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American Morning
Calorie Counting
Aired November 27, 2003 - 08:42 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Dr. Sanjay Gupta is off today, but I'm sure he's probably worried about caloric intake, like all of us. The prospect of Thanksgiving dinner might have you worried about those calories you're about to consume. But you can ease the guilt as long as you plan to burn off some of what you've taken in.
Medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us now from the CNN Center with details on how to do that. You know, it sounds pretty easy, but I don't know, Elizabeth.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's easy, but you have to actually make an effort to do it. And I do want to know, Sanjay is fit and thin. He doesn't need to worry about this, but some other people do.
So let's go over how many calories are in a Thanksgiving dinner so you know pretty much what you have to burn off. If you start with white meat turkey, that's 157 calories. That's without the skin. Dark meat's a little bit more. Mashed potatoes, 222 calories. Bread stuffing, 178 calories. Cranberry sauce, 86. Pecan pie, wow there you go, 502. Total of 1145 calories. That's if you have one serving of everything, which, of course, many of us don't stop there.
So let's look at burning off each individual part of your Thanksgiving meal. If you were, for example, to swim 16 minutes, that would burn off the turkey. If you were to do about half an hour of aerobics, there goes your mashed potatoes. 15 minutes of rowing, there's the stuffing. 13 minutes of yoga, that's enough to get rid of the calories from the cranberry sauce.
Now we're certainly not saying that people ought to eat their meal and then go off and calculate exactly how much they have to burn off. We're just trying to remind people that when you sit down and have that meal, you can then decide oh, I think I'll do a little bit of this, a little bit of that. Perhaps in the next few days and that will help even out some of the gorging that you might do on Thanksgiving day -- Heidi?
COLLINS: Gorging? I don't know, that's a pretty strong word.
COHEN: That's a word I use for myself.
COLLINS: But you know, it is a holiday. Do people really want to go and work out? Is there anything else that you can do maybe while you're sitting around the house?
COHEN: Absolutely. People forget sometimes that you can actually burn calories in your own home doing some non-athletic activities. In other words, you can choose to eat and then sit on the couch and watch football games. Or you can decide to move around a little bit. And every little bit helps.
For example, if you spend two hours preparing dinner, you've burned 295 calories. That's quite a bit. Woops. Well let's first talk, since it's up there, about athletic activities. Jogging, for example, 372 calories for half an hour if you weigh 160 pounds. Swimming, 309 calories. Cycling, 219. Walking, 261.
Now look at that walking one. I think that's interesting. That's quite a few calories. So what you could do, eat your Thanksgiving meal, go for a half an hour walk. That's about what you burn. And that actually goes a pretty long way to getting rid of some of the calories you might have taken in.
Now Heidi asked about things you can do that aren't actual athletic activities. If you spent two hours preparing dinner, then that's 295 calories. 10 minutes sweeping up, 28 calories. 30 minutes shoveling snow, if you're in an area where there's snow, that's -- you burn 202 calories. You've now burned off 525 calories. And that, if you put it all together, is your slice of pecan pie. So every little bit counts.
And that's certainly a message the public health experts are trying to get out to an obese America. Every little bit counts. You don't have to actually go to the gym. Even just being active at home preparing dinner for two hours can burn quite a few calories -- Heidi?
COLLINS: All right, Elizabeth Cohen. Happy eating. Thanks.
COHEN: Thank you, happy eating to you, too.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired November 27, 2003 - 08:42 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Dr. Sanjay Gupta is off today, but I'm sure he's probably worried about caloric intake, like all of us. The prospect of Thanksgiving dinner might have you worried about those calories you're about to consume. But you can ease the guilt as long as you plan to burn off some of what you've taken in.
Medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us now from the CNN Center with details on how to do that. You know, it sounds pretty easy, but I don't know, Elizabeth.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's easy, but you have to actually make an effort to do it. And I do want to know, Sanjay is fit and thin. He doesn't need to worry about this, but some other people do.
So let's go over how many calories are in a Thanksgiving dinner so you know pretty much what you have to burn off. If you start with white meat turkey, that's 157 calories. That's without the skin. Dark meat's a little bit more. Mashed potatoes, 222 calories. Bread stuffing, 178 calories. Cranberry sauce, 86. Pecan pie, wow there you go, 502. Total of 1145 calories. That's if you have one serving of everything, which, of course, many of us don't stop there.
So let's look at burning off each individual part of your Thanksgiving meal. If you were, for example, to swim 16 minutes, that would burn off the turkey. If you were to do about half an hour of aerobics, there goes your mashed potatoes. 15 minutes of rowing, there's the stuffing. 13 minutes of yoga, that's enough to get rid of the calories from the cranberry sauce.
Now we're certainly not saying that people ought to eat their meal and then go off and calculate exactly how much they have to burn off. We're just trying to remind people that when you sit down and have that meal, you can then decide oh, I think I'll do a little bit of this, a little bit of that. Perhaps in the next few days and that will help even out some of the gorging that you might do on Thanksgiving day -- Heidi?
COLLINS: Gorging? I don't know, that's a pretty strong word.
COHEN: That's a word I use for myself.
COLLINS: But you know, it is a holiday. Do people really want to go and work out? Is there anything else that you can do maybe while you're sitting around the house?
COHEN: Absolutely. People forget sometimes that you can actually burn calories in your own home doing some non-athletic activities. In other words, you can choose to eat and then sit on the couch and watch football games. Or you can decide to move around a little bit. And every little bit helps.
For example, if you spend two hours preparing dinner, you've burned 295 calories. That's quite a bit. Woops. Well let's first talk, since it's up there, about athletic activities. Jogging, for example, 372 calories for half an hour if you weigh 160 pounds. Swimming, 309 calories. Cycling, 219. Walking, 261.
Now look at that walking one. I think that's interesting. That's quite a few calories. So what you could do, eat your Thanksgiving meal, go for a half an hour walk. That's about what you burn. And that actually goes a pretty long way to getting rid of some of the calories you might have taken in.
Now Heidi asked about things you can do that aren't actual athletic activities. If you spent two hours preparing dinner, then that's 295 calories. 10 minutes sweeping up, 28 calories. 30 minutes shoveling snow, if you're in an area where there's snow, that's -- you burn 202 calories. You've now burned off 525 calories. And that, if you put it all together, is your slice of pecan pie. So every little bit counts.
And that's certainly a message the public health experts are trying to get out to an obese America. Every little bit counts. You don't have to actually go to the gym. Even just being active at home preparing dinner for two hours can burn quite a few calories -- Heidi?
COLLINS: All right, Elizabeth Cohen. Happy eating. Thanks.
COHEN: Thank you, happy eating to you, too.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
