A Guide to Calorie Counting When Exercising

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Calories

According to the American Diabetes Association, a calorie is a unit representing the energy provided by food. Everything that you consume, such as carbohydrate, fat, protein, and alcohol has calories. This means that the calories you consume add up quickly. Burning excessive calories by exercising is the best way to avoid weight gain.

Function

When counting calorie expenditure during exercise, remember that the amount of calories burned varies from person to person. Factors such as age, weight, height and gender, as well as the type and duration of exercise, affect the actual amount of calories burned during physical activity.

Exercise

You may want to focus on certain physical activities to gain the most results when counting calorie expenditure. Many sports and exercises, such as running, playing basketball and soccer burn more calories than other activities. For example, over a 10-minute exercise period, a person who weighs 150 pounds will burn 131 calories by running, 90 calories by playing basketball and 92 by playing soccer.

Intensity

When counting calories by exercising, keep your intensity at a moderate level. The most effective way to burn the most calories is to increase the length of your workout, not the intensity. Just adding 30 minutes to your workout routine makes a difference, as it increases your calorie expenditure.

Time Frame

Aim to exercise 20 to 45 minutes per day. A pound of body fat is equal to 3,500 calories. Running at a rate of 10 minutes per mile burns 681.76 calories an hour. This means that for a 150-pound person to burn a pound of fat, he will have to run for 5 hours. This indicates that by exercising regularly, you can reach your target calorie expenditure to manage your weight.