Monday, June 11, 2007

Weight Loss: How Many Pounds? How Many Calories?

I found a blog about what it would take to lose a pound of fat. It seems that is a popular way to gauge the enormity of what all of us are doing here.

This site calculates more information than you'd probably wanted to know about just what you have accomplished.

1 pounds is the average weight of 0.53 quarts of water.

To lose that amount of fat would mean to burn 3,500 calories! That is the equivalent of 0.13 gallons of gasoline.

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Below is 1 pound converted to other forms of fuel.

3,500 calories is equivalent to:

  • 0.13 gallons of gasoline, or
  • 1.33 pounds of coal, or
  • 1.73 pounds of oven-dried wood, or
  • 0.23 gallons of propane

This amount of energy would ...

  • Brew about 10 pots of coffee, or
  • Light a 60-watt light bulb for 68 hours ( 3 days = 0.03 years)

Cutting 3,500 calories is the same as saying "no" to:

  • 44 apples, or
  • 35 bananas, or
  • 206 cups of cabbage (whew!), or
  • 24 baked potatoes, or
  • 44 large eggs, or
  • 29 cups of 2% milk, or
  • 3 pounds of ground beef, or
  • 40 glasses of wine, or
  • 11 Snickers bars, or
  • 15 Clif Bars ( 19 Luna Bars), or
  • 25 cans of Coke, or
  • 21 pints of Guinness beer, or
  • 7 Big Macs, or
  • 7 Quarter Pounders with Cheese, or
  • 5 Whoppers, or
  • 11 Subway 6" Oven Roasted Chicken Breast sandwiches, or
  • 21 Taco Bell crunchy tacos, or
  • 15 slices of pepperoni pizza from Pizza Hut
  • What it Takes to Burn 3,500 Calories

To burn 3,500 calories, a 190 pound male would have to:

  • Backpack for 6 hours (0 days) nonstop, or
  • Walk for 13 hours (1 days) at 3 mph straight, or
  • Walk 40 miles (25 kilometers), or
  • Bike for 10 hours (0 days) at 10 mph, or
  • Bike 101 miles (63 kilometers), or
  • Play basketball nonstop for 6 hours 0 days), or
  • Play billiards for 16 hours (1 days), or
  • Go bowling for 14 hours (1 days), or
  • Stay on the golf course for 10 hours (0 days), or
  • Spend 5 hours (0 days) playing competitive football, or
  • Jump rope for 4 hours (0 days) straight!

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To date I've lost 150 pounds -

the average weight of a 20-year old male.

How Much Fuel Is That?
To lose that amount of fat would mean to burn 525,000 calories! That is the equivalent of 16.94 gallons of gasoline. Humans, however, are far more efficient than cars, getting about 912 "miles to the gallon". If you could dump this many calories into the tank of a Honda Civic, you would be able to drive it about 576 miles before running out of gas!

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150 lbs. converts to other forms of fuel or 525,000 calories is equivalent to:

  • 16.94 gallons of gasoline, or
  • 187.55 pounds of coal, or
  • 260.45 pounds of oven-dried wood, or
  • 22.94 gallons of propane



This amount of energy would ...

  • Brew about 1,464 pots of coffee, or
  • Light a 60-watt light bulb for 10,169 hours ( 424 days = 1.23 years)



Cutting 525,000 calories is the same as saying "no" to:

  • 6,563 apples, or
  • 5,250 bananas, or
  • 30,882 cups of cabbage (whew!), or
  • 3,621 baked potatoes, or
  • 6,563 large eggs, or
  • 4,375 cups of 2% milk, or
  • 378 pounds of ground beef, or
  • 6,034 glasses of wine, or
  • 1,625 Snickers bars, or
  • 2,188 Clif Bars ( 2,917 Luna Bars), or
  • 3,777 cans of Coke, or
  • 3,088 pints of Guinness beer, or
  • 1,067 Big Macs, or
  • 1,019 Quarter Pounders with Cheese, or
  • 750 Whoppers, or
  • 1,591 Subway 6" Oven Roasted Chicken Breast sandwiches, or
  • 3,088 Taco Bell crunchy tacos, or
  • 2,234 slices of pepperoni pizza from Pizza Hut

What it Takes to Burn 525,000 Calories

To burn 525,000 calories, a 190 pound male would have to:

  • Backpack for 869 hours (36 days) nonstop, or
  • Walk for 2,011 hours (84 days) at 3 mph straight, or
  • Walk 6,034 miles (3,772 kilometers), or
  • Bike for 1,522 hours (63 days) at 10 mph, or
  • Bike 15,217 miles (9,511 kilometers), or
  • Play basketball nonstop for 837 hours 35 days), or
  • Play billiards for 2,431 hours (101 days), or
  • Go bowling for 2,027 hours (84 days), or
  • Stay on the golf course for 1,522 hours (63 days), or
  • Spend 677 hours (28 days) playing competitive football, or
  • Jump rope for 639 hours (27 days) straight!

You would have to walk the length of England about 10.14 times to burn 525,000 calories.

How Long it Will Take?

The range for safe weight loss is about 1 to 3 pounds of fat per week. It could take anywhere between 50 to 150 weeks (12 to 35 months) to safely and reasonably lose that amount of weight.

A great place to start your journey would be with our series called "
10 Fat Mistakes" It shares the ten most common mistakes people make and how to overcome them.

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