A QUESTION on calories in last month’s News & Views Nicol’s Killer Quiz had every single entrant stumped. We admit it was a bit of a trick question, but it made us think, that although so many people try to diet now and again, for most folk calorie-counting is still more haphazard than scientific.
The question was: What uses the most calories? A. Cycling for half an hour; B. Swimming for an hour; C. Sitting about all day doing nothing.
The correct answer, surprisingly enough, is “C. Sitting about all day doing nothing.” That is because whereas cycling for half an hour would burn 240 calories and swimming for an hour 300, the average person’s body in 24 hours uses between 1300 and 1600 calories just to keep going the diaphragm muscle that lets you breathe, the heart muscles that pump blood round your body, and the complex chemical processes that maintain the whole wonderful engine that is the human body.
In fact a 10-stone woman on average needs around 2300 calories a day and an 11 and a half stone man 3000 - even the most dedicated couch potato has to get up now and again even if only to renew their supply of crisps and coke!
When it comes to the number of calories burned up in, say, 20 minutes of activity, the figures might surprise you. At the lowest end comes driving, 35 cals; golf 45; cleaning 50 (surely this means light dusting or dishes and not floor scrubbing).
Next comes a leisurely walk at 80 cals; running 90; swimming and skipping, both 100.
Dancing and tennis both come in at 120 cals, with skiing at 130, while weights and aerobics both clock up 140 in the 20 minutes.
Somewhat surprisingly gardening and cycling both burn up similar amounts of energy at 160 cals. Next comes rowing at 200 cals and finally circuit training at 260.
People have written endless books about the calorific values of food, so we’ll not go into it here. Enough to say that if you were to replace a snack consisting of a can of coke (135 cals) plus a bag of crisps (200) and an average chocolate bar (250) with diet coke (0) an apple (70) and an orange (50), you would save a whopping 465 cals. Ok, so an orange doesn’t have the same comfort value as a bar of chocolate - but you get the point!
At the end of the day, though, dwelling on calories is not healthy - we eventually get bored, and if we muck about with our metabolism too much it will refuse to behave.
No, the sure fire way to stay healthy is a combination of good exercise along with your healthy eating and drinking. Thirty minutes of moderate exercise five days a week is recommended by the experts. The good news about alcohol is that a moderate amount - according to all the health experts - does you good. The bad news is that its calorific content is fairly high as all those men who have acquired beer bellies can testify. Lager and beer deliver 200 calories a pint - cider is worse. A large glass of wine comes in about 150 or 160, so think twice before you decide to just be tidy and finish off the bottle! A measure of spirits - whisky, gin or vodka - is only some 50 cals - the problem here is the fizzy mixers which add on another 50.
And of course the top priority to safeguard your health is to Stop Smoking. In Scotland a horrendous total of 13,000 people die of smoking-related diseases every single year.