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Q&A Do Menus with Walking Times to Burn Calories Lead to Healthier Choices

Most people don’t really understand calories as they can’t really relate calories consumed with the maximum number of calories they should be consuming each day.

While many fast food outlets and restaurants now display calories next to various menu items, various studies have shown that this does not really help most people.

Only the dedicated calorie counters, who are dieting, know how to use the information.

The recommended average daily calorie intake for women is 1950 calories, men 2550 calories, teenage boys 2300 calories, teenage girls 2000 calories and children 1000 to 2000 calories per day.

Compare that with the calories in various meals and it is easy to see why most people overindulge in calories: McDonald’s Big Mac with fries and shake has a whopping 1,680 calories; Burger King Whopper with cheese, fries and shake has 1,844 calories.

A better way is needed for people to understand the consequences of overeating.

The best way of doing this is to list the calories, but also show how many hours of walking will be need to burn off the calories consumed in each meal and item.

This article reviews the research on this and provides a comprehensive list of foods and their burn-off cost for walking, running, cycling, swimming and gym workouts.

Preliminary studies in America have shown that when diners were given extra information about how many hours of walking would be required to burn off the calories in each food item, they choose lower calorie options. Being able to instantly see that it takes two hours of brisk walking to burn off the 660 calories in a bacon cheeseburger is much more explicit than just listing the number of calories. The cost of over eating is much more apparent. It would be better to present the information in terms of the percentage of daily recommended calorie consumption- about 30%, but people typically say to themselves that they “won’t eat much for dinner”.

For the study, some 300 volunteers, 18 - 30 years of age were randomly into three groups who were provided with different information on the menus:

• no calorie information,
• calories displayed for each item
• calories and the hours of exercise required to burn off that number of calories by walking briskly at 3 mph

The menus for all three groups had the same food and drink options, which included a range of burgers, salad, sandwiches, chips (fries), various soft drinks and water.

The results of the study showed that the third group, that had the menu with the walking time information, ate an average of 100 calories less than the other two groups.

If this reduction was applied to the three daily meals the average daily reduction would be about 300 calories.

Consuming an extra 500 calories a day typically results in a weight gain of about one pound (500 g) per week. So this would be a significant reduction.

This is equivalent to most people consuming one less meal every day.

The average daily calorie intake in the US increased by 30% in last 30 years reaching 2,700 calories a day for men and 1800 calories per day for women.

Much more is required to tackle the high obesity rate than helping people make better choices.

Restaurants and fast food outlets should be encouraged to make meals healthier by serving smaller portion sizes and meals that are more balanced in terms of fruit and vegetables. They should also be encouraged to reduce the amount of saturated fat, salt and sugar, as well as calories in their dishes. Menus should always include low calorie and vegetarian alternatives.

The same principles applies to home cooked meals. The meals presented on popular TV shows are seldom healthy and the calorie content and portion sizes of many home cooked meals are too high.

Calorie Burn Rates for Various Types of Exercise

The table below summarizes the calorie burn rate for a wide range of activities. This information can be very discouraging for people trying to lose weight through exercise.

To lose 1 lb of weight requires burning 3,500 calories; for 1 kg that is 7,000 calories. This is equivalent to the following time to lose 1 lb of weight (double the times for 1 kg):

• 8 to 16 hours of moderate intensity strength training
• 6 to 12 hours lifting weights
• 5 to 7 hours of stationary bike work
• 15 hours of walking at 3 mph
• 5 hours of running at 5 mph

For dieting, reducing calorie intake by 100 calories per day will require a month to lose weight and 10 days at a rate of 350 calories a day (equivalent to missing one meal a day. Cycling has a surprisingly low calorie burn rate. Similarly the burn rate for walking rises very markedly as you increase the pace.

Calories Burnt per Hour with Typical Activities (75 kg 150 lb body weight)

Exercise Burn Rates for Various Foods and meals

The two tables below summarize the time required to burn the calories in various foods and meals via a range of activities: walking, running, cycling, swimming and gym workouts. The food and meal include home cooled meals and a range of fast food meals. The first table shows the top 30 best and worse meals in terms of calories and amount of exercise required. Even small snack food and salads require 30 minutes of exercise. Some of the large high calorie and high fat meals require more than 4 house of walking at a moderate pace.

Best and Worst Meals for Calories and Time to Walk Off

Hours of Exercise Required to Burn the Calories in a Various Foods and Meals

High Calorie meals require massive effort to burn off with exercises


Knowing how much walking is required to burn off meals helps people make healthier choices on menus


Calories burnt per hour for various exercises


Walking moderately fast takes about and hour to burn the calories in a hamburger


Running at to speed takes about one hour to burn the calories in a home cooked rump steak and vegetables meal