Not Fair – Part 1

It doesn’t seem fair that it takes 5 minutes to eat 600 calories and 60 minutes to burn 600 calories. A standard fast food hamburger plus fries and a sugar drink put you over 1000 calories very quickly. Even relatively healthy food adds calories faster than we might think or hope.

In many societies it was difficult to get enough calories to sustain life and people still starve to death in some countries today. The body’s chemistry was designed to deal with ongoing food shortages and periods of outright starvation. This combined with active work requirements meant that obesity was not a problem.

Today most of us are sedentary and have at our disposal copious amounts of food. Our challenge is not to find food but to avoid it and to burn excess calories through exercise. The entire human energy equation is now upside down. We need to waste energy because we cannot bring ourselves to eat less.

A rule of thumb is that it takes 12 to 13 calories per pound of body weight to sustain that body weight in a sedentary individual. So if you want to weigh 150 pounds you need to eat 1800 calories. (12 x 150 = 1800) A typical fast food meal provides over half your daily caloric needs.

Eating an extra 120 calories a day increases your weight by 10 pounds. That also doesn’t seem fair. 120 calories is nothing. A small chocolate bar or some mayonnaise is 120 calories. How about a single beer or a Coke? Just an extra 120 calories per day and you are 10 pounds heavier.

I have fought the battle of the bulge most of my adult life and for the most part lost, the battle not the bulge. I have, however, gained some understanding of nutritional science and will share that with you over the next few posts.

Keep Running!