Brilliant Little Ways to Burn Calories All Day

Get healthier and avoid the dreaded "office bum" with Kelly Osbourne's easy, almost mindless weight loss tips.

Recently, I walked into my agent's office at William Morris, and a whole group of people there were working on treadmill desks. I was surprised by how comfortable they looked while walking, talking, typing--all at the same time. Turns out, a bunch of my friends who are in corporate jobs have treadmill desks set up in their conference rooms. When they need to brainstorm or feel like they've been sitting at their regular desk for too long, they'll turn to a colleague and say, "Do you want to go on the treadmills?" I was curious, so I got one from LifeSpan for my apartment. Now I'm convinced these desks might be the solution to what some experts refer to as sitting disease; it's called a disease because there are very real consequences. Those of us who sit the most have a 112 percent increase in diabetes risk and a 147 percent increase in the risk for cardiovascular disease--it's not pretty! Plus, how can we burn calories if we're parked in our chairs? At a treadmill desk, you're not going very fast--around 1 to 2 miles per hour--but after a couple of hours, you've logged a few miles. I even found that the repetitive motion helped me focus. Really, though, it doesn't matter how you stay active, as long as you keep moving. At right, I listed my rules for sneaking extra activity into every day.

Related: 21 Ways to Burn Fat Faster

Kelly's tips for moving more:

1. At lunch, take a walk. A recent study suggests that a 15-minute walk after a meal can lower your blood sugar and your risk for type 2 diabetes. Make it 15 minutes in both directions and you've just completed the recommended 30 minutes of exercise per day.

Related: How to Finally Halt Emotional Eating

2. Take the stairs--no, really. We've all heard this advice before, but how many of us actually bypass the elevator or escalator and hightail it up those steps? The incline works muscles in your lower body that walking on a flat road can't target (translation: no more office bum!). Extra points if you don't hold on to the railings.

3. Stand up while you take a phone call. Sitting all day long can slow your metabolism. The second you stand up, it starts to rev, according to the Mayo Clinic's James Levine, M.D., Ph.D., an obesity expert.

Related: How to Burn 900 Calories in Just One Hour

4. After work, walk your dog (or meet up with a friend who has one). I like to get my workouts done in the morning, because I get hyper after exercise and I don't want to be awake all night. But I do like to be active after a workday. Usually that means going for a walk with my dog. Fun fact: Dog owners walk almost 24,000 miles during their pet's life. When you do the math, that's about 916 marathons-which could add up to two million calories burned!


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