Next time, consider climbing the stairs instead of taking the lift. You'll not only be improving your fitness levels, but will also be shedding a few unwanted kilos.

And, in case of a power failure, you'll be ready and able to climb the steps to your office with ease.

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We did the maths for you:

• A 70-kg person burns 10 calories per minute when ascending, and 7 calories per minute when descending, a flight of stairs.
• Therefore, if you climb up 10 sets of stairs (which will take an average of 5 minutes), you will burn 50 calories. That's more or less the equivalent of one slice of bread for a 5-minute workout. Pretty impressive!
• Also, if you climb up 10 sets of stairs every day of the work week, you will have burnt an additional 250 calories by the end of the week.
• By burning an extra 3500 calories per week, or by cutting 3500 calories from your diet, you can lose between 0,5 and 1 kg of weight per week. So, climbing stairs will definitely help towards reaching your weight-loss goals.
• If every person who works in a building with 2000 employees climbs 10 flights of stairs every day of the work week, the group of employees would have burnt a collective 500 000 calories by the end of the week. Altogether, they would have lost approximately 143 kg of weight at the end of just one week.

More interesting facts:

• 10 minutes of stair climbing represents 33% of the 30 minutes of daily exercise recommended by experts.
• In a study conducted in airports, banks, office buildings and university libraries, researchers found that only 6 – 9% of people chose to use the stairs instead of the lifts or escalators.

Use our Climbing Steps Calculator to work out calories burnt when climbing stairs.

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