411 on Calories

How many calories should I consume each day to maintain my weight? What if I want to lose weight?
Simple answer? To maintain your weight, you should consume the same amount of calories that you burn. For each pound of weight you'd like to lose, you need to expend 3,500 calories beyond what you take in. So if you were to consume 500 calories fewer than you burn daily, for seven days straight, you'd lose one pound that week. Health professionals recommend aiming for one to two pounds of weight loss Remember to ALWAYS consult a doctor or health professional before starting a new diet or exercise plan!

How do I know how many calories I burn?
Excellent question! Click here for a snazzy tool that will help you determine your BMR, a.k.a. your basal metabolic rate -- that's how many calories you burn just being you, doing no activity whatsoever. To get an estimate in your activity level, click here! If you just want to figure out how many calories get burned during specific activities, plug your info into this calculator!

How do I find out how many calories are in my favorite foods?
(Picture of Moose and Me on his 2nd birthday with his homemade Peanut Butter Cake) Skip the guessing games and go to websites like CalorieKing.

Having trouble tracking what you eat? Try a food diary. This will helpyou identify problematic patterns, trigger foods, and all kinds of things that might be sabotaging your weight-loss/weight-management goals. There are pen-and-paper journals as well as online options (FitDay, SparkPeople, and MyPlate).

Look at restaurant menus and nutritional info BEFORE you go out!

Here's a rundown of about how many calories a 140-lb. person would burn in half an hour while doing fun warm-weather activities...

Bicycling (at a medium pace): 255 calories

Golfing (carrying your clubs!): 140 calories

Playing beach volleyball: 255 calories

Playing Frisbee (casually, not competitively): 95 calories

Playing tennis: 220 calories

Snorkeling: 160 calories

Swimming (leisurely, not laps): 190 calories

Compare these to only 32 calories burned in half an hour of watching summer reruns... Get outside and do stuff, people!