[laurelei]

I have seen a lot of sites that say that you burn around 60 calories per hour while sleeping (if you are 150 lbs). This doesn't seem right. Do you really burn that many calories while doing absolutely nothing, or is this just a myth?
Thanks in advance

[Glory87]

Of course you do. Your body is an engine, it runs on energy. A car burns gas when it's idling, right? While you're sleeping, your stomach is digesting, your lungs are working, your brain is dreaming, your heart is pumping, skin cells are being replaced, blood is flowing, kidneys are filtering waste, liver is well, doing whatever the liver does...all activities that need energy. 12 calories per 10 minutes for sleeping might be peanuts compared to 100 calories per 10 minutes running, but there is definite caloric expenditure 24 hours a day, even while sleeping.

[madscientist]

Every moment of every day that you are alive you are burning calories. Even the worlds biggest couch potato burns calories sitting on that couch. That is called a basal metabolic rate. It is the amount of energy your body must expend just to simply stay alive. If you want to know what yours is, there's a calculator here: http://www.weightlossforgood.co.uk/bmr_calculator.htm

Sleeping by the way, does burn about 60 calories an hour. Just sitting and watching tv or reading or whatever, burns about 75 per hour.

[laurelei]

Wow, now that I read that it makes a lot of sense! HAHA :P Thanks for the info everyone. Maybe I am burning more calories than I think I am..

[jillybean720]

Originally Posted by madscientist

Sleeping by the way, does burn about 60 calories an hour. Just sitting and watching tv or reading or whatever, burns about 75 per hour.

Actually, there are some studies that show that watching tv actually burns FEWER calories than sleeping! With hundreds of channels to choose from with digital cable and dish networks nowadays, no wonder so many Americans are so obese

[srmb60]

The last CSI I watched used a heat seeking scan to see who was in the house. Since everyone was giving off heat, they knew they were all alive. So apparently the only guy who doesn't use calories is the murder victim

[Ilene]

If you have more muscles you will burn more calories at rest too .... BONUS for us weight trainers !!