How could i burn more calories than i eat ?

[Plop]

I burn 700 cals in the gym about 5 times a week (It bloody takes me 90 mins on the excersie bike, treadmill et to do that !)

I eat about 2300 cals a day.

I know your body burns calories all day long, but excatcly how fasy does it do this ?

It must do it pretty quick for me too make a loss in calories !

[Emma-Leigh]

Originally posted by Plop
I burn 700 cals in the gym about 5 times a week (It bloody takes me 90 mins on the excersie bike, treadmill et to do that !)

I eat about 2300 cals a day.

I know your body burns calories all day long, but excatcly how fasy does it do this ?

It must do it pretty quick for me too make a loss in calories !

Everything in your body requires energy (well, fat tissue is basically static, but just about everything else will)...

For example -
* Breathing - takes energy. Your intercostal muscles (the muscles between your ribs) and your diaphragm (the muscle that devides your intestines from your lungs and heart) have to move when you breath in.

* The beating of your heart - energy... every time your heart beats, your heart muscle goes through a wave-like contraction that required energy - just the same as why you require energy to lift weights.

* Bone remodelling - Also requires energy. Bone, despite popular belief, is constantly remodelled like the proteins in your muscles.

* The making of blood cells - Red blood cells (needed to carry oxygen around your body) and white blood cells (needed to fight off infections) are formed constantly in your bones. This requires energy.

* The making of hormones - energy.... Things like thyroid hormone, vitamin D, growth hormone, the sex hormones, the stress hormones (glucocorticoids, cortisol), mineralocorticoids (these are the hormones that control your blood pressure), the fight/flight hormones (adrenaline/epinephrene and nor-adrenaline/nor-epinephrine), parathyroid hormone (important for blood calcium), insulin, glycagon and many other hormones, all vital to your health, all require energy to be formed.

* The movement of your intestines and the digestion of your food requires energy. The enzymes that are needed to digest your food need energy to be made. Your intestines are nearly constantly moving and this requires energy. It requires energy to chew your food. Your food also needs to be 'heated' to body temperature in your intestines, which also requires energy. Once digested, it needs to be absorbed and utilised. So - it has to be taken up by cells and processed. This also takes energy.

* The making of enzymes and other substrates in your liver and other tissues requires energy. Things like proteins that are important for carrying hormones and other things around in your blood, or for messenger proteins are all needed for your body to function.

* Tissue repair and production - this requires energy. Your body is in a constant state of turn over, making cells, killing cells, making collagen, hair, nails etc. The damage you do while moving and in your every day life and the protein turn over that occurs in your muscles and other tissues all requires energy.

* Making urine - Energy.

* Filtering blood in the liver - Energy.

* Standing - requires energy. Think about it - your muscles need to contract to hold you in a stable position. The extrapyramidal muscles (these are muscles that hold you upright and are mostly found running down your spine and across your back and shoulders) fire constantly - and require energy to do so.

* Moving - requires energy.

* Talking - more energy.

* The sending of nerve impulses - energy.

* Thoughts/brain processes - A WHOLE HEAP-O-Energy. Your brain is CONSTANTLY active. It requires more energy than anything else in your body - everything in your body is controlled or regulated by the impulses constantly flying around in your brain!!

There is lots more!

The exercise you do is only a 'drop in the ocean' compaired to what your body needs. Also - Things like illness, exercise, injury or anything else that impacts on your body, all increase these energy needs further as the body has to fight off infection or repair even more damaged tissue.

So - make sure you are eating enough to cover your bodies basic needs, as well as the needs you are adding through all that exercise. If you don't, and you cut your intake too much below maintainence or you drop it below the basal needs of your body, the only thing you will achieve is a slowed metabolism and sub-optimal health.

[skippyold]

excellent post Emma
very well put

[as0l0]

best way is to eat less than you burn.

[Zerto]

Originally posted by as0l0
best way is to eat less than you burn.

really?