Spending long hours every day at work means we are sedentary for most of our days. More time spent sitting means fewer calories burnt. Just by standing while you work can help you burn up to 50 calories an hour.

You don’t have to stand the whole day (although you can take on that challenge), but even standing 20 minutes every hour at your desk can add up over time. So it might not be a bad idea to invest in a standing desk if you need an easy way to burn hundreds of extra calories a week.

High-protein foods like eggs, fish, lean meat and dairy require our bodies to use more calories to digest per gram of food, as compared to those high in fat and carbs. In other words, you can burn more calories by tucking into a chicken breast salad than if you had a grilled cheese sandwich.

Therefore, having a whole, protein-based meals and snacks can help to burn an extra 20 to 30 calories a meal and up to 100 to 120 extra calories a day.

The benefits of sleep should not be overlooked. Research has shown that sleep deprivation not only increases our appetite (due to the stimulation of the hunger hormone ghrelin), but also slows down our metabolism. A study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition demonstrated that those who sleep four hours every night can consume up to 300 more calories than those who sleep a healthy amount.

The daily recommended amount of sleep is between seven to nine hours. By getting sufficient restful sleep, you can cut at least 300 calories every day. Plus, if you’re well-rested, you’d have more energy in the day to exercise, and just squeezing in a quick HIIT workout can burn up to 500 calories.

Being dehydrated can cause a drop in metabolic rate. A German study found that constantly drinking water (eight to ten cups) throughout the day helps to raise metabolic rates by approximately 30 percent. Not only does drinking water keep you feeling fuller longer, it will also speed up your metabolism.

Drinking cold water has been found (in a study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism) to burn more calories than drinking warm water because the cold shocks the body into warming itself up. Our bodies can burn seven calories just by converting a 250ml glass of cold water to body temperature, so if you were to drink 10 glasses of cold water a day, you can torch an extra 490 calories in a week.

An impulse to fidget may differ from person to person. You may not be a fidgeter, but just by imitating one – tapping your fingers, jiggling your leg, shifting in your seat, or pacing – you can burn up to 350 more calories a day than if you remain stationary. It’s a form of energy expenditure that burns a few calories that can accumulate over time.

One study even found that non-exercise movements like fidgeting can burn up to 350 calories a day. Every bit of movement counts!

Having a good posture not only makes you look leaner and taller, it also helps to strengthen your core. Just by sitting up straight, you engage your core muscles that will hold up your upper body, making your body work harder and burn a few extra calories.

And, whenever you can, try to work your abdominal muscles. Clench them tightly in short, intense bursts, and try to hold it for longer each time. 30 seconds, 40 seconds, then a minute.

Building up your abs and a strong core can also improve endurance and reduce the chances of getting injured when you work out.

Our body expends more energy when it’s digesting smaller meals every few hours than when it’s digesting heavier, less frequent meals. For one thing, eating a smaller meal prevents you from overeating or making bad choices at the supermarket, pantry or snack machine. For another, eating frequently keeps your metabolism up because your body has to work more often to digest the food.

Starving yourself is counterproductive because you’re only telling your body to go into starvation mode, where it will then cling on to every bit of fat on your body instead of burning it.

The aim here is to get more omega-3 fatty acids into your diet. Doing so helps to balance your blood sugar levels and reduce inflammation in your body. It also helps to regulate your metabolism so you lose weight much more easily.

Oolong tea is high in antioxidants and can help aid in digestion. The tea is filled with plenty of catechins that can improve your body’s ability to burn calories faster too.

Lemon water helps to aid in digestion and remove toxins from your body much more easily. Lemon also contains pectin, a compound that can help you feel full for longer.