Is it worth the calories? What you need to burn and what exercises to break even…

• Mini Snickers or similar candy bar about 80 calories
• 13 pieces of candy corn about 70 calories
• 2 Mini Reese’s PB cup about 80 calories

So if you are counting up how many of these little yummy bars you consumed this weekend, you may see that you may have consumed a lot of calories. With the holiday season in full-swing, things are only going to get worse for you (leading to unwanted weight gain) if you don’t add in exercise and really THINK about what you are putting in your mouth before eating it!)

Remember, you must burn 3,500 more calories than food, in order to lose one pound. In other words, if you want to lose one pound per week, you must reduce your caloric intake by 500 calories per day (x 7days). How easy is this to do? Well, 500 calories could mean cutting out soda and sweets; it could make drastically reducing added fat; or cutting back on wine/beer; or cutting your portions by 1/3. It can be manageable if you make the effort to think about it. Email us if you need some help with this!

Get back to exercising!

One way to speed up your metabolism and burn more calories than you take in is to get on a regular exercise program. If you are not involved in any type of program, start adding it in gradually. Work up to doing something at least 5 days per week, so that it eventually just becomes part of your routine. You owe it to yourself and your bone and cardiovascular health as well! Work up to completing an hour of exercise each time you do it. Check out this calories burned chart to get an idea of how many calories are typically burned per hour of exercise:

Calories burned per hour (for a 150 pound person)