24 hours in a day. 60 minutes in an hour. 1440 minutes a day. This couch potato burns a minimum of 1,584 calories a day. Probably more like… 1728, since I don’t spend all day sleeping in bed. Apparently just blinking is enough to increase my calorie burn to 1.2, 1.3 calories per minute. On exercise days, I burn between 2,400 and 2,650 calories, depending on the bodybugg(TM) I use. My daughter’s violin teachers always told her: “Only practice on the days you eat.” Clearly, if I want to eat, I need to exercise: every day I plan to eat!

Research has shown that people who fidget lose more weight than those who are calm and still throughout the day. Looking at the data uploaded from my bodybugg(TM), I wonder how brilliant Yahoo came up with the idea to do an entire study in rats, instead of just plugging a few hundred people into this device and telling half of them them, “Go and move.” I increased my calorie burn rate between 0.1 and 0.4 just by turning over in bed, for crying out loud.

But here’s the sad and disappointing news: the calorie burn rate achieved during a training session doesn’t really last, at least for those of us who aren’t particularly inclined, by nature, to fidget. No problem. I know we all want to believe, fantasize, that a good workout increases our sluggish metabolism by a few calories an hour, and that the effect lasts until the next day. The sad truth is, in the hour after Boot Camp this morning at 24 Hour Fitness, I burned about 25 more calories than I did in the hour before I woke up. I attribute those extra calories to driving, talking, walking, and carrying my gym bag.

The good news: Just standing up, making lunch, burned almost 100 more calories an hour!

Does your job make you fat? Surely my job is not helping me lose weight; I sit at a desk most of the day, using a PC. If you have a sedentary job, you have to deal with eight hours of professional rest. So what can we do about it?

1. Put it in a brown bag and exercise during lunch. This helps in three ways: First, you control calories and portion sizes. Prepare your lunch the night before or after breakfast when you are not hungry. Second, you get up and get active. Don’t just wolf down that sandwich at your desk—get up and move. Go to the gym if there is one nearby and get at least 20-30 minutes of intense cardio. Take a walk around the block or around the office building. Third, it saves money, as eating out every day, even eating at the corporate cafeteria, becomes expensive.

2. Park further from the entrance. Even short walks add up. This guarantees you one in the morning and one at night. If it’s sunny in the morning and it’s raining when you leave, you might even have a nice run!

3. Take the stairs. This seems obvious, but the elevators are convenient and… well, isn’t that enough work? No. Take the stairs. If you work on the ground floor, add a few flights of stairs to your lunchtime walk.

4. Sit, stand, move. Try to work on a few squats every time you sit or stand throughout the day. Or rise up on your toes ten times, each time you stand up. Do some push-ups from the edge of your desk or against a wall, or some triceps push-ups in a guest chair (don’t try this on a wheeled chair, whatever you do, or you’ll fall flat on your face). patootie). Use every errand or bathroom break as a cue to get in some exercise.

5. Exercise after work. Take your gym bag and stop at the gym on the way home. If you go home first, you will most likely want to kick off your shoes, relax, and be still. Instead, try sweating it out first, so you can go home, shower, change, and truly relax, guilt-free.

6. Do crunches or leg lifts while watching TV. There is no television for you unless a part of you is in constant motion! (And don’t tell me your arm is in constant motion as it carries the popcorn from the bowl to your mouth. I tried that one. I’ll look at you the same way I do.)

7. Keep track of every bite of food that goes into your mouth. Don’t tell me it’s “too tedious”. I know. Don’t tell me it’s inconvenient to remember. I know. Just do it. Because every one of us who has done it religiously, day in and day out, will tell you that honestly recording every calorie INPUT is almost as important as increasing calories burned if weight loss is the goal. If you want to lose a pound a week, you should be in a deficit of about 3,500 calories a week. If you want to lose two, you should be in a deficit of about 7,000 calories in a week. If you want to lose three, see your doctor first. You don’t want to go below what your body needs, just to maintain vital functions like breathing and circulation. Drink plenty of water, try to pack as much nutritional energy into each calorie as possible, and take a multivitamin.