Roughly 10% of the calories you burn each day get burned by the act of digesting your food. But not all foods are created equal: Your body uses more calories to digest protein (20 to 35 calories burned for every 100 calories consumed) than it does to digest fats and carbohydrates (5 to 15 calories burned for every 100 calories consumed). That’s why adding lean, healthy protein to each meal and snack will help you burn more calories. Even better, protein can dull hunger and protect against obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.

Lifting weights in the gym, running to catch the bus, twiddling your thumbs during a meeting, and playing a card game fall into this category.  It’s a common misconception that fit people burn off the majority of their calories at the gym.  Even superhero athletes like Tom Brady and Serena Williams only burn about 10 to 15% of their calories by moving their muscles while exercising. That doesn’t mean that exercise isn’t important, however —it’s just not important in the way you think.   What exercise really does is to help with Burn #3.

This is the biggie. Your basal, or resting, metabolism refers to the calories you burn when you’re doing nothing at all.  Sleeping, watching TV, sitting through yet another mind-numbing presentation on corporate profit-and-loss statements — you’re burning calories all the while.  In fact, between 60 and 80% of your daily calories are burned up just doing nothing.  That’s because your body is constantly in motion: Your heart is beating, your lungs are breathing, and your cells are dividing, all the time, even when you are asleep.