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Show Doctor in the Kitchen" by Laurence M. Hursh, M.D. Consultant, National Dairy Council EXERCISE AND WEIGHT CONTROL Today I'd like to clear up two misunderstandings about exercise and weight control. Some people feel a great deal of time and effort ef-fort is necessary to "use up enough calories" to take off pounds or keep your weight from increasing. The other misbelief is that exercise ex-ercise will increase your appetite enough to increase, not decrease, your weight. Neither of these assumptions is true. For example, it's been estimated esti-mated that a women would need to eat only 96 calories a day more than she needs for energy to gain 50 pounds from the time of her third child five years later. But if she had added only 25 minutes of brisk walking to her daily activities, ac-tivities, she would not have gained gain-ed weight. Adult Man An average adult man will burn up from 2,400 to 4,500 calories cal-ories per day depending upon how much he exercises. When I was with the army we knew that soldiers in the field could use up 6,000 calories a day. Laborers and athletes are in this class, too. So it all depends on how active you are whether you will gain weight because of what you eat. Or, to put it another way, you can enjoy more food if you will just get up and get active instead of sitting around. You can lose ten pounds in the next year if you will just add to your present activity a one mile walk each day, providing, of course, you keep your food intake and other physical activity the same. As for exercise increasing your appetite a lean person in good condition may eat more after activity ac-tivity but the exercise probably will burn up the extra calories he consumes. But the obese person, per-son, the really fat person, will probably not increase his appetite appe-tite unless he really exercises to excess. Such people can definitely lose weight by increasing exercise. exer-cise. A half hour of jogging uses up 450 calories. Here are some typical calorie expenditures for a 150 pound person in various activities: ac-tivities: CALORIES ACTIVITY PER HOUR Driving an auto 120 Domestic work 180 Gardening 220 Bicycling (5'2 mph) 210 Walking (2y2 mph) 210 Golf 250 Lawn mowing (power) 250 Lawn mowing (hand) 270 Bowling 270 Square dancing 350 Table tennis 360 Skiing (10 mph) 600 Running (10 mph) 900 |