Burning calories doesn’t have to mean a trip to the gym. Whether you have chores to get done around the house, you want to relax after a long day at work, or you’d like to have some fun, there are an endless number of ways to easily burn calories while doing something else!

Here’s a short list of 25 ideas to get you started. What you will need to do is get up and/or move. Sitting still won’t do much for you!

The suggested calories burned for these activities will vary from person to person. The values provided have been calculated based on a 150-pound adult woman. If you weigh more than this you may burn more calories in the given time. If you weigh less, you will likely burn less. However, the amount of energy you put into a given activity will influence the amount you will burn.

So choose a few activities from this list and get started!

1. Garden! Beautify your yard and plant flowers. Past the season for planting? Well then, pull weeds for about 20 minutes to burn 100 calories.

2. Dance! Grab your sweetheart and spend a relaxing and romantic half hour of slow dancing.

3. Rediscover bowling (30 minutes of actual bowling not sitting)!

4. How about Frisbee for 30 minutes? Doesn’t matter whether or not you are skilled. Just get outside, try it, and have fun. In a short half an hour you may burn 100 calories and maybe discover you actually can play!

5. How long has it been since you’ve played a few rounds of miniature golf? Only 30 minutes of walking around and putting golf balls can burn as much as 100 calories!

6. Take the stairs. Walking up and down stairs could burn 100 calories in about 15-20 minutes.

7. Wash your car! Get your kids involved and have fun! Make sure you use a little elbow grease and in just 30 minutes, you may burn 100 calories and have a sparkling clean car as well!

8. Housecleaning takes on a whole new light when you learn just how many calories you can burn in a short amount of time. All it takes is 35 minutes of light housecleaning to burn 100 calories.

9. Moderate housecleaning could burn 100 calories in only 25 minutes.

10. Have a safe place to go biking? Burn 100 calories with only 25 minutes of leisure bike riding. Grab the kids and the bikes and go!

11. Play with your kids. Don’t have any? Well borrow someone else’s kids! Keeping up with children whether walking or running at a moderate pace will burn 100 calories in about 25 minutes.

12. Mow your lawn with a push, hand mower about 20 minutes (powered by you!)

13. Take a baby for a walk. Burn 100 calories in only 35 minutes by pushing a baby stroller.

14. Play casual (not competitive) badminton for 20 minutes.

15. Shoot baskets for 20 minutes.

16. Join a local art center or Parks and Recreation class to do belly dancing or folk dancing. With a possible 100 calories burned in just 20 minutes, imagine what an hour-long class might do for you!

17. Spend 40 minutes doing laundry. Yes, sorting, hauling, loading, taking clothes out, folding, and then putting the clothes away burns calories. Add walking up and down stairs and you may burn even more!

18. Do hatha yoga for 35 minutes. This form of yoga can be an excellent way to stretch, flex, and unwind. That you burn calories as well is an added gift.

19. Give a loved one a massage for 22 minutes, burn 100 calories, and make someone very happy.

20. Play the piano for 35 minutes.

21. Play guitar for 45 minutes.

22. It takes about 10-15 minutes of step aerobics (6-8 inches) to burn 100 calories.

23. Find a friend and get caught up on each other’s lives while walking for about 20-30 minutes.

24. Want a great way to cool down in hot summer weather? Go to an indoor skating rink, cool off, and burn 100 calories with just 20 minutes of ice skating.

25. O.K. if you’ve tried one or more of these ideas and you’re now ready to sit quietly, go ahead. Spend an hour typing on your computer. Visit with your friends on Facebook, MySpace, 43 Things, Eons or wherever your favorite place online might be. Keep those fingers flying for an hour and you just might burn 100 calories.

Can’t type for an hour? What about half an hour? Every little bit helps. And while visiting with those friends, be sure to tell them about this list. Remember the more you type the more you will burn! So keep those fingers flying. Burn calories and have fun!

Formal exercise may be the best choice for weight loss and health. But if you cannot or choose not to engage in a regular exercise program, there are other ways to burn calories and keep in shape without logging hours at the gym.

I had an unexpected need to get a workout at home this past weekend. My midwestern state like many others was hard hit by a winter storm.

First we had freezing rain. Ice coated the tops of the tree branches and icicles 5 and 6 inches long hung below. Then the snow began to fall covering up the ice. Sometime during the night the accumulated weight of the ice and snow was too much for many of the trees in our yard. Limbs snapped, broken branches covered a good part of our front yard and the drive way.

So my husband and I woke up to find that we needed to not only shovel about 8-10 inches of snow but we would need to cut and drag a large tree limb and branches off the driveway. This is NOT how I wanted to spend my Sunday morning. It actually comforted me to know that I would easily get my exercise for the day with all of this. I just needed to go at it properly so that I didn’t injure my back. I tried to keep in mind the advice to not lift and turn in one motion.

We worked for more than an hour. I figure I was shoveling snow or lifting and moving tree limbs and branches for at least 40 minutes of that time. (During the hour plus that we worked, I needed to stop every ten minutes or so to rest a few minutes!) When we had finished my reward was having a cleared driveway AND I may have burned about 252 calories. Not bad.

How did I determine the calories burned? I used the free calorie calculator provided by Global Health and Fitness. It is one of the best calorie calculators that I am aware of on the web and likely one of the most accurate. In addition to providing results for formal exercise such as as running, swimming, and biking, it includes daily life activities.

This calculator includes everything from shoveling snow to housecleaning to raking leaves to the calories burned when having sex! In addition, the results are based on your individual weight and the number of minutes engaged in the particular activity.

Would you like to learn more about achieving weight loss and better health without needing to work up a sweat at the gym? Dr. Harvey Simon, a Harvard professor, has written a book called The No Sweat Exercise Plan: A Simple Way to Lose Weight and Improve Your Health Without Spending Hours in the Gym. Evidently he shares a refreshing exercise plan that shows you how. I’ve read positive reviews of this book but I have not yet had a chance to read it myself. I hope to soon.

In the meantime, maybe I’ll look forward to cleaning my house with more enthusiasm. And then again, maybe I won’t… Either way, I WILL burn some calories. That’s a good thought to keep in mind.