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Idle Hands Are The The Fat Man's Workshop

I've talked a lot about the criticality of calorie counting, and the pointless waste of money that was your former gym membership. However, you'll want to have some level of activity every day to give yourself some calorie headroom over your basal metabolic rate (your body's minimum calorie daily burn rate), or you'll have an increasingly difficult time losing weight.

Fortunately, this is less important as you start out since your BMR is so far elevated with your body working extra hard just keeping your fat ass alive that only a mere diet adjustment will do the trick, at least at first. However, as your weight drops, your BMR also drops, and activity becomes increasingly important for continued weight loss. If you don't have a lot of weight to lose or you want to really lose at an accelerated rate, you'll need to add in some activity.

You really don't need to do much but just keep yourself busy with something - anything. Outdoor chores are best because you'll be away from your kitchen, but any inside chores are good too - laundry, vacuuming, straightening up, whatever. The idea is to keep moving and sit still as little as possible. Every errand is an opportunity for calorie burning, and every task that you might otherwise pay others to do is an opportunity for saving money and burning more calories. If you wear a Fitbit, take a look at your calorie budget on days where you're active versus relatively sedentary. A little bit of extra activity makes a big difference.

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