• pregnancy & baby
• parenting
• horoscopes
• health
• beauty
• food & drink
• diet & fitness
• more ivillage
  • • Travel
    • Entertainment
    • Home & Garden
    • Relationships
    • Work & Money
    • Shopping
  • • Competitions
    • Dating
    • Quizzes
    • Newsletters
    • Kalimocho.co.uk
    • Wii Fit Plus
  • 

Walking: step trade offs

If you really can't resist the odd snack, then Step Trade Offs are the answer. Step Trade Offs are intended to give you a guide to the number of steps you will need to take in order to burn off those calories. Please bear in mind that this is a guideline only, as portion sizes, calorie content and walking speed are all variable

From The Step Counter Diet® by Joanna Hall (Copyright © 2004 Thorsons Publishing). All rights reserved. Reproduced here by permission of the publisher.

The idea is simple: applying the Trade Off means you don't have to deprive yourself of your favourite foods. If you fancy a packet of crisps, go ahead and have them. All you have to do is accumulate the additional steps to the equivalent calorie value. Remember: counting steps to keep your energy gap in the right direction is a tool and not an obsession.

Here's what a trade off looks like:

1 McDonald's Cheeseburger
or
3 oranges
= 3-mile brisk walk or 6,000 steps on your pedometer

You can see that steps can be used to directly cancel out a snack. Any little bit of additional physical activity goes towards justifying that snack and keeping you in energy balance.

So follow the step trade off chart below to see how you can still enjoy some of the snacks you may be tempted to splurge on. I have also provided figures for some popular junk foods - you may be surprised at the number of steps you will need to burn off that snack indulgence.

Remember this is not about saying you can never have snacks or enjoy your food. But this simple trade off can quickly and easily put things in perspective as well as encourage you to increase your overall physical activity levels.

READ MORE:  1 |  2 | next printer friendly send to a friend