EXERCISE: Measuring Calories vs Counting Minutes Exercising Each Week

 

We sweat, we grunt, we lift weights, we run. What exercise we choose to do each week depends on our preferences, what we like to do.

 

In the past it was said that you needed to expend 2,000 calories weekly in exercise for optimum health. This figure is said to have originated as part of a study by Harvard University decades ago. But now the current exercise guidelines from the federal governemnt emphasize time, not calories, and " recommend that that healthy adults engage in 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity exercise, such as brisk walking or cycling,"  the New York Times tells us in an article published on May 27, 2014. 

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How does that shake out for you as a student? According to an exercise researcher at the Mayo Clinic, Michael J. Joyner, " adhering to these guidelines means that most of us would burn 1,000 calories per week in planned exercise. But with the stairs we climb and chores we do we come closer to that 2,000 calorie a week number."

 

To meet the current exercise guidelines you can take five brisk 30-minute walks a week. But don't forget to walk " briskly". Get your heart pumping. Listen to music chosen by your friends on this site's Exercise Music page. 

-Ms. Hollyman