Tracking calories is a notoriously tricky science. For every snide weight loss expert declaring that “it’s as easy as calories in, calories out”, there’s confusing literature on how inaccurate most calorie estimates are.
Tracking calories in, in the form of food, may be simple enough, but measuring calories burned is much trickier, and even expensive devices such as FitBits have been proven to be vastly inaccurate in some studies. However, it can still be fun to compare the relative calories burned by various activities, even if those numbers may have little basis in reality!
Eating healthy is important, and health-conscious snacks can be part of that. But those on a quest to shed pounds may be reassured to hear that many ordinary activities burn calories, every single day. For a 155-pound person, a 15-minute shower will burn 62 calories, sleeping for 7 hours will burn 382 calories, and even brushing your teeth can burn 4 calories.
Meanwhile, low-impact exercise like walking can make a big difference: walking to work for 30 minutes can burn 149 calories, while driving for the same amount of time will only burn 60. Ultimately, these numbers prove the importance of diet, since most people burn the majority of their calories throughout the day normally, and not through exercise.