Burning (Calories) Man

While I was jogging yesterday (during the first good mile) I had this thought. Is there a calculation out there or a program that exists that could tell me how many minutes of a specific workout I would have to perform to burn off the amount of calories I'm about to ingest? In other words, I'm about to pop into my mouth an amazing truffle that is 50 calories...how long will I need to run and at what pace?

The answer I've come up with after hours of exhaustive searching on this convoluted thing called the world wide web is no, not really. If you want to figure this out there are a few different things to take into consideration. How many calories will you burn doing a specific exercise for your specific weight during a minute or an hour. Thankfully I came across multiple, very easy to use sites that have a calculator that does just that. So far the one I like best is here. After you've determined this, then you'd have to find an example. Let's say that truffle I was talking about...50 calories, not bad for a truffle...how long will I need to do the exercise of my choice in order to burn the caloric content of my chocolate treat? There must be something out there that can do this in one easy to use calculation...right? Nope, I had to take matters into my own hand.

I created a simple (very simple) spreadsheet that I have to enter numbers into but shows me very clearly the work I have to do to shed the calories I'm about to eat. It could be useful for making up my mind, maybe it'll get me to think: "do I really want to eat this" or "I have to run how far to burn that?" or on certain days I could use this as an excuse "If I run for 7 miles, tonight I can eat that whole Ben & Jerry's pint all by myself". Thank God those days are over;)

I'm still trying to figure out how to post my spreadsheet but here's a screen shot of what I made for myself to help me "weigh" the pros and cons. Yes, a horrible pun that unfortunately was intended:) Also, if you would like me to tweak the spreadsheet and make one for you I'd be happy to...just let me know your current weight and your exercise of choice! I'll input the numbers and send you your own cool, calorie calculator!