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Burning Calories

Whether you are trying to lose weight or maintain your current healthy weight, burning calories is the key. While there are clear reasons for the need to ignite your internal furnace, there are also a few tricks to help keep your body running at high speed. Weight is determined mostly by the balance of calories - how many you burn vs. how many you eat each day. To lose weight, you need to increase your activity to burn more and/or eat fewer calories each day.

Calories and Weight

A pound of fat equals 3500 calories. To lose 1 pound a week you will need to expend 3500 more calories than you eat that week, whether through increased activity or decreased eating or both. Losing 1-2 pounds of fat a week is a sensible goal, and so you will want to use the combination of increased activity and eating less that will total 3500 calories for 7 days.

How You Burn Calories

Your weight x distance = energy used walking. Time does not matter as much as distance. If you speed up to walking a mile in 13 minutes or less, you will be burning more calories per mile. But for most beginning walkers, it is best to increase the distance before working on speed. A simple rule of thumb is 100 calories per mile for a 180 pound person.

Note About the Calories Chart
You burn more calories per mile at very low speeds because you are basically stopping and starting with each step and your momentum isn't helping to carry you along. Mean while, at very high walking speeds you are using more muscle groups with arm motion and with a racewalking stride. Those extra muscles burn up extra calories with each step. Running may burn more calories per mile as there is an up and down motion lifting your weight off the ground as well as moving it forward.

Speed/Pounds	100 lb	120 lb	140 lb	160 lb	180 lb	200 lb	220 lb	250 lb	275 lb	300 lb
2.0mph	57	68	80	91	102	114	125	142	156	170
2.5mph	55	65	76	87	98	109	120	136	150	164
3.0mph	53	64	74	85	95	106	117	133	146	159
3.5mph	52	62	73	83	94	104	114	130	143	156
4.0mph	57	68	80	91	102	114	125	142	156	170
4.5mph	64	76	89	102	115	127	140	159	175	191
5.0mph	73	87	102	116	131	145	160	182	200	218

Basal Metabolic Rate

Your basal metabolic rate (BMR) is the amount of calories your body needs within a 24-hour period to sustain itself. Bodily functions include everything from your respiratory and circulatory systems, to your kidney and liver functions. Your BMR is strictly composed of the number of calories needed for these types of involuntary systems and not the energy needed for physical activity.

There are a number of individual factors that determine BMR. Age, gender, height, weight, and body composition all play a role in BMR. While most of these elements are unchangeable, alterations to body composition is possible and can lead to a more efficient BMR.

A simple formula to determine your BMR is as follows:

½ calorie per 1 lb. of body weight per hour example: 120 lb. person = ½ x 120 x 24 hours = 1440 calories per day

Since this formula does not take into account age and height, the following formula was devised. It is known as the Harris-Benedict formula and is used by expert nutritionists around the globe.

Males: 66 + (13.7 x kg weight) + (5 x cm. height) – (6.8 x age in years) Females: 65 + (9.6 x kg weight) +(1.7 x cm. height) – (4.7 x age in years)

The Importance of BMR

The number of calories a person burns on a daily basis is especially beneficial as we age. Naturally, BMR will lower its speed as we age due to the decreased need for energy. For example, bone is no longer depositing calcium after age 35 or so, all major organs are fully developed, and our body is running as efficiently as it will ever work. Therefore, when we speak of burning calories, it is critical for weight management purposes to have our body burn as many as possible throughout a person’s life in order to avoid weight gain.

Maximizing the Burn

Burning calories via BMR is a somewhat given expenditure. However, there are ways you can maximize your BMR in a general sense, and maximize your caloric usage with physical activity that adds to your BMR usage. The keys to optimal calorie burn include:

1. Strength training activities: Muscle tissue requires more energy, otherwise known as calories, than any other tissue in your body. Even at rest, muscle tissue leads a very active lifestyle. For this reason, the more muscle tissues you have in your body, the more calories you will burn. Free weights, universal weight machines, yoga, and resistance exercises, such as bands, done on a consistent basis will increase muscle mass.
2. Aerobic activities: Running, swimming, walking, and biking are great ways to burn calories. While these types of activities do not directly serve to increase muscle mass, they are extremely beneficial for using up calories that otherwise may be stored as fat. Consistent participation in an aerobic activity of choice is key to burning a consistent number of calories to avoid weight gain.
3. Eat often: The idea of eating several times throughout the day is not new. By consuming an amount of calories that matches your body’s need for the next couple of hours, you are nourishing and providing energy in a sensible manner. When too many calories are consumed at once, the excess ends up being stored as fat. It is better to burn calories as they are being eaten than to pull them from storage, which happens only when extreme hunger is experienced. Importantly, when your body is being deprived of the nutrition it needs, metabolic rate is known to lower itself in an effort to sustain its primary functions of the brain, heart, and other life-sustaining mechanics.
4. Eat sufficiently: Depriving your engines of food decreases BMR because it thinks there is an earthly famine lurking and thus conserves energy for ever-so-important factors like brain function. When a lower BMR has been set, and normal eating patterns return, weight gain occurs due to the body now requiring fewer calories secondary to lower BMR. Tip: When reducing calories, be sure to exercise to offset BMR response.
5. Stay hydrated: When your body fluids are adequately maintained, every cell in your body will operate at its optimal speed. Proper hydration has been shown to increase BMR by up to 30% within 10 minutes and remains elevated for up to 40 minutes. While this may not sound like much, it plays a tremendous role in extinguishing those extra 60 “cookie” calories.

Burn, Baby, Burn

Indeed, your internal inferno is a mandatory piece of your weight management puzzle. However, by using your BMR to its fullest potential and adding an excess calorie needs requirement through physical activity, your body will be smiling.

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