COLUMN: Energy in and out - How much exercise is required to work off our foods?

Most of us are aware that one of the keys to losing, gaining or maintaining our body weight is energy balance.

Whilst not all energy is equal, consuming more energy or calories than we use can lead to weight gain, consuming less energy than we use can result in weight loss and achieving a balance of energy in and energy used allows us to maintain a healthy weight.

How Much Energy Do We Need? This varies for each individual and is based on our age, our weight, how much energy we use throughout the day (be it our job or studying) and physical activity outside of this (whether it’s gentle or high intensity exercise), as well as other factors.

As a reference, for the general Irish population the daily recommended amount of energy for adult females is between 1800 and 2000 kcal and adult males between 2000 and 2500 kcals (HSE).

- So Easy To Eat It and So Hard To Lose It: For fellow food lovers like myself it can often be hard to resist some of those delicious dishes and tempting treats out there.

As well as this the energy, sugar and fat content of foods can often be confusing and deceiving, with foods which appear as ‘healthy’ being high in calories and sugar.

- Too Much Of A Good Thing: I always encourage people to have a clean and pure diet full of fresh and healthy ingredients, but did you know that it’s also possible to have too much of a good thing! Whilst foods may be healthy, clean and healthy foods contain energy too and going back to energy balance, if we consume more energy than we use this can in turn lead to weight gain.

Tip: Why not have a think about your food portion sizes and use your hands as a visual aid, for example the palm of your hand (1/4 of your plate) = a portion of protein such as meats/ poultry/ fish/ eggs/ beans/lentils, a fist (one-quarter of your plate) = a portion of carbohydrates such as wholegrain rice/ pasta/potatoes/cereal and two fists (half of your plate) = vegetables/ fruits.

Energy (kcal) Values Of Common Foods

Coffees: A 12-ounce Cappuccino made with full fat milk is approximately 100 kcal, a 12-ounce Latte again made with full fat milk is approximately 170 kcal. Keep in mind, if you have two or three cups per day, it can all add up.

Tip: Instead opt for a black coffee or with a few drops of low-fat milk.

Fizzy Drinks: If we then consider the energy content of some drinks, we can begin to understand how the liquid calories sneak in. For example, one can of a full sugar cola is 149 kcal or fizzy orange 138 kcal. Tip: Opt for diet options or mi-wadi ‘sweetened with stevia’. Even better still plain water and if you can’t stomach plain water, why not try some fruit infused water with some chopped lemon, oranges and mint leaves.
Biscuits: 1 Chocolate Chip Cookie (20g) - 100 kcal, 1 Shortbread Biscuit Finger (18g) – 92 kcal, 1 Milk Chocolate HobNob (18.8g) – 93 kcal, 2 Jaffa Cakes (24.4g) – 92 kcal, 4 Chocolate Finger Biscuits (84g) – 108 kcal.

Tip: When you fancy a little nibble why not try some yogurt, fresh berries and a tablespoon of pumpkin seeds.
Chocolate: Plain Cadbury Dairy Milk (6 squares) – 147 kcal, Cadbury Dairy Milk Caramel (3 chunks) – 97 kcal, Wispa (23.7g bar) – 127 kcal, Cadbury Freddo (18g bar) – 95 kcal, Mars Bar (39.4g) – 177 kcal, Yorkie (46g bar) – 249 kcal.

Tip: If you fancy something chocolatey why not add some raw cocoa powder or nibs to your porridge or yogurts, I like the Nua Naturals Raw Cocoa powder or nibs which can be purchased in many supermarkets, health stores and online.

Ice Cream: I have to admit that you can’t beat the odd ice-cream as a treat, with the ‘odd-treat’ being the key here.

Tip: If you get the craving for a cold treat, why not add some plain reduced sugar yogurt and chopped fruit into a freezable container, give it a good stir, pop it in the freezer for a couple of hours and hey presto you have some frozen yogurt or ‘fro-yo’ as the cool kids call it.

Alcohol: When it comes to alcohol (although different brands and types can vary in calories) we’re looking at approximately 125 kcal for 150ml glass of Red Wine, 121 kcal for a 150ml glass of White Wine, 244 kcal for 1 pint of 5% Lager, 210 kcal for 1 pint of 4.5% Cider and 1 shot of Spirits (gin/vodka) before a mixer is around 97 kcal.

So How Much Exercise Is Required To Work Off Our Foods

Whilst this varies for each individual based on one’s current weight, age and fitness levels as well as other factors such as the distance, the pace/intensity (speed), the duration (how long you do it), the incline (hills/mountains) and the weather/temperature to name a few.

The following is the approximate amount of exercise required to burn the energy from your foods.

Walking: An article by Technogym found that walking at 5.0 km/h for one kilometre would burn around 50 kcal. With many of us now tracking our physical activity such as our ‘step target’ per day, be it on our phone or using ‘wearables’ or fitness watches, we can look at it this way too.

A study published in the European Journal of Physiology found that walking 10,000 steps at a slow speed (3.2 km/h) may achieve 150 kcal of energy expenditure. That’s the equivalent of approximately five miles or eight kilometres per day. So that’s a lot of walking!

Jogging/Running: By their calculation, Technogym also found that jogging/running at 9.6km/hr (that’s pretty fast) and covering a distance of one kilometre, would burn approximately 80 kcal.

Cycling: Is not only a great way to travel and save money (with fuel prices being so high right now), but also to burn calories, lose weight and is low impact on the body too.

According to a study by Harvard University, cycling at a moderate speed of 12 to 13.9 miles per/hr will result in a 70kg person burning 298 kcal in 30 minutes.

At a faster speed of 14 to 15.9 miles per hour, a person of the same weight will burn 372 kcal.

Swimming: Is such a good exercise for your body and is low impact on your joints. Having just got adult swimming lessons for technique, I’ve realised that there’s a bit of cardio involved in it too, so great for improving your fitness and burning a few calories. According to Calories Burnt HQ, “Swimming the breaststroke burns 150 to 280 kcal for a 30-minute session, depending on your weight and speed” whilst doing the front crawl stroke for the same period of time “burns 10% more.”

Dancing: Like we need a good excuse to dance! Dancing is not only a lot of fun but it’s such a great form of exercise. Dancewearcentral.co.uk did some research and found that the approximate amount of energy used in dancing was...
Salsa = 200 kcal in 30 minutes
Zumba = 285 kcal in 1 hour class
Half an hour of dancing the Waltz = 108 calories
Swing dancing = 586 calories in 30 minutes.

Gardening: This can be a workout too as Fitnessvolt.com calculated that “the average person will burn 175-300 kcal doing normal backyard gardening like putting plants in pots and planting plants in a small garden”. Whilst “more difficult gardening tasks like using a chainsaw and tilling a garden will burn 400-500 kcal for an average person.”

Home & Housework: This doesn’t just have to be a chore when it can count as exercise too (I’ll have to tell myself that next time)!

For example, healthfitnessrevolution.com have worked out that these household tasks use the burn the following calories (approximately):

Cleaning windows (30 minutes) = 125 kcal

Hoovering/Vacuuming (30 minutes) = 90 calories

Washing Dishes By Hand (30 minutes) = 160 kcal

Ironing (30 minutes) = 70 kcal and tones the muscles of the upper body

Climbing stairs (30 minutes) = 285 kcal and

Painting/Decorating Your Home = 160 calories.

Remember as long as you are moving, you are burning energy! So keep on moving!