How many calories does your body burn without exercise

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Oh, the rare and lovely days where we actually get to feel like we've done nothing at all. Even while we’re being completely lazy, our bodies are obviously still very busy (they've got a big show to run).

The number of calories burned at rest is called the basal metabolic rate, and it’s a measure of how much energy your body uses just to keep all of your complex bodily functions up and running and in check (i.e. your body temperature regulated, your heart beating, your brain humming, and so on).

The concept of burning off the body's energy stores while doing absolutely nothing is kind of exciting, until you realize how little you would have to eat in order to avoid putting on extra weight.

Related: Search over 500 free workout videos that you can do in your own living room

How many Calories do I Burn doing Nothing?
Here’s the formula to find your resting metabolic rate:

For Women: BMR = 655 + (4.35 x weight in pounds) + (4.7 x height in inches) - (4.7 x age in years)
For Men: BMR = 66 + (6.23 x weight in pounds) + (12.7 x height in inches) - (6.8 x age in years)

Another lazier way to get a (very rough) estimate is to multiply your body weight in lbs by 11.

By now know that weight maintenance or loss is a matter of energy burned versus energy consumed, and it's clear that exercise can significantly increase the food that we can eat each day without putting on extra weight.

Here is part of the reason why I think many of us are overweight; it's very easy to do nothing (or close to it) without even realizing it, and we very rarely are conscious enough of our activity levels to adjust our diets to reflect the small number of calories we are burning.

For example, consider the recommendation of taking a minimum of 10,000 steps a day. Averaging this many miles a day (roughly 5) would do a good job of increasing the amount of food you can eat, and keeping extra weight off - so long as you were not overindulging at the dinner table on a regular basis. Unfortunately, very few people actually cover that distance; most people average around 3,500 steps a day. Hitting around only 30% of your daily recommended steps gives you very little extra room to eat above the number of calories that are burned at rest (that resting basal metabolic number).

If you have been struggling with weight or find that diets just aren’t working for you, it’s likely that you need to take an honest look at your activity levels. Think about how much better you feel on the days when you workout. If you're having trouble getting started, consider committing to even just 20 minutes of activity and you can end up boosting your health, your mood, and help you maintain a healthy bodyweight. Once you're comfortable with 20 minutes, maybe you will feel more confident in tackling a 30-40 minute workout, or 2 20 minute workouts in a day.

Here are some fun workouts to choose from that are under 20 minutes:

  • 20 Minute No Equipment Butt and Thigh Workout at Home
  • 15 Minute HIIT Workout - Intense No Equipment HIIT Cardio 
  • Quick 10 Minute Upper Body Strength Workout
  • 17 Minute Fat Burning HIIT Workout with Warm Up (with Low Impact Modifications)
  • Jumpstart Cardio Workout - 5 Minute Energy Boosting Workout
  • 10 Minute Abs Workout - Pilates Abs Burner

Yes, the body burns calories while you are otherwise doing nothing at all, but that energy is easily consumed in the food that you eat if you don’t add some intentional movement into your day. Lazy days are fantastic; just make sure that you don’t go too many days in a row without having left the couch.

Check out Fitness Blender’s full length home workout videos for ideas on how to get in a good sweat (without moving too far away from the couch).

Every month, 9.9k of you Google ‘how many calories do I burn a day’, and TBH, the advice you’ll find is so conflicting that you probably end up more confused than when you started your search. The reason for this is that there’s no one-size-fits-all answer, but, according to Dr Luke Powles, clinical director for Bupa Health Clinics, there are a few ways to work out a roundabout answer to how many calories you burn in a day.

Before we go any further, though, a reminder: there’s so much more to a healthy lifestyle than calorie-counting, like how nutritious the foods you’re getting those calories from are, and your mental health – is calorie-counting making you stressed or anxious?

If you, or anyone you know, is struggling with an eating disorder, contact Beat, the UK-based charity that hopes to end the pain and suffering caused by eating disorders.
T: 0808 801 0677
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That said, calories (i.e. the energy unit within food and drink) can be a useful resource. In fact, the NHS recommend a calorie-counting diet if you want to lose weight through a calorie deficit in a sustainable way, and pairing that with an understanding of how many calories you burn in a day could help you see results sooner. So, here’s everything we asked Dr Powles, from a handy formula for working out how many calories you burn a day, to why the number of calories you burn a day changes.


According to Dr Powles, there are a few factors involved in how many calories the average woman burns a day, including:

  • Resting metabolic rate (RMR): ‘The amount of energy (a.k.a. calories) your body uses to maintain basic functions like breathing and circulating blood. This is influenced by your age, weight and gender, and typically accounts for 60-75% of the number of calories you burn in a day.’
  • Non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT): NEAT exercise is the amount of energy your body uses to do ‘physical activity that isn’t deliberate exercise, like gardening and walking from room to room, which usually burns between 100 and 800 calories per day’.
  • Exercise: The amount of energy your body uses during workouts.
  • Thermic effect of food: The amount of energy your body uses to ‘chew, digest and store food’.

    Dr Powles explains that this typically totals 1800-2000 calories, which is why the NHS advises the ‘average woman’ should aim to consume around 2000 calories a day, as a maintenance rate. Burning more calories than you consume, meanwhile, would leave you in a calorie deficit, which would lead to weight loss, and taking in more than you burn would result in a calorie surplus, and therefore weight gain.

    how many calories do i burn a day


    Your ‘how many calories do I burn a day’ calculator

    If you want to get more specific, it’s a matter of breaking your day down into each category of activity. Each ‘activity can be measured in metabolic equivalents of task, also known as METs,’ Dr Powles explains. You could do a quick Google for the MET value of your chosen form of exercise, but here are Powles’ numbers for some popular forms of workout.

    • Brisk walking (3-4mph): 4 METs
    • Steady strength training: 7 METs
    • Tennis: 8 METs
    • Skipping or running: 12.3 METs

      The MET for resting or sitting still is 1; the more vigorous the activity, the higher the MET.

      Then for Dr Powles formula:

      METs x 3.5 x (your bodyweight in kg) ÷ 200 = calories burned per minute.

      As an example, if you weigh 73kg and play tennis for an hour, which has a MET value of 8, the formula will work as follows:

      (8 x 3.5 x 73) ÷ 200 = 10.2 calories per minute. 10.2 calories x 60 minutes would burn around 613 calories.

      If you weighed 73kg and didn’t do any exercise all day, you’d use the METs value for sitting still, which is 1:

      1 x 3.5 x 73 ÷ 200 = 1.3 calories per minute, which equates to 77 calories per hour, or 1,848 calories per day.

      To work out the total number of calories you burn a day, you’d need to do this calculation for every form of activity you do, then add those to the total number of hours you spend resting or sitting still.

      All these numbers getting a bit much? Dr Powles advises that you can also use online calorie calculators, like Bupa’s, to work out your energy expenditure easily.


      But, why is the number of calories I burn a day always different?

      Even if you did the exact same activity (deliberate and NEAT) and ate the exact same meals across two days, you’ll probably never burn the same number of calories in a day. ‘This is because your body will never process food in the exact same way,’ explains Dr Powles. ‘If your muscles need more energy in the form of protein, you’ll burn more calories than if they didn’t, for example.’

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      He adds that your body composition also plays a part, and this is always changing. ‘The amount of muscle compared to fat you have is always changing, which influences how many calories you burn in a day – if you have more muscle, you’ll burn more calories in a day than someone with less muscle because muscle is more metabolically active than fat, meaning that they burn through calories at a faster rate.’


      OK, and how does my gender affect how many calories I burn a day?

      ‘Women generally burn less calories than men,’ Dr Powles tells us. ‘This is because men tend to have a naturally lower body fat percentage and more muscle than women of the same size as them. And, as mentioned, muscle is more metabolically active than fat.’ As with most things, this can’t be applied universally – not every man will burn more calories than you per day, but it’s worth noting if it’s something you’ve picked up on.


      Any last thoughts?

      ‘Though weight is an important health factor, it should work in tandem with other lifestyle factors,’ Dr Powles says. ‘For example, you wouldn’t necessarily refer to someone as healthy if they were a healthy weight, but they also smoked, binged on alcohol and didn’t sleep enough. Health comes in many forms, and it’s important to take care of all elements.’

      Our advice? Don’t let calorie-counting take over. Working out how many calories you burn in a day every now and then to help you see if you’re consuming enough to build muscle or if you could do with scaling back to lose weight is all well and good, but if it starts to jeopardise either your mental or physical health, take a break.

      How many calories does my body burn a day without exercise?

      How many calories do I burn without exercise? The average person burns around 1800 calories a day doing absolutely nothing. According to the Healthy Eating Guide (opens in new tab), sitting burns an estimated 75 calories per hour.

      How many calories do I burn at rest?

      The amount of calories burned increases according to body weight. So, a person who weighs 150 pounds might burn 46 calories an hour or between 322 and 414 calories a night. And a person who weighs 185 pounds might burn around 56 calories or between 392 and 504 calories for a full night of sleep.

      How can I burn 100 calories a day without exercise?

      Jump Rope. If you have a reason to burn calories fast, jump rope. You only need to jump for seven minutes to blast away 100 calories. You'll also improve coordination4 and build strength in your lower legs5 at the same time.

      How many calories is 1 kg?

      According to studies, for every 1 kg of weight loss, 7700 calories are needed, or 1000 calories are lost 0.13 kg.