Cheeseburgers & weight loss - Burning off calories you just ate

Would you order lower calorie food if the menu told you how many minutes of walking you'd need for burning off calories you just ate?

It's a safe bet that if you're using MyNetDiary, you're counting calories. But what if there was a different way to think about the energy value of food. What if you looked at it as burning off calories you just ate instead? A clever study suggests that minutes of exercise may be more informative.

Here's how this study went:

• The subjects, men and women aged 18-30, were divided into 3 groups.


• Each group was given a menu and told to order food. The food on all the menus was the same and included burgers, fries, salads, desserts, chicken sandwiches and beverages.


• One group got a standard menu. Another group got a menu with calorie counts posted next to the items. The third group got a menu with an unusual measure: minutes of brisk walking to burn off the food (MBWTBOF).

In fact, minutes of walking is really just another way to say "calories", since exercise is fueled by calories. But now those calories are put in a real world context. And apparently it got the attention of the research subjects. People ordering from the regular and calorie count menus chose roughly the same amounts of food and calories. The people with the MBWTBOF menus ordered lower calorie meals.

Brisk walking is in the 3+ mph range. The faster you walk, the more calories the activity will burn per minute.

Number of minutes to burn off calories in popular food items

Food	Walking(3 mph)	Jogging (10 min mile)	Bike ride Moderate effort
McDonald's Double Quarter Pounder with cheese	180 min	64 min	90 min
Starbuck's Grande Mocha Latte	80 min	30 min	40 min
8 oz bag potato chips	295 min	105 min	150 min
14" Pepperoni Pizza - 2 slices	155 min	55 min	80 min
1 cup (1/2 pint) Ben & Jerry's chocolate ice cream	120 min	43 min	61 min
1 cup raw broccoli	4 min	1 min	2 min

Are you more inspired to avoid eating that handy 8 oz bag of potato chips because it will take you 5 hours to burn off or because the label says 1230 calories? Actually, the label probably does not say 1230 calories. It will say "one serving (1 oz): 154 calories". But will you just eat 1/8th of that bag?

Best exercise to burn calories and lose weight

1. Bicycle riding, very fast (15 mph or faster)


2. Rowing machine, very vigorous effort (200 watts)


3. Running 8 minute miles or faster


4. Running up stairs


5. Jumping rope (100+ skips per minute)


6. Kayaking, rowing or canoeing with vigorous effort (competitive)


7. Swimming - training or competitive


8. Ice skating competitively


9. Cross country skiing


10. Snowshoeing

But you don't have to take on any of these demanding activities. A brisk walk is just fine for health, fitness and burning off calories you just ate.

Originally published on Apr 30 2013,
Updated: Jan 10 2020

Dining Out->Portion Size & Calories Exercise->Aerobic & Cardio