Burning Calories

I just posted an article on Twitter titled “Which Exercises Burn the Most Calories”. For many people, this is the primary question that they want answered. Most people will admit that they exercise more to lose or maintain weight than for the health benefits

If you’re exercising to lose or maintain weight, It’s helpful to have ballpark numbers of the approximate calorie expenditure’s of our exercises and the caloric value of our food. Obviously, food quality plays a significant role, but that is a matter for a different discussion.

In the article, they reference that running for 30 minutes at a moderate pace burns approximately 260 cal. Doing an intense, CrossFit regimen for 20 minutes consisting of pull-ups, push-ups, and squats burns approximate 13 cal per minute or the same number of calories in 20 minutes as you would burn in 30 minutes while running.

Interestingly, the average bagel contains 261 cal, excluding all the junk we put on it. This equates to 30 minutes running at a moderate pace! It really hits home the point that we need to watch closely what we take in as well as how we burn off calories. Although I encourage my patients to see think more globally throughout the day and not get lost in such minutia, this point is eye-opening.

In general, to achieve ideal weight maintenance. You need to move more and eat less low quality food and more bulky high quality foods such as raw vegetables.