Activity & Calories
Written by Sky Taylor, Diet Bites
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Just look at Larry - one solid human monument of sweat.
Put a pumpkin seed under one armpit, and we might end up sprouting a world-record specimen.
Yes, Larry is no lounge lizard; he's a very busy boy with many things on his mind. At this time in particular, he's contemplating how he can eat as much of his favorite foods as he wishes because after all, he's almost finished mowing the Ponderosa. Time's a-comin' to chow-down. And Larry's planning on getting down and dirty with pizza and nachos.
And yes, when prepared Diet Smartly, pizza and nachos can fit into almost-any diet plan, but Larry has less healthy options on his mind. He's heading out to his favorite pizza restaurant to pick up his JUMBO 'double-full-blown-cheese-with-double-pepperoni-and-mushroom' pizza directly after he rams the old mower into the shed.
And he's also doing a quick drive-by for a large order of his full-blown-supreme-maximum-monster nachos at his other favorite restaurants. You know, the ones loaded with so much cheese and sour cream that they hide the little yellow pointy objects formerly known as tortilla chips.
Because Larry has worked so hard mowing for the last two hours, he feels that he can eat as much pizza and nachos that he desires and achieve a Calorie Balance. Hum.....maybe he'll also drop by the bakery and pick up a few donuts while he's out. Donuts aside, he plans to eat four slices of the jumbo pizza, leaving the rest for dinner time.
Let's see if Larry is correct in his thinking by calculating the amount of calories he plans to consume and comparing them with the calories he used when mowing. Will they balance out?
Weighing-In in this Corner - Larry's Food!
Each slice of Larry's pizza contains 400 calories each for a total of 1,600 calories. The monster nachos contain monster calories equalling 1,250. Let's forget counting the regular soda that Larry intends to guzzle down with his pizza and nachos. Total calories will equal about 2,850.
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Weighing-In in this Corner - Larry's Expended Activity!
In order to determine how many calories Larry has burned, we need to first establish his weight because the number of calories burns will vary based on weight. Larry's current weight equals 200 pounds. Therefore, Larry will burn 108 calories for every 15 minutes of mowing that he performed. Because he mowed for about 2 hours, Larry has burned about 864 calories - total.
The Official Calorie Countdown!
Unfortunately, Larry did not burn more calories than he intends to consume. Unless he balances the calories that his body requires throughout the day via his diet and through other activity, Larry will gain weight.
In Weight Loss Summary
Activity assists in burning calories and can serve to strengthen our bodies, making more muscle which requires more calories to support than fat. However, even when we perform heavy exercise or activity, this isn't a free ticket to eat to our heart's content - assuming that the activity we performed will balance-out (or cover) the amount of calories consumed. Calories do matter when it comes to the magic number on our weight scales because calories equal energy equal fuel which supports the body. Any overage will be stored in the reserve tanks - the crummy old fat cells.
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