How much Exercise to Burn Off that Big Mac & Fries?

Everything we eat consists of a certain amount of calories and each item of food contains different amounts. Depending on what type of food it is and how it is cooked decides how many calories each one contains.

Our bodies need a certain amount of calories a day, on average men need 2,500 and women 2,000. If you exercise a lot you may find you need to consume more then this, however if you consume too much then what the body needs, then these extra calories will be converted into fat and stored.

A lot of junk food 'restaurants' are now showing customers how many calories are in each of their foods, so customers can make an informed choice and hopefully start to think that these types of foods should be eaten sparingly instead of being a main part of the staple diet.

Here I present a selection of some of our nation's favourite foods, how many calories they contain and also more importantly how much time needed to exercise to burn such meals off.

Full English breakfast (698 calories) - you will need to walk the dog for 3 hrs 41 mins or swim for 2 hrs, 2 mins to convert these calories to energy.

Fancy that bacon sandwich? Or McDonald's egg Mcmuffin that will be 280 and 290 calories respectively and you will need to swim for the best part of an hour to burn it all off!

Fancy having a Gregg's steak bake for lunch? That's another 420 added to your daily calorie intake and you will have to do nearly 2 hours of gardening or 2 hrs, 13 mins, walking the dog.




A pepperoni pizza will be 970 calories, that's the best part of half the total daily amount of calories for a woman! You're need to do 5 hrs , 7 mins of walking that dog or nearly 3 hrs of swimming to avoid it adding to those hips.

Fancy a pint, than that will be 200 for a bitter and 158 for a shot of Jaegerbomb, have a few of those ....and you can do the math on how much exercise you will have to do to avoid storing these empty calories as fat....a hell of a lot!

Of course all that drinking will make you hungry again and you will need to get yourself a take-away. That KFC box will set you back a whopping 1080, that includes the diet coke and you will have to do just over 3 hrs of swimming or 5 hrs , 40 mins walking that dog again.

The classic Donner Kebab that will be 642 and will need 1 hr, 52 mins of swimming to burn off.

Oh and that Big Mac, that contains 492 calories and that's before you add the milkshake(490) and large fries (510), that's a gut busting 1,492 calories! To burn that lot off you'll need to walk for 6 hours or cover 9.5 miles!

These types of food are ok in moderation and can be part of a well balanced diet but as you can see if these foods are consumed too often then those calories will soon add up and get out of control and the only direction they will be heading for will be on you as fat! 

The Running Costs of Exercing

I was saddened to see on the news this week that Stoke Gifford Parish Council voted to charge the organisers of Park Run a fee to use their park.

This is a world first for a council to do this and may set worrying precedence for other strap cashed councils to use Park Run as a way of making some extra money.

The council voted last Tuesday, a majority of 6 to 4 to charge the fee.  They justified this by saying it was, "unfair to expect non running residents to pay for the path up keep."

They say they would be charging the organisers and not the runners.  But as we all know chances are  the cost would eventually be passed over to the consumer.

This decision has caused the weekly event, regularly attended by around 300 runners to close.

Park Run UK is run by volunteers who give up their time to help encourage others to run because they have a passion for the sport and want to see others take up the exercise, which has been found to have many health benefits.




Park Run holds weekly 5 km timed runs around the world in local parks, where it is free to join and run.

This decision goes against Park Run's ethos which is for the event to be free and open to everyone.

There's been strong criticism of the decision on the internet with the likes of Paula Radcliffe voicing her concerns and branding the council 'short sighted' and for the event remaining free for everyone, always.

I would have thought that the upkeep of the park's pathway would be covered in the council tax and so why should runners be paying twice for this? What's next dog walkers to be charged to walk their dogs or a fee to let children play in the play ground?

The counsellors who voted in favour of this are truly indeed short sighted as encouraging people to exercise regularly will reduced the risk of developing diabetes type 2, heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity, mental health problems, such as stress and anxiety and certain cancers.  These medical conditions cost the NHS millions of pounds each year and if more people exercised then there would be less people needing the services of the NHS and therefore money could be saved and used elsewhere.  But all these counsellors are concerned about is making money rather then encouraging people to get fitter.

Updated Government Nutritional Guide Lines

The Government has recently updated their nutritional guidelines to reflect the growing public concern of having too much saturated fats and sugars in our diet.

Gone is the 'Eatwell Plate' with the knife and fork either side as feedback from the public was that some believed what was on the plate was what they needed to consume at each meal, rather then using it as a guide for total daily food intake.

The 'Eatwell Plate' depicted the different food groups that made up a well balanced diet, such as fruit and vegetables, protein, carbohydrates, diary products and fats and sugars and the bigger the section the more foods we should consume from that food group.



It's now been changed to the 'Eatwell Guide' and the most striking change is that the section that housed total fats and sugars, including cakes and biscuits have been taken out, as this isn't considered an essential food source and is now segregated outside of the main food guide.   A tiny slice is now in its place, reserved only for cooking oils and spreads. 

Also gone is the inclusion of fruit juice in the fruit and vegetables section and now it's placed outside the sections and recommended that no more then 150ml should be consumed per day as the amount of sugar it contains would be too much.

Also what's new is other useful information such as total calorie in take for the average man and woman and the recommended amount of water one should consume per day.

For further information take a look at the link below.

https://publichealthmatters.blog.gov.uk/2016/03/17/what-is-a-healthy-balanced-diet/