Balance your calories in with your calories out

In order to maintain a healthy weight and lifestyle it is important to balance your “calories in” with your “calories out”. What you eat and drink is calories going into your body and those you burn during physical activity are the calories out.

Portion sizes in the last twenty years have increased not only at restaurants, but also in the home. People are eating bigger portions and are not exercising to compensate for the extra calories. Everyday activities such as sleeping, reading, sitting and breathing all burn calories, but for most people these activities are not enough to balance the scale. Including 30-60 minutes of physical activity a day can help burn off the extra calories.

Eating just 150 calories more a day than you burn can lead to a gain of 10 pounds a year. If you were to avoid drinking one extra soda a day you could save 150 calories. Also, if you walk briskly for 30 minutes you could burn 200 calories.

By eating smaller portions sizes and increasing your daily physical activity you can start living a healthier lifestyle. Visit www.mypyramid.gov to learn more.

To calculate the number of calories burned during an activity click on this link: http://www.wellsource.org/mhc_home/hcfit/activity_calc.htm

To learn more about portion sizes click on this link: http://hp2010.nhlbihin.net/portion/

To print a copy of a calorie chart for various activities click here.

Calories chart