CAL-O-RIES for the O-REO
Why do you exercise?
There are many reasons why people start on a fitness journey. Whether it is specific for a sport, to be healthy and/or to lose weight. Whether you think about it consciously or not you have, probably, at one point in your life exercised to burn calories.
Hop on the treadmill or the bike and walk and get extremely disappointed on the amount of calories you “burned” and begin to question if your fast food choices have been worth it. Spoiler alert! They weren’t. But I need to burn off that Mc Whopper I had earlier in the day from Taco-fila!
Okay I hear what you are saying but there are better ways to do it than just trying to run it off.
Walking
Hitting the trails on a nice hike or going outside for a brisk 20 min mile is great. One average 180 pound person will burn about 100 calories walking 1 mile. Bonus Tip: doing this with a weighted vest or pack can help if you are looking to burn a little extra, this is also a great alternative to running and allows your body to recover quickly (CNS and joint wise) so you can do this forever and the rest of your life.
Weight Lifting
On average a moderately intense weightlifting session for 1 hour can burn 300-500 calories for a 180# individual. The thing that dictates the amount of energy used or calories burned is going to be the volume and use for compound movements. Sticking to the main lifts and above 10 reps for many sets will allow for the energy expenditure to increase.
Low Intensity Steady State (LISS)
This is what we like to call MAP 10. You can carry on a conversation as you do some movements that get you a little out of breath, but not to the point where you have to stop. Where people get into trouble here is doing movements they can’t keep low intensity. Less lifting of weight or even body weight things and more cyclical movements. Weighted Walks, step up, rowers, slow burpees and mixing that in with some static holds like planks or wall sits is a great way to stay novel and keep intensity in a good range.
Fidgeting
Yep you read that correctly. Movement of all kinds requires energy. We all know someone in our lives that has to be doing something all of the time. As the kids say, they have “no chill”. Whether that is fidgeting, bouncing your leg, speaking with your hands, finding busy tasks, pacing, singing, playing solo charades, or doing household chores, these people are expending tones of energy. In some cases up to 600 more calories a day than others who have some chill.
Take home message:
Get out there and move, whatever it is that you enjoy and can see yourself doing forever. Make it a habit that involves doing it for enjoyment rather than burning calories and you’ll leave yourself in a better mind set with movement than when you first started.
