With all our fitness tracking devices it’s getting a little easier to track what we are burning with exercise, but it is still very hard to get exact. An average size female may burn around 300 calories walking or closer to 500 calories on an elliptical. If they’re a beast on the Peloton maybe they can burn between 650-800 calories in the hour.

Now for the reward. Let’s keep the wine out of it hahaha. We’ll talk breakfast/brunch. That “healthy” muffin from the café is about 400-500 calories and that fancy caffeinated latte or Frappuccino is anywhere from 300-400 calories. No matter which one of the above workouts you did you just ate and drank more calories than you burned.

This is a huge reason many new clients complain about lack of results. Every time they come to BE they stop for a reward after!

There is some hope… weight training is different. Lifting weights for an hour burns approximately 400- 500 calories. It also makes your muscles insulin sensitive. This means eating carbohydrate after your workout is less likely to be stored as fat and more likely to be stored in the muscle as glycogen. So after a workout protein and carbohydrates can be to your benefit. Please be smart though and don’t use this as a free pass to consistently eat that pastry and fancy caffeinated beverage.

To Your Health,

Mark Radio