The weight of worry, the worry of weight!

I know that October is the start of the bad-season, weight-wise. So here's something I found about calculating calorie expenditure. Damn science- always out to burst a bubble of blissful ignorance. Apparently, we always overestimate the number of calories we burn. Who knew!!

Most machines at the gym read out the gross caloric expenditure. But that is not what the exercise causes you to spend. We have to subtract out the BMR for that time period, since you have already counted that (esp if you are following a calorie-accounted-diet) . Here is what you do, you subtract the energy you would have spend had you never left your sofa. Opportunity cost J

source: http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-242-304-311-8402-0,00.html

You can use the formulas below to determine your calorie-burn while running and walking. The "Net Calorie Burn" measures calories burned, minus basal metabolism. Scientists consider this the best way to evaluate the actual calorie-burn of any exercise. The walking formulas apply to speeds of 3 to 4 mph. At 5 mph and faster, walking burns more calories than running.

	Your Total Calorie Burn/Mile	Your Net Calorie Burn/Mile
Running	.75 x your weight (in lbs.)	.63 x your weight
Walking	.53 x your weight	.30 x your weight

That means, if I ran a mile at 5 mph, I would burn a net of just 70 cal (at my ideal weight 110 lbs) and if I walked a mile that number would be a mere 33. To burn an extra 500 calories per day I would have to either run a whooping 7 miles , or trudge 15.5 miles (WHHHHATT!!!).

That’s so not happening.

Today is the day of revelation, as it appears. Of course, here is another article telling you how we always, always underestimate what we eat.

http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-242-304--11628-2-2-2,00.html

Spiffing! So we overestimate our exercise and underestimate our eating. Someone tell me water makes you fat and I won’t bat an eyelid.