Due to a malpractice of customs that is quite difficult to explain to an extraterrestrial, multitudes began to associate Easter with the unrestrained consumption of chocolate.
But as this very strange indulgence is necessarily opposed to maintaining body weight – which is, for many, the main sacrifice experienced in life –, calorie compensation tables based on physical activity have emerged.
It is agreed that each kilometer of running “burns” 60 to 65 calories, considering the average weight of people on lift boards: 70 kg.
It turns out that physical activity alone may be insufficient, as scientific popularizer and doctor in microbiology Atila Iamarino, one of the people who best knows how to translate science and its complexity for the lay public, has already explained. “Light aerobic exercise alone is not a tool for losing weight,” he says.
“Saving on energy expenditure”, he explains, has always been a “biological imperative”, and, therefore, “even with intense effort, our body is capable of containing energy expenditure”.
It is much more effective to stop eating or, if this is impossible, do as the Tarahumara and the Japanese do: eat less. In the video explaining why physical exercise alone doesn’t make a summer, Atila makes some comparisons.
– 100 g of cheese bread is compensated for half an hour of running on a treadmill;
– a small package with three Ferrero Rocher chocolates, with 75 calories each, requires “almost an hour of walking”;
– a typical Brazilian PF, of 1,300 calories, on average, is “neutralized” with a five-hour walk or a two-hour run on the treadmill. Or, if you’re Kenyan, a very intense run at pace 3. Translation: you need to run something like 18 km in an hour.
– the typical PF mentioned above plus two Ferrero Rocher chocolates just out of anger, 5h30 of walking.
That said, and since this is the master week of indulgence, know that a 350-gram Easter egg contains something like 1,500 calories.
It may seem like this columnist is throwing in the towel, but it’s not about belittling physical activity, on the contrary. Without thinking about all the other benefits, limited only to the issue of weight, Atila explains, in the same video, that the combination of diet and exercise enhances the loss of body weight or its maintenance.
And he also explains that doing strength or intensity exercises, which help in the production of muscle mass, is an excellent strategy, since, when we gain more muscle mass, we necessarily start to expend more energy, even at rest.
Until the end of this week, it is possible to sign up for Health in Movement Week classes, which Cepeusp, the great green and sporting oasis of São Paulo, on USP’s Butantã campus, is promoting from April 6th to 11th. All activities are free, and you can choose between yoga, pilates, karate, capoeira, running, rowing, functional training and other modalities that are regularly taught there throughout the year.
You need to register on the problematic site, but don’t let yourself be discouraged. Even if it’s a hassle, it’s worth showing up there. Send me a hello if you go.
LINK PRESENT: Did you like this text? Subscribers can access seven free accesses from any link per day. Just click the blue F below.
