Do you want to burn some extra calories?

I often get asked "How can I burn more calories?" "What does burning calories have to do with me losing weight?" "How do calories help me with weight gain?"

Many of you may have heard of Metabolic rate. Metabolic rate is the rate the body burns the calories consumed by the body. What does that mean? Well, an example would be if the body consumes 3,000 calories a day and also burns 3,000 calories a day the body would stay the same weight. If a body is consuming 3,000 calories a daily and only burns 2,500 calories a day the body would gain weight at a rate of approximately one pound a week.

The human body needs a base number of calories to just be alive, even if you are doing nothing. These calories are used for the Basil Metabolic Rate. The Basil Metabolic Rate accounts for approximately 60 percent of the calories a person burns daily.

The energy that the body uses during movement such as lifting your arms, cleaning the house, or even buttoning your shirt is known as burning calories for activity. Burning calories for activity accounts for approximately 30 percent of the calories the body will burn doing activity.

Did you know that you burn calories while you are eating, digesting, absorbing and using food? This is known as Dietary Thermogenesis.

The Basil Metabolic Rate, Burning Calories for Activity, and Dietary Thermogenesis can all be influences or speed up your rate of burning calories by using different tactics. So, you can trick the body to burn calories? Well, not necessarily! You can incorporate activities into your daily life to help increase the calorie burn.

Increasing the amount of muscle on the body by a pound at a time burns an extra 50 calories a day. People that are more active will burn 30 percent for calories a day compared to a sedentary person who will only burn about 15 percent. So, take that opportunity to get up and move! Walk around the office, take the stairs, on lunch breaks take a walk, or an evening stroll.

Did you know that if you eat little but often with healthier small regular meals this will help keep your metabolism working faster and longer, more frequent meals often help control hunger, making you less likely to binge and run for that bag of chips or bowl of ice cream.

Eating spicy food can raise the metabolic rate by up to 50 percent for up to 3 hours after consumption of a spicy meal. Though, you may not want use that to your advantage by doing an aerobic exercise right after consuming a spicy meal. An additional option to influence your calorie burn is to participate in aerobic exercise. This high-intensity exercise will burn more calories during the exercise and for several hours afterwards.

Making small changes can make a big difference when it comes to burning calories. Remember get active... I'm not saying you have to jump up and go do a marathon... Heck! I'm not even saying jump up! Stand up and just start walking! One step at a time, one foot in front of the other, starts the journey to a new and healthier you!