You've seen those charts on compound
interest. Was it Benjamin Franklin who called compound interest the
eighth wonder of the world? I'm not sure. Some credit Einstein or
others with the quote. Whoever crafted the phrase certainly had a
valid point. Even a small amount of money at a fairly low interest
rate, if left untouched for a long period of time, will grow into a
substantial sum.
Have you ever thought of exercise
calorie expenditure in the same way? Can small amounts of burned
calories lead to significant weight loss? Let's explore some of the
possibilities. To simplify the calculations, we will round all
numbers and not get too technical in the evaluations.
So let's set 100 calories as the
calorie expenditure for running 1 mile. That's probably a very
conservative estimate for a number of reasons. Factoring in weight,
speed, terrain and other variables would most likely increase that
number considerably. There's also the likelihood of elevated
metabolism following the exercise session contributing to even more
calorie burning. So we are very safe using 100 calories per mile as
our benchmark. Now, let's assume that you are currently a sedentary
or at least fairly inactive individual in terms of regular exercise.
Let's further assume that you start a running program, slowly and
gradually I would hope, and you arrive at a 3 to 4 day a week
schedule of 2 mile runs. Some weeks you run 4 days, other weeks only
3 days, but on average you run 7 miles a week. The math: 7 miles
times 100 calories equals 700 calories/week. Here's where we see the
beauty of compounding. Extend the weekly total for 1 year and you
have 700 calories times 52 weeks or 36,400 calories used. It looks
like a pretty big number, but what does it mean?
The approximate number of calories
needed to equal 1 pound is about 3500. Theoretically, eat 3500
calories and you will gain 1 pound; burn off 3500 and you will lose 1
pound. Here's the math, then, using your yearly total: 36,400
divided by 3500 equals over 10 pounds. Everything else being equal,
if you continue to eat as you currently are and devote about ½
hour to running 3 to 4 times a week, you can lose 10 pounds next
year. As far as I know, there is no record of Ben Franklin running
through the streets of Philadelphia. Maybe he had no need for weight
loss?
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