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Your body burns calories both at rest and with activity.
The more you engage your muscleseven while simply standingthe more calories you burn.
To achieve weight loss, you must expend more calories than you take in through food.
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Calories Burned Standing vs.
Engaging muscles increases your energy needs, burning more calories.
Your calorie expenditure through movement depends on your age, weight, sex, and height.
Burning Calories Through Exercise
The more active you are, the more calories you burn.
One standard measure of calorie expenditure is the metabolic equivalent of task (MET).
Sitting is rated at about 1.3 MET.
Standing motionless is about 1.8 MET.
Morevigorous activitiesthat engage your muscles raise your heart and breathing rate.
This increases the calorie burn much more compared to standing or sitting.
The increase in MET from a relaxed walk to a brisk walk will expend about 40% more calories.
How much exercise is enough?
This is called acalorie deficit.
Walking up a flight of stairs doubles calories burned over walking on a flat surface.
Having a goal may motivate you to find ways to be more active throughout the day.
You may notice immediate improvements, such as increased energy or improved mood by simply taking a short walk.
Summary
The health benefits of simply standing over sitting can help burn calories.
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