Watch Your Numbers...

Today's tip is a very short one: eat less, exercise more.

 

Why do I say that? In a study done by the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, researchers from Tufts University found that fast food and restaurant food actually averages 18% more calories than stated on the nutrition information guides. This is not a deception, per se: the U.S. Food and Drug Administration allows up to 20% excess calories in food. If your fast food meal is listed at 500 calories, for example, it is probably 600 calories. A hundred calories here and there may not seem like much, but for someone trying to watch their weight, it can add up to a ten-pound weight gain in a single year.

 

Conversely, when exercising, we seldom actually burn off the amount of calories that we think we are burning off. Even if we go by calorie-burn charts, there's no accounting for rest periods, changes in speed and intensity, and other factors that can affect the way we burn calories.

 

So just remember: if the package says you ate 500 calories, and the exercise table says you burned off 500 calories, the truth may be that you have eaten 600 calories and only burned off 350. Two weeks of that will add a pound and a half to your weight without you even realizing it!

 

Hence, eat less; exercise more.