How calories are burnt...

I found some interesting information on how calories are used up by the body. Since this is important in weight loss this is good stuff to know!

It turns out that 1 pound (0.45 kg) of body fat is equivalent to 3,500 calories, meaning this much extra calories need to be burnt off by the body in order to lose 1 pound of fat! How much does 3,500 calories mean in terms of extra exercise?

Well, it all depends on how much you weigh in the first place, since this has a factor in determining the Metabolic rate (see my post about the Science of weight loss for more info). Here is a list of common (easy) forms of exercise that most average people probably do everyday anyway and how many calories they burn. Please note that this is based on someone, like me that weighs 200+ pounds:-

Leisure cycling, (not racing) for 30 minutes- 191 calories burnt
Walking at 2mph (normal walking) for 30 minutes- 126 calories
Housework for 30 minutes- 131 calories
Running, (gentle jog) for 10 minutes- 128 calories
Round of Golf, (walking and carrying clubs) 4 hours- 2,208 calories!!!
Walking up stairs for 5 minutes- 61 calories

Since most people weighing 200 pounds probably already burn up to 2,000 calories a day just doing a normal sedentary daily routine they only need to do an additional 1,500 calories worth of exercise a day to then lose a pound of body fat. This "exercise" need not be going to the gym, playing high impact sports, or even consciously trying to do something "sporty", as the list above shows. For instance, just doing 30 minutes of housework a day would be 10% of the way there. Of course though, this is based on the person in question eating the same diet as before and bear in mind this will be the diet which caused them to be 30% overweight in the first place! So by reducing the number of calories taken in by eating in the first place will reduce the amount of additional exercise required.

Most sensible advice out there implies that rapid weight loss is harmful, and give a rate of about 2 pounds reduction per week as "safe". This means that the 7,000 calories of extra exercise that needs to be done to lose this 2 pounds can be spread out across the week, in other words 1,000 calories per day or an equivalent reduction in calories taken in.

Obviously just not eating can also be unhealthy and sensible advice from actual health professionals generally points to 1,500 calories as a safe minimum amount for daily food intake. This means, for someone my size, that I need to do about 500 calories of extra exercise a day. Believe it or not this could be as simple as taking the stairs instead of the elevator, getting off the bus a stop early and other simple things. No need to go to the gym.

Since the 2,000 calories per day as a basic break even energy requirement is a very rough calculation the reality, (based on my research and limited experience) is that an average person like me will probably lose up to 2 pounds per week by reducing daily calorie intake to 1,500 and doing NO additional exercise at all. This doesn't involve any complex dieting or meal replacements or any other faddy approach, just an appreication of the amount of calories being eaten every day.