"Why Can't I Just Work It Off?"

"I'm going to the gym every day, but I'm not losing weight - what am I doing wrong?" I'm starting to hear this from a lot of different people, both inside and outside our weight loss group at church. The plain truth is, working out every day is not going to make you lose weight if there is no change in your dietary habits.

 

Here's an example: you're in a hurry, and for lunch you run by McDonald's and grab a large number one meal (you order a large to get the large drink). This Big Mac Extra Value meal is 1350 calories. In order to offset that calorie intake (forget about the 1410 milligrams of sodium for a minute), you would have to do this much of the following exercises:

 

    * You could do 3 hours of non-stop high-impact aerobics

 

    * You could play full-court basketball for 2 hours

 

    * You could go mountain biking for 2.5 hours

 

    * You could play full-contact football for 2 hours

 

    * You could jog for 3 hours

 

    * You could walk at a moderate pace for 7 hours

 

You get the idea. The average overweight person cannot physically do enough exercise in one day to offset the effects of a high-calorie diet. The average American eats around 4,000 calories per day. In order to lose one pound per week without changing your eating habits, you would have to burn off 4500 calories per day. That translates to 10 hours of aerobics, 6 hours of basketball, 7.5 hours of mountain biking, 6 hours of full-contact football, 9 hours of jogging, or 21 hours of walking.

 

Let me know how that walking thing works out for ya!