Calorie Conscious

Some friends introduced me to a program online called myfitnesspal.com. If you are interested in counting your calories, this site is so incredibly helpful! They help set you up with a goal of how many calories you should consume per day. Then you log the food you eat and the water you drink throughout the day, and the site calculates how many total calories you have consumed that day and how many calories you have yet to eat. You can also log any cardio or strength training you do. My daily goal is around 1500 calories. My eyes have been opened to how much food I was eating before. I have to consume much less in order to reach my calorie goal. I also have to choose much healthier alternatives to the foods I had been eating before.

In addition to being more calorie conscious. I have done some research about losing weight and calories. Everything says to effectively lose weight, you must burn more calories than you consume each day. At first I thought, how am I supposed to burn 2,000 calories at the gym?! Thats a loooong time on the treadmill. Then I remembered that you lose calories doing everyday things. I was curious how many calories I lose just doing my normal daily routines. I found this website: www.healthstatus.com. On this site, you can log how many minutes you do each of the listed activities a day. Then they give you a breakdown of how many calories you burn doing those activities. I found out I burned a little over 2,000 calories on a daily basis just doing the things I normally do. This is great because when I go workout at the gym, I am going above and beyond bringing me closer to my weight goal.

Activity	Calories burned
Brush teeth	7
Reading	31
Writing	46
Walking - up stairs	59
Housework	64
Talking on phone	93
Hairstyling	96
Walking 2 mph	243
Driving	371
Standing	521
Sleeping	567
Total Calories Burned	2,098