Burnin’ Up!

No matter where we live in the world we all share something in common. We all need food to survive. Our bodies require fuel and when we are active on a regular basis the amount of fuel we need increases. It goes without saying that our bodies run best when they are fueled up with natural, fresh and balanced nutrients.

The word Calorie is pretty much a unit of energy in terms of food. Everybody needs to take in different amounts of calories every day just to keep our bodies goin’. A few different things tell ya how many calories you need in a day. How much you weigh matters because you need to burn calories to keep living. Whether you can do 1 or 100 pushups matters too, it’s muscle mass. One pound of muscle may burn up to 50 calories per day compared to a pound of fat! Last but not least, the amount of activity you get is a factor because someone doing physical labor or hitting the gym will burn more calories than a person who works at a desk, or someone who doesn’t get a lot of physical activity.

I need anywhere between 2000-2100 calories a day to stay where I’m at. As I increase my physical activity level, that number may need to increase to support the new muscle I build and replace energy I burn.  Hard core athletes can burn 5000 calories in a day. Whoa! Think Michael Phelps’ crazy Olympic diet. There are different formulas and calculators that sports professionals and nutritionists use to calculate a person’s caloric requirements. You can check them out for yourself. I am not a nutritionist and as you know web info is not always accurate. So be smart and stay healthy with it!

I’m a firm believer that most things in the world are connected and you may find it interesting to know why I chose to write about what fuels our bodies. Today is World Food Day, which made me think I am so fortunate to have the resources available to eat healthy and get what my body needs to survive and thrive. There are many people in the world, in Canada and around the world who for many reasons are barely able to sustain themselves. It’s hard to comprehend how someone may be starving when I’m picking groceries off of full shelves. I also believe even the smallest contributions make a difference. I donate to the food bank when I have the opportunity or make small contributions to agencies when I can. I may not be able to change the circumstances of the world on my own. I can however, treat my body well by feeding it properly and helping out where I can.

My new/latest personal mission is to fuel my busy lifestyle with the best healthy food I can, as often as I can!

Do you eat healthy? Get enough calories? Do you Burn enough calories?

Keep it movin’

Kenji