If you have been trying different things throughout your work day to increase your activity, you may be asking yourself “How many calories do I burn at work.”

Generally speaking you burn more calories sitting than you do laying down, more when you stand, more again when you walk and so on.

How Can I burn Calories at Work?

To find out how different activities throughout your day can help you burn calories check out the calories burned calculator.

If you exercise at work you can burn calories at your desk. There are several ways of doing this and some ways are with equipment and others without.

Starting with your feet, first thing to check for is are you wearing comfortable shoes? If your feet pinch or are uncomfortable you are not going to want to stand up at all.

Just standing for 20 seconds every 20 minutes will improve your metabolism and posture. Do some leg workouts by squatting almost to the seat of your chair – then stand again.

If you work in a highrise and don’t want to walk all the way up the stairs, you can get off the elevator a couple for floors down. As a matter of fact, do this on your coffee break too.

See a few more helpful hints at Lose Weight at Work.

Try doing some chair exercises if you want more calories burnt at work. These can be all done sitting or using your chair for stability.

Seated chair exercises include leg lifts, where you sit up straight at the edge of your seat and with one leg straight out and the other bent and foot planted firmly, raise the straightened leg out in front of you. Hold this for 20 seconds then do the other leg.

You can also march in place while remaining seated. With both legs bent and feet on the floor, raise your left knee then your right and back and forth. Do this in a controlled movement.

For upper body chair exercises, and to effectively burn calories while doing office work, while you are reading your email – stretch your arms out either side and do circles.

To see illustrated chair exercises and stretches to burn calories at work go to the chair stretches page.

Burning calories means you have to move so here are some other easy ways to burn calories at work.

Easy Ways to Burn Calories at Work

Get a headset for your phone. That way you can stand and walk around while on calls. If you have a cordless headset you are free to do squats and even go up and down the stairwell. Provided you aren’t the note-taker in a conference call this will burn calories.

You can also do some deskercizes to burn a few more calories at work.

Place your hands on your desk in front of you and lean against the table keeping your back and legs straight, keep your hands at chest level and push away from the table.

Do this for a few times to to get the blood moving in your arms and chest.

If you find this movement difficult then start with wall push outs. Stand facing a wall and back far enough that you can comfortably place your hands flat on the wall with your elbows slightly bent.

Lean toward the wall keeping your back straight and then push yourself back to standing position. Repeat.

How to Burn More Calories at Work
If you want to increase the amount of calories you burn at work then maybe consider adding a couple pieces of office exercise equipment to your collection.

There are several types of under desk pedal machines made for seated persons to exercise. Using one of these will help you burn calories, get some cardio activity and you will be at your desk doing work.

Another piece of calorie burning desk exercise equipment is the Resistance Chair. It has resistance cables and pulley system as well as a cycling attachment. With this exercise chair you will definitely burn calories and work your muscles.

I have an exercise chart with illustrations to show you some of the exercises you can to with the Resistance Chair here.

The Lunch Break
So what should you do in 30 min to burn the most calories at work? That’s easy to answer – get moving and don’t stop. I know, I have a couple of clients that tell me their bosses expect them to work and eat their lunch and I’m not going to tell you to get in a fight with your boss.

If the lunch hour is yours and I would strongly suggest you take those first 30 minutes and get going. This is where comfortable walking shoes will come in to play.

Go to the stairwell and walk up and down the stairs, or hit the streets and walk at a fast clip away from work for 15 minutes. Then turn around.

If you have no stairs and the weather sucks then do high leg raises combined with shadow boxing. Standing straight bring one knee high so your thigh is parallel to the floor, hold for a second then switch legs. Take your time because you want to maintain your balance.

Once you get going then add shadow boxing. Just easily extend one arm away from your body then the other as you retract it. Just as though you were boxing. Take it easy and keep your balance.

Walking lunges forward and sideways. Even if you only have a 15 foot hallway at work – that is enough room to get a good office calorie burning exercise like forward and side lunges in.

What about getting yourself a resistant band? A full resistant band routine can be done in 30 minutes in a very small space too. You can easily do a full body circuit and zing those calories away.

Here are more ideas for leg exercises for the office that you can do to burn calories while at work.