Life

8 Easy Calorie Burning Activities

by Marisa Riley

I have wonderful news: you burn calories when you're sleeping. Sleeping, people. The Huffington Post's recent roundup of fun calorie-burning activities reminded me of this vital piece of knowledge, and got me thinking — what else can we do to burn calories that's either insanely easy or insanely fun? Unfortunately, not all of us can go snowboarding or snorkeling this afternoon, but we can do things like dance and sleep (of course). Inspired by the Huffington Post's list, we came up with a few simple, calorie-burning activities you were probably going to do this week anyway:

1. Buy groceries

Apparently you can burn close to 200 calories just from grocery shopping, according to Health magazine. Sure, it’s another not-so-fun task, but killing two birds with one stone is pretty great.

2. Laugh

You’ve probably heard of this before, but it’s absolutely true. You can burn as many as 50 calories from laughing. Let this thought guide your next Netflix binge session...

3. Give and/or receive a massage

The fact that both giving and receiving massages can burn calories is kind of the best thing ever. It's also a great excuse to go massage/get massaged by someone.

4. Go shopping

SparkPeople includes 38 minutes of shopping on their list of 100-calorie burning activities. I don't know about you, but looking at clothes for an hour sounds a whole lot more fun than going to the gym. Keep this one in mind, especially since it’s easy to spend way more than just 38 minutes shopping.

5. Cook

Yes, you can burn calories while cooking calories — the human body is a beautiful thing. According to the Huffington Post, you can burn 57 calories from 30 minutes of making delicious things in your kitchen. Ignore the urge to order Chinese tonight and make your own fried rice!

6. Have sex

Pretty much anyone can tell you that sex is a huge calorie burner. But exactly how many calories? Women’s Day estimates that you can burn 144+ calories from having intercourse and, this one is is incredible, 238+ calories per half hour from making out. Feel free to take this opportunity to power down your computer and go get it on.

7. Dance

Think about how gross and sweaty you look in all Instagram posts after 2 a.m. That’s because you’ve been burning serious calories by dancing...for hours. You can also dance at home, or in a class, or on a boat, or on a table — wherever you want, just do it!

8. Blow dry your hair

I was serious when I said you were probably going to do these anyway! Likes.com mentions that blow drying your hair for 35 minutes can burn up to 100 calories. So. Easy.

Image: Liz Minch/Bustle