What Is Caloric Expenditure?

When it comes to staying fit and healthy, knowing how to manage your calorie expenditure through exercise is useful. You can use caloric expenditure as a way to manage your weight.

• Running is a great way to burn calories

Identification

• A calorie is defined as a unit of energy given by food. Caloric expenditure simply means using or burning those energies derived from food by means of physical activity.

Significance

• Every food item that you consume contains calories. For example, a 3.5 oz of chicken has 200 calories and an apple of the same size has 44 calories. All food items, including fat-free or low fat products contain calories. The only way to burn excessive calories is to expend them by physical activities or exercising to avoid weight gain.

Factors

• The amount of your caloric expenditure depends on individual factors such as your weight, age, height, gender and the type and length of exercise you engage in.

Exercise

• Caloric expenditure varies depending on the exercise you are doing. A 150 pound person will burn 681 calories from an hour of running (six mph, 10 minutes/mile).
  In comparison, if the same person plays a game of basketball for the same amount of time, he will burn 544 calories.

Weight Control

• You can control your weight by learning how to calculate the calories you consume versus the calories you expend. To lose weight, your calorie expenditure needs to be higher than your calorie intake. To gain weight, your calorie intake should be higher than the calories you are burning. If both values are equal, your weight will stay the same.