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How Many Calories Does
Exercise & Activity Burn

Written by Sky Taylor, Diet Bites

How many calories can activity and exercise  burn? Let's use a 154-pound male as our example and base our calorie burn on the type of activity performed.

When viewing the amount of calories burned, it's important to keep in mind that a 154-pound male requires AND burns the following amount of calories even when zero activity is performed.

DAILY CALORIES REQUIRED PER ACTIVITY LEVEL FOR A 154-POUND MAN

Required Calories - Inactive

Calories Burned Per Hour

Required Calories - Moderately Active

Calories Burned Per Hour

Required Calories - Active

Calories Burned Per Hour

1,924

About 80

2,220

92.5

2,516

About 105

ENERGY BURNED PER ACTIVITY FOR A 154-POUND MAN

Moderate physical activities:

Kcals Burned Per Hour

Extras Kcals Burned Per Hour

Kcals Burned Per 1/2 Hour

Extra Kcals Burned 1/2 Hour

Hiking

370

290

185

145

Light gardening OR light yard work

330

250

165

125

Dancing

330

250

165

125

Golf - walking and carrying clubs

330

250

165

125

Bicycling at less than 10 miles per hour

290

210

145

105

Walking at 3 ½ miles per hour

280

200

140

100

Weight training - general light workout

220

160

110

80

Stretching

180

80

90

40

Vigorous Physical Activities:

Kcals Burned Per Hour

True Kcal Burn Per Hour

Kcals Burned Per 1/2 Hour

True Kcal Burn Per 1/2 Hour

Running/jogging at 5 miles per hour

590

510

295

255

Bicycling at more than 10 miles per hour

590

510

295

255

Swimming - slow freestyle laps

510

430

255

215

Aerobics

480

400

240

200

Walking at 4 ½ miles per hour

460

380

230

190

Heavy yard work - chopping wood

440

360

220

180

Weight lifting   - vigorous effort

440

360

220

180

Basketball - vigorously

440

360

220

180

While exercise and activity are vital to total good health, the calories that we intake rather than expend impact weight more than any other element in the Diet Equation.

For example, let's say that Dieter Vinny weighs 154 pounds. Today, Vinny enjoyed a healthy breakfast, a healthy dinner selection and two healthy fruits for snack time as well as healthy beverages throughout the day.

Because Vinny jogged for 1/2 an hour today, he decided to enjoy 'without guilt' his favorite Mexican meal at his favorite Mexican Restaurant.

Let's see how things added up for Vinny - as well as see if his logic was smart or blind-sided by his miscalculation of calories burned for his activity.

For today's menu he enjoyed the following:

Breakfast - Boiled Egg, 1 kiwi, Whole Grain Toast, Pat of Butter, Spoon of Jam & Skim Milk for  about 350 calories.

Lunch - Mexican Meal at his favorite restaurant containing 4 Beef & Cheese Enchiladas (400 calories each = 1,600 calories), Rice (200 calories), Beans & Cheese (250 calories)  , Basket of Warm Tortilla Chips (450 calories), Salsa, 2 beers  (300 calories)  for about 2,800 total calories. My, those Mexican Meal calories sure add up quickly, don't they? Lucky for Vinny that he jogged today!

Dinner - Chef Salad with light dressing and Spring water for about 350 calories.

Snacks - 2 pieces of fruit for about 150 calories. He also enjoyed 250 calories worth of assorted healthy beverages throughout the day (100% juice and skim milk).

Total Calories for the day equals about 3,900 calories.

- Vinny burned 295 calories on his 1/2 hour jog.

- Vinny spent the remainder of the day in a very inactive state, sleeping, watching tv and talking on the telephone. Therefore, he burned about 1,880 calories which his body requires simply to support life (breathing, blinking, yawning, etc.).

Vinny burned a total of 2,175 calories. In order to maintain his 154-pound weight, his body requires no more than 2,516 calories when incorporating vigorous physical activity - which Vinny certainly did.

The problem is that although Vinny busted wind jogging, it wasn't enough to compensate for his Mexican Fiesta Meal as his total daily calorie intake totaled 3,900 calories - 1,384 calories OVER the amount of calories (energy) that his bodyused.

Those calorieswere stored in Vinny's fat cells.

Had Vinny's Mexican Meal been comprised of 2,800 calories originating from very healthy sources (fruits, vegetables, etc.) - then unfortunately, the excess calories (energy) would have also been stored in  the fat cells.

 

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