When you want to lose weight, the first thing you might think about is how many calories you should eat. In order to lose weight, you must burn more calories than you consume. So, while you can simply eat less food, you can also burn more calories to lose weight faster. This post will talk about how many calories you can burn with different activities, including how many calories 12000 steps burn.
Calories Burned: 12000 Steps
The average number of calories burned with 12000 steps is around 400-600 calories but will vary from person to person. Consequently, it’s important to understand that there are several factors that can increase or decrease the number of calories burned!
12000 steps equate to approximately six miles so how can you burn just 400-600 calories?
The primary factors that will impact the number of calories you burn include:
- Your Weight: The more weight you are moving around, the more calories you burn. That’s why some people use ankle weights. By adding weight to your walk, you will burn more calories because of the resistance and use more muscles. Unfortunately, this can be hard on your joints. Instead, consider holding hand weights while you walk if you want to burn more calories. Also, consider that as you lose weight, you will burn fewer calories getting your steps in! It seems unfair, doesn’t it?
- Intensity: The intensity you use when you are getting your 12000 steps can make a difference but according to verywellfit.com, the number of calories you burn running versus walking won’t make too much of a difference. The benefit to getting your 12000 steps by running is you will get done faster and it will strengthen your heart. However, when you compare walking and running for the same amount of time rather than the same distance, running will usually burn double the number of calories in a set amount of time.
- Incline: Walking hills will burn more calories because you will be engaging your muscles to go up and down hills. Again, the more you use your muscles, the more calories you will burn.
- Arm Movement and Core: At rest, our body’s organs burn some calories but moving your body is the basic way you burn more calories. When you’re walking, you can move your arms or dance, for example, to burn more calories. You can also tighten your core to engage more muscles.
How Many Calories Burned With Juggling?
Whether you are juggling with your hands or juggling a soccer ball with your feet, you will burn about the same number of calories. Any type of low-intensity movement is very similar to walking at a moderate pace. Therefore, on average, juggling will burn approximately 200-300 calories per hour.
How Many Calories Burned With Dancing/Salsa Dancing?
The faster you move your body and the higher the intensity, you will burn more calories. While juggling might be similar to walking at a moderate pace, dancing is closer to the equivalent of running. Therefore, you can burn twice as many calories dancing than juggling. Dancing and salsa dancing burns 200-300 calories in 30 minutes. I highly recommend dancing while you are cooking/waiting for food to cook!
Conclusion: How Should We Burn Calories?
The key takeaway of this post is simply to MOVE YOUR BODY in some fashion every day to burn more calories. But, you can’t just move for 15-30 minutes a day! That just won’t cut it. Look for interesting ways to burn 300 calories multiple times a day.
Getting 12000 steps takes a concerted effort unless you have a job that has you on your feet all day. Even then, you could potentially burn just 300-400 calories especially if you are sedentary for much of the day. Unfortunately, even burning 300-400 calories won’t lead to weight loss if you are eating more than 400 calories over your maintenance calories. In fact, you might simply gain weight just more slowly. While getting 12000 steps a day is a great goal, you may want to do this in addition to trimming your calories.