There is a natural and interesting relationship between your daily activities and how many calories you burn. As a result, many people have become interested in how many calories they potentially lose as they go about their daily activities and occupations.
How calories work
Calories are how we measure the amount of energy in a food or drink item. Furthermore, the body takes these calories and uses them as fuel for various bodily functions. As a result, you burn calories by engaging in activities and gain calories by eating meals (that are rich in calories).
When you ingest more calories than you use, your body keeps the excess calories as body fat. With an increasing excess of calorie-turn-fat, you may put on weight over time. It is important to note that the body consumes calories for various internal purposes, even at complete rest. Naturally, your body's caloric consumption increases as you take on activities.
As a result, an average man requires around 2,500kcal a day to maintain a healthy body weight, as this is the amount that the average man’s body needs daily. For an average woman, this is around 2,000kcal daily. However, these figures may vary depending on your age, size, and physical activity levels, among other factors.
Understanding how calories work helps you change your body composition. For example, if you need to put on weight, you can simply increase your caloric consumption such that it is higher than what your body requires – caloric surplus – so that your body stores it as fat.
On the other hand, if you want to lose weight, you may reduce your caloric consumption such that it is lower than your bodily requirement – caloric deficit. As a result, your body will have to tap into your fat storage to get the much-needed energy, causing you to lose weight.
Can you burn a lot of calories by stocking shelves?
Shelf stocking is a retail activity that requires moderate activity. Other occupations with similar retail activities include teachers, personal trainers, childcare workers, police officers, mechanics, salespeople, cooks, pharmacy techs, floor managers, realtors, security services, nurses, and other healthcare providers.
Much like a professional who stocks shelves, these jobs are not entirely sedentary. Still, they are not so tasking to require the equivalent activity of the recommended 10,000 steps a day. Tasks like stocking shelves typically require sound 920 steps an hour, adding up to 7360 steps during the entire eight hours. Together with the energy necessary for bodily function, this activity totals up to 127.5 calories burned per hour, or about 1020 throughout the full working day.
Shelf stocking and other retail jobs still require slightly more physical activity than a regular desk job, but they fall below the recommended 10,000 daily steps. The activity also fails to increase the stocker’s heart rate, and they do not develop lean muscle.
As a result, intentional physical activity is still essential as a shelf stocker if you are desirous of maintaining your health and keeping your weight from inching upwards.
Calories burned in a desk job
As you may have guessed, you burn fewer calories at a desk job due to its passive nature. Examples of professions like this include counselors, receptionists, waiters, customer service telephone workers, accountants, graphic designers, tech support, commercial and public transportation drivers, IT development, cashiers, and secretaries.
People working these sedentary jobs commonly take very few steps daily. This is because their primary activities would include running to and from the supply closet, back and forth to the printer, trips to the bathroom, and tending to customers' needs.
With about 600 hourly steps and 4800 daily steps, persons with these occupations burn roughly 102.5 cal/hour and 820 calories in one working day.
It is necessary to take special care in ensuring that you add extra activity into your day if your work is sedentary. This is as physical inactivity of this nature is associated with various diseases and ailments, such as heart disease and diabetes. Additionally, It is very easy for extra weight to creep up on you with a job like this.
Calories burned in jobs with a high amount of activity
If your occupation is such that you engage in high amounts of activities, you may be burning more calories than the other types of jobs. Examples of jobs like this include construction workers, farmers, waitresses, landscapers, custodians and maintenance workers, etc.
Professions such as these typically require considerable physically taxing activities. These activities usually vary widely, but they have similar common grounds. For example, they may cover considerable distances or spend a significant amount of time carrying materials or themselves to complete a task.
In addition, professionals in these jobs may spend much of their days on their feet, while some require using their strength in frequent varying and unpredictable ways.
With about 1500 hourly steps, these professionals take roughly 12,000 steps in 8 hours. This results in about 1,400 calories in eight hours or 175 calories per hour.
Tips for burning calories
You can incorporate several activities to burn your calories, but a primary activity is to track your diet to ensure you are in a state of caloric balance. Tracking your diet helps you know how many calories you ingest and how many you burn daily or after an activity. This enables you to track your progress and take remedial steps where necessary.
Cardio and weightlifting are also a staple of calorie reduction as they can make up for the calories you gather at your sedentary job. A home gym can fulfill this purpose if you outfit it correctly. You can get a treadmill or a stationary bicycle for your cardio requirements.
For your weightlifting requirements, you can get some barbells, a pull-up bar, or a cable pulley system if you prefer machines. If you are into squats, it may be necessary also to get squat racks or half racks.
