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The key is how much exercise. Jog a mile and that's around 100 kcal. Now, go to a corner store and look at every single snack on the shelves. Can you find on

The key is how much exercise. Jog a mile and that's around 100 kcal. Now, go to a corner store and look at every single snack on the shelves. Can you find one that is less than 100 kcal? How many can you find that are over 500 kcal? That's 5 miles. In my corner store I can find lots of snacks that are up in the 800 kcal range (it's a meal!!!). 8 miles. Of jogging. One of the things that drives me crazy is that if you go on the internet and find calorie calculators for exercise, they are often wrong by a fairly high margin. You'll see sites that tell you that you'll burn 1200 kcal from an hour of cycling. Well... if you are riding 45 kph, then yeah... It's pretty easy to lose weight from exercise if you do it regularly and don't increase your diet. If you burn 500 kcal a day (jogging 5 miles or 8 km -- every day!), then you'll burn a pound a week. But that muffin you eat as a reward? Or that power bar you enjoy on your 20 km cycle route. Yeah... Sorry, you're back to zero. And that's the problem. It takes real effort to burn a pound a week and it takes absolutely no effort to eat a pound a week. So you definitely should exercise, but you must watch your diet at the same time. Some people are good because they don't increase their diet at the same time as the exercise. But most people need to pay attention.

chewxy 10y ago
> Can you find one that is less than 100 kcal? Let me introduce you to my favourite snack when cutting: nori seaweed. It's something like 10kcal per 3 sheets. Add salt and slowly toast over an open flame. if you go for the already-flavoured ones, they're like 30kcal per packet
- mikekchar 10y ago
  Ha ha! That's quite a good one. In Japan I can also get flavoured kombu. It's quite chewy so it takes a while to eat :-)
WkndTriathlete 10y ago
You mention the inaccurate exercise calorie burn calculators, but then state that jogging one mile burns 100 kcal. For most people, jogging one mile does not burn anywhere close to 100 kcal. Calorie burn rates for untrained to semi-trained people fall in the 1-4 kcal/minute range. For trained individuals, burn rates can go as high as 15-20 kcal/minute during interval training. For reference, elite-level long-distance endurance racers (marathoners, long-course triathletes) typically burn about 3 kcal/minute.
- mikekchar 10y ago
  Hmmm... You made me break out the calculator. I'm thinking 150 w is probably about right for the effort for a 10 minute mile. 150 wH is roughtly 130 kcal. So divided by 6 that gives just over 20 kcal. So you are right! It shows you how easy it is to fall into the trap of repeating things you've heard :-P
  - js2 10y ago
    Now wait just a second here. Looking at: http://www.runnersworld.com/peak-performance/running-v-walking-how-many-calories-will-you-burn http://www.runnersworld.com/peak-performance/running-v-walki... Which summarizes: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22446673 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22446673 A 156 lb subject burns 112.5 kcal/mile running a 10 minute mile. But that's gross calories. A random BMR calculator (5'8" male, 156 lbs, 45 y/o i.e. myself + 10 lbs) gives ~ 1600 kcal/day, which is 1.1 kcal/minute, or 11 kcal in 10 minutes. So that's a net kcal burn of pretty close to 100 kcal/mile. What am I missing? (Aside, I ran over 3300 miles last year and did not lose weight; I don't doubt the futility of trying to lose weight through exercise alone.)
    - mikekchar 10y ago
      I think the difference is the amount of energy that you burn directly from the running and the amount of energy that you burn due to increased metabolism/repairing your body due to the exercise. The first is not going to be that different between people, but the second could possibly be quite variable. I spent a bit of time trying to find primary sources for the justification of these numbers and I couldn't find anything easily. I don't doubt they exist, but I've been burned enough times through sloppy interpretations of scientific papers that it probably makes sense to take a close look before I shoot off my mouth again ;-) I suppose either way, the original point stands -- it's incredibly easy to eat your way out of progress made with exercise.

chewxy 10y ago

> Can you find one that is less than 100 kcal? Let me introduce you to my favourite snack when cutting: nori seaweed. It's something like 10kcal per 3 sheets. Add salt and slowly toast over an open flame. if you go for the already-flavoured ones, they're like 30kcal per packet

mikekchar 10y ago
Ha ha! That's quite a good one. In Japan I can also get flavoured kombu. It's quite chewy so it takes a while to eat :-)

WkndTriathlete 10y ago

You mention the inaccurate exercise calorie burn calculators, but then state that jogging one mile burns 100 kcal. For most people, jogging one mile does not burn anywhere close to 100 kcal. Calorie burn rates for untrained to semi-trained people fall in the 1-4 kcal/minute range. For trained individuals, burn rates can go as high as 15-20 kcal/minute during interval training. For reference, elite-level long-distance endurance racers (marathoners, long-course triathletes) typically burn about 3 kcal/minute.

mikekchar 10y ago
Hmmm... You made me break out the calculator. I'm thinking 150 w is probably about right for the effort for a 10 minute mile. 150 wH is roughtly 130 kcal. So divided by 6 that gives just over 20 kcal. So you are right! It shows you how easy it is to fall into the trap of repeating things you've heard :-P
- js2 10y ago
  Now wait just a second here. Looking at: http://www.runnersworld.com/peak-performance/running-v-walking-how-many-calories-will-you-burn http://www.runnersworld.com/peak-performance/running-v-walki... Which summarizes: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22446673 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22446673 A 156 lb subject burns 112.5 kcal/mile running a 10 minute mile. But that's gross calories. A random BMR calculator (5'8" male, 156 lbs, 45 y/o i.e. myself + 10 lbs) gives ~ 1600 kcal/day, which is 1.1 kcal/minute, or 11 kcal in 10 minutes. So that's a net kcal burn of pretty close to 100 kcal/mile. What am I missing? (Aside, I ran over 3300 miles last year and did not lose weight; I don't doubt the futility of trying to lose weight through exercise alone.)
  - mikekchar 10y ago
    I think the difference is the amount of energy that you burn directly from the running and the amount of energy that you burn due to increased metabolism/repairing your body due to the exercise. The first is not going to be that different between people, but the second could possibly be quite variable. I spent a bit of time trying to find primary sources for the justification of these numbers and I couldn't find anything easily. I don't doubt they exist, but I've been burned enough times through sloppy interpretations of scientific papers that it probably makes sense to take a close look before I shoot off my mouth again ;-) I suppose either way, the original point stands -- it's incredibly easy to eat your way out of progress made with exercise.