If you’re suffering from weight gain, or just packing on a few additional pounds, you may be thinking: why me?  Why do some people accumulate that extra heft while others stay slimmer?

Well, there is metabolism to consider.  Each individual’s metabolic rates are different, and that affects a person’s weight.  There’s also body type.  But aside from these predictors, we can also anticipate weight changes based on simple daily routine.  Some of getting that weight off, and keeping it off, has to do with the “hidden exercise” that you may do on any given day.

For example, some studies have shown slightly lower relative obesity rates among city-dwellers.  That’s partly because these people have to walk everywhere, along busy streets or up the stairs of high rise buildings.
But you don’t have to live on the fourth floor of a building with a broken elevator to gain from the benefits of hidden exercise.  Just work activities into your days deliberately and take advantage of the changes they facilitate in your body.  Here are a few additional tips.

Diversify your exercise
Along with the walking mentioned earlier (some experts recommend at least 20-30 minutes per day, wherever that may take you), include a varied “course” of activities like stretching, bending, lunging, or other muscle working activities.  Just like a financial portfolio, or a good diet, your exercise menu should be sufficiently complex to work various muscle groups and keep you fit for the long haul.

Choose your favorite ways to do work
We know that work often isn’t fun.  The challenge is to find exercises that you do consider, if no fun, then at least, well, therapeutic in a good way.  Finding activities you enjoy will help you stick to your routines.  In the case of sports or gym workouts, the choices are straightforward.  Finding enjoyable hidden exercise can be harder.  Try finding a good walking route to somewhere you like to go, and take along an Mp3 player to make the stroll more enjoyable.  Or, find hobbies (crafts, construction, or something else physical) that gets you out and about.  Once you start thinking about it, you’ll realize that the opportunities are endless!

Get pumped
Yes, it’s a little harder to amp up a physical activity when you’re not in the gym.  It might even look silly.  But if you are dedicated to getting intense with hidden exercise activities like doing the dishes, raking the leaves or taking boxes out to the garage, you’ll find a way to put a little more effort into the job.  Breathing techniques and exaggerated movements help your body raise its metabolism and respond to physical work, burning off more calories.

These and other deliberate patterns of activity can help you burn serious calories.  Did you know that, according to some estimates, a half hour of moving furniture can burn up over 200 calories?  (Ask anybody who routinely moves furniture, and they’ll tell you they already knew that.)  But other activities are also impressive in their calorie-busting potential.  You can burn over 100 calories in a half hour of working in the garden or mowing the lawn.  Even just vacuuming or doing the dishes will help you burn dozens of calories per hour.  So, when it comes to your calorie counting, don’t overlook the “natural” hidden exercise activities you can work into your day.