Sunday, December 4, 2011

Are You Watching Those Calories?




Two weeks before writing this blog post, my husband bought me a treadmill. I was so excited, because one of my goals for this year was to get a treadmill. To be quite honest with you, I do not like to work out at the gym. In fact, I prefer to work out at home or walk the neighborhood to burn calories or to reduce stress.


Shortly before I wrote this blog post, I was walking on the treadmill and watching the amount of calories that I was burning as I walked on the treadmill. Moreover, as I watched the numbers of carbs and calories burned increase on my treadmill panel, I realized that it is more work to burn off the calories than it is to attain them.

I began to think about the number of calories that are in a bag of chips or a candy bar and I thought about how much time it takes to consume the calories in our foods. For example, I love to eat granola bars and an average granola bar is less than 150 calories.

I discovered that when I walk two miles per hour for at least 30- minutes a day on the treadmill, I will burn 110 calories. Then I wondered how much weight I will lose if I burned 500 calories a week or more?

Have you really thought about how many calories that you consume on a daily basis? Are you moving your body enough to burn off those extra calories?  Have you thought about the affects that calories have on your bodies? Do you have a goal to lose weight or to simply maintain your weight?

According to Jeff Lindstrom, a professional trainer, "When you consume too many calories, you simply do not have the metabolism to burn it off and this leads to weight gain." This is why it is vital that you keep an close eye on the amount of calories that you consume on a daily basis.

A 2009 long term-study published in "The New England Journal of Medicine" found that the fundamental rule of calories in and calories out can be successful in weight management. If you eat 1,500 calories a day, you must expend 1,500 calories a day in order to stay at the same weight.

How many calories should you consume on a daily basis to maintain a healthy weight? 
 Dine Wise.com Advisory Board of Food Experts recommends these caloric guidelines:

* 1,500 calories per day for women who want to lose weight
* 1,800 calories per day for women maintaining their weight
* 1,800 calories per day for smaller stature men who want to lose weight
* 2,000 calories per day for smaller men maintaining their weight
* 2,200 calories per day recommended for men who want to lose weight

I hope that you have been inspired to pay close attention to the amount of calories that you consume on a daily basis and develop a plan to move your body to burn off those extra calories. Check out the articles below for more calorie burning tips and tools!

Looking forward to reading your comments about this post.


To Your Health,
Shiketa
Follow on Twitter @naturaliving101

Source(s) and Recommended Reading


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