really does is to increase the amount of perspiration so that you lose toxins.

Do Different Swimming Strokes Burn More Calories?

Swimming is one of the best ways to burn off calories. If you are planning on swimming to burn calories, start off with the dolphin kick. This is the swimming action that burns the most calories. However, the dolphin kick requires a lot of stamina, and most people are not able to keep it up for long.

The best way to burn off your calories is to indulge in a 30-minute freestyle swimming session. The steady swimming session gives you great resistance training and is also extremely good when you want to indulge in a cardio routine without breaking a sweat. Opting for swimming for burning fat is a healthy approach to weight loss.

Submitted on January 16, 2014