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From: Orchid Win7 v1
Subject: Supercalorific
Date: 5 Feb 2013 09:53:12
Message: <51111cd8$1@news.povray.org>
Fun thing #1: When people say "only fifty calories", apparently they 
/actually/ mean 50 kcal - i.e., 50,000 calories. This weirds me out 
slightly.

Anyway, at the end of last year, I joined a gym. I didn't actually visit 
very much, to be honest. But now I've signed my dad up too, and for the 
last two weeks we've been going to the gym together almost every night. 
Because, let's face it, we both need the calorie burn!

It would be nice to walk around with an impressive set of bulging 
muscles. But obviously that's impossible. (I mean, unless you quit your 
job and become a full-time body-builder - and how has the money to do that?)

More importantly, I love to dance, and it frustrates the living hell out 
of me that I can only dance for about 45 seconds before I'm so utterly 
dead that I can barely stand up any more. That being the case, stamina 
is something I want to work on.

The gym has all manner of machines you can play with. I did try using 
the cross-trainer. But it forces you to take unnaturally large steps, 
which make my legs really hurt. More recently I've been hitting the 
treadmill.

Dancing is complicated. It takes a lot of mental focus to do it right. 
You can't dance when you're too tired to think straight. But running is 
simple. You just need to keep putting one foot in front of the other. 
And there are no peaks and troughs to it. You just switch the machine on 
and start running.

There's a lot of psychology to exercise. If you get on the treadmill and 
start running, it's all too easy to just /stop/ when you start getting 
tired. So what I do is program the machine for a specific duration at a 
particular speed. That way I can watch the timer ticking down, I have a 
goal to aim for, and I can't move the goalposts if I get bored or tired.

Right now I have a cold. But for the last few days, I've been running 1 
mile every night. That's 10 minutes of running at 6 MPH. Sounds easy, 
right? Well let me tell you, by the end of those 10 minutes - no, wait, 
*before* the end of those 10 minutes, I am absurdly exhausted. One night 
I made the mistake of running a mile, and then an hour later trying to 
do a second one. That nearly killed me.

Fun thing #2: I used to think you could eat whatever you like and then 
go down the gym and just burn it all off. But that, apparently, is quite 
impossible.

The treadmill (and several other machines) attempts to estimate the 
number of calories you've expended. It seems to do this based solely on 
the selected speed and whatever you lied to it about your weight. (I 
would expect the /real/ energy usage to vary wildly based on a huge 
range of other parameters...)

According to this machine, my flabby 180 lbs pounding the treadmill at 6 
MPH burns about 15 kcal per minute. So a 1 mile run burns off a 150 kcal.

So far so good.

Now look at that bottle of coke in my hand. "47 kcal", it says. So just 
by having a drink when I'm done, I've completely negated 30% of that 
mile. No, wait a sec - that's 47 kcal per 100 ml! But this isn't a 100 
ml bottle - it's 550 ml. So that's... uh... 258 kcal! o_O Yes, this 
small bottle of sugar-water contains /drastically/ more calories than 
what I just half-killed myself burning off. (And trust me, after that I 
*need* a drink!)

150 kcal sounds like a lot - 150 is a big number. But when you realise 
the calorific value of some common everyday foods, you discover that 
this is peanuts. (Incidentally, peanuts have a lot of calories.)

For example, if I eat a 500g bar of chocolate, that's 1,000 kcal. Then 
again, that's a pretty big bar, so maybe it's not so surprising.

Sucrose is apparently 400 kcal per 100g. Butter (depending on which 
brand) is something like 600 kcal per 100g. Of course, nobody sits down 
and eats 100g of either of those things. But how about the bag of rice I 
had with my supper? Apparently that's 300 kcal - and that's just *rice*! 
People tell you that stuff is healthy.

Fun thing #3: For reasons beyond my comprehension, the rice gives me a 
figure per 100g, and also per "serving". Apparently the idea is that 
you're supposed to microwave this individually-packed rice and then eat 
only half of it. WTF?

Similarly, I pick up a 36g packet of crisps and it tells me the 
nutritional values "per 12g serving". Serously? Who THE HELL buys an 
entire bag of crisps, opens it, and then eats only one third of it? I 
mean, if we were talking about one of those big over-sized packets then 
sure. But the little hand-sized ones? I've seen plenty of people buy two 
and eat them both. There's hardly anything in them, after all.

It seems crystal clear to be that the /only/ reason the manufacturers 
would possibly do this is so that they can print smaller, less 
frightening numbers on the packet. Nobody eats a third of a packet of 
crisps; that's, like, 4 individual flakes!

Perhaps my next project should be to sit down and compute the calorific 
value of those lemon cakes I keep making. (I doubt the value changes 
significantly due to cooking...)

Fun thing #4: Apparently I can lift 100kg with my legs. Notice that *I* 
weigh less than 100kg. Weird, eh?

I can also left 45kg with my arms. It's taken me a while to work up to 
that. I doubt I can lift any more than that, not because my arms won't 
do it, but because my wrists can't take the load...


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From: Orchid Win7 v1
Subject: Deliciousness
Date: 5 Feb 2013 10:30:54
Message: <511125ae$1@news.povray.org>
On 05/02/2013 02:53 PM, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:

> Perhaps my next project should be to sit down and compute the calorific
> value of those lemon cakes I keep making. (I doubt the value changes
> significantly due to cooking...)

Some randomly-selected food items, sorted by calorific value per 100g:

   126 kcal   White rice.
   147 kcal   Eggs. (~70 kcal per egg.)
   256 kcal   Blackcurrant jam.
   263 kcal   Minced beef.
   302 kcal   Lemon curd.
   313 kcal   Brown self-raising flour.
   335 kcal   White self-raising flour.
   400 kcal   Sugar (doesn't appear to matter which kind).
   410 kcal   Cheddar cheese.
   410 kcal   Flora margarine.
   680 kcal   Stork solid butter.

I also managed to find out that the milk we buy is 207 kcal / 100ml. 
Now, if I know how many ml there is in 100g...

Anyway, based on the above data, we can compute the total calorific 
value of one of my lemon cakes:

   250g flour  =   837.5 kcal
   250g sugar  = 1,000.0 kcal
   250g butter = 1,700.0 kcal
      3 eggs   =   210.0 kcal
                 3,747.5 kcal for the cake mix

   1 jar of lemon curd is 400g, so half a jar is 200g.
   200g lemon curd  =   604.0 kcal
   400g icing sugar = 1,600.0 kcal
                      5,951.5 kcal final total

If each person eats a 1/12th slice, that's 496 kcal per slice.

Now compute how many months you would have to run non-stop to burn that 
many calories. Yeah, exactly.


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From: Orchid Win7 v1
Subject: Re: Deliciousness
Date: 5 Feb 2013 10:36:05
Message: <511126e5$1@news.povray.org>
On 05/02/2013 03:30 PM, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:

> 3,747.5 kcal for the cake mix
>
> 1 jar of lemon curd is 400g, so half a jar is 200g.
> 200g lemon curd = 604.0 kcal
> 400g icing sugar = 1,600.0 kcal
> 5,951.5 kcal final total

I believe I may have miscomputed here.

The layer of buttercream in the middle is 100g butter and 200g icing 
sugar. It probably takes another 200g icing sugar to do the top. So that 
gives us

    200g lemon curd  =   604.0 kcal
    400g icing sugar = 1,600.0 kcal
    100g butter      =   680.0 kcal
                       6,641.5 kcal for the whole cake
                         553.5 kcal per slice


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From: Patrick Elliott
Subject: Re: Supercalorific
Date: 5 Feb 2013 11:08:54
Message: <51112e96$1@news.povray.org>
On 2/5/2013 7:53 AM, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:
> Fun thing #1: When people say "only fifty calories", apparently they
> /actually/ mean 50 kcal - i.e., 50,000 calories. This weirds me out
> slightly.
>
In a similar vein of questionable advertising/labeling:

http://skepchick.org/2013/02/centrum-silver-has-been-studied/

Rule #1 - Never say anything that isn't true, but.. never actually say 
what **IS** true either.


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From: Warp
Subject: Re: Supercalorific
Date: 5 Feb 2013 11:13:00
Message: <51112f8c@news.povray.org>
Orchid Win7 v1 <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> More importantly, I love to dance, and it frustrates the living hell out 
> of me that I can only dance for about 45 seconds before I'm so utterly 
> dead that I can barely stand up any more. That being the case, stamina 
> is something I want to work on.

I think we have had this conversation before, and back then you didn't
seem to believe me (or want to believe me, or whatever.)

If you want to get in good shape and gain stamina, so that you can dance
for more than 45 seconds, what you need is about 1 hour of aerobic exercise
5 or 6 times a week.

If you are in horrible shape, you achieve this by walking every day about
7 to 10 km at a good pace in one go (you have to end up sweating). You need
good shoes for this.

After 3 to 6 months you might be able to start jogging, and that's the
perfect continuation to this regime.

-- 
                                                          - Warp


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From: scott
Subject: Re: Supercalorific
Date: 5 Feb 2013 11:27:33
Message: <511132f5$1@news.povray.org>
> Right now I have a cold. But for the last few days, I've been running 1
> mile every night. That's 10 minutes of running at 6 MPH. Sounds easy,
> right? Well let me tell you, by the end of those 10 minutes - no, wait,
> *before* the end of those 10 minutes, I am absurdly exhausted.

Go slower and further - once you have built up to 3 or 4 miles at a 
slower pace you'll find if you go back to 1 mile you can do it a lot 
faster without much effort. Get a heart rate monitor watch that beeps 
above a certain limit, it helps to control your speed and stop you 
getting worn out too quickly.

> According to this machine, my flabby 180 lbs pounding the treadmill at 6
> MPH burns about 15 kcal per minute. So a 1 mile run burns off a 150 kcal.

But when compared to what your body burns off anyway during the day 
without any exercise (around 2500 kcal) running 1 mile doesn't really 
allow you to eat significantly more than if you didn't run.

> Now look at that bottle of coke in my hand. "47 kcal", it says. So just
> by having a drink when I'm done, I've completely negated 30% of that
> mile. No, wait a sec - that's 47 kcal per 100 ml! But this isn't a 100
> ml bottle - it's 550 ml. So that's... uh... 258 kcal!

That's why there's a million diet options available - the 600 ml bottle 
of pepsi max here on my desk has 100x less calories :-)

> It seems crystal clear to be that the /only/ reason the manufacturers
> would possibly do this is so that they can print smaller, less
> frightening numbers on the packet.

That reasoning doesn't explain then why they put the values per 250 ml 
serving on the front of drinks, when they could put the values per 100 
ml instead. I wonder if there is a set of "standard" serving sizes?


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From: Jim Henderson
Subject: Re: Supercalorific
Date: 5 Feb 2013 11:52:12
Message: <511138bc$1@news.povray.org>
On Tue, 05 Feb 2013 14:53:12 +0000, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:

> It would be nice to walk around with an impressive set of bulging
> muscles.
> But obviously that's impossible. (I mean, unless you quit your job and
> become a full-time body-builder - and how has the money to do that?)

Yes, nobody in the world ever built muscles without being a full-time 
bodybuilder. m-/

(I have a former boss who was a distance runner - he had something like 
5% body fat, ran marathons, but it wasn't his full time job.)

What have we said before about these absolutist declarations that 
something must *obviously* be impossible except/unless one makes the goal 
the only thing in their life?

Oh, yeah - that that's usually entirely false.

Jim


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From: scott
Subject: Re: Supercalorific
Date: 5 Feb 2013 12:11:42
Message: <51113d4e$1@news.povray.org>
> Yes, nobody in the world ever built muscles without being a full-time
> bodybuilder. m-/
>
> (I have a former boss who was a distance runner - he had something like
> 5% body fat, ran marathons, but it wasn't his full time job.)

I have a crazy guy who sits next to me in our office (so again training 
is not his full time job). He's going to run the London marathon this 
year, but for him that is just a warm up for the iron man triathlon he's 
doing later in the year. In case you don't know (I didn't until I looked 
it up) it's 2.4 miles swimming, 112 miles cycling and then a full 
marathon running. That probably will burn a few days worth of calories :-)


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From: Francois Labreque
Subject: Re: Deliciousness
Date: 5 Feb 2013 14:15:33
Message: <51115a55$1@news.povray.org>

> On 05/02/2013 02:53 PM, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:
>
>> Perhaps my next project should be to sit down and compute the calorific
>> value of those lemon cakes I keep making. (I doubt the value changes
>> significantly due to cooking...)
>
> Some randomly-selected food items, sorted by calorific value per 100g:
>
>    126 kcal   White rice.
>    147 kcal   Eggs. (~70 kcal per egg.)
>    256 kcal   Blackcurrant jam.
>    263 kcal   Minced beef.
>    302 kcal   Lemon curd.
>    313 kcal   Brown self-raising flour.
>    335 kcal   White self-raising flour.
>    400 kcal   Sugar (doesn't appear to matter which kind).
>    410 kcal   Cheddar cheese.
>    410 kcal   Flora margarine.
>    680 kcal   Stork solid butter.
>
> I also managed to find out that the milk we buy is 207 kcal / 100ml.
> Now, if I know how many ml there is in 100g...
>

http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2002/AliciaNoelleJones.shtml


-- 
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/*   gmail.com     */}camera{orthographic location<6,1.25,-6>look_at a }


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From: Francois Labreque
Subject: Re: Supercalorific
Date: 5 Feb 2013 14:26:00
Message: <51115cc8@news.povray.org>
Le 2013-02-05 12:11, scott a écrit :
> He's going to run the London marathon this
> year, but for him that is just a warm up for the iron man triathlon he's
> doing later in the year.

My spinning coach is going to try to run 30 ironmans (ironmen?) in 30 
days, next fall.  In 2008 he completed 10 ironmen in 11days 6 hrs and 
last oct, he did 5 in 73 hours 40mins.  He's currently the 2nd 
utlratriathlete in the world.

http://www.iutasport.com/?page=worldcup

And that's on top of his full time job in a hospital and his part time 
job as a spinning and running coach.

But of course, that's impossible.
-- 
/*Francois Labreque*/#local a=x+y;#local b=x+a;#local c=a+b;#macro P(F//
/*    flabreque    */L)polygon{5,F,F+z,L+z,L,F pigment{rgb 9}}#end union
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/*   gmail.com     */}camera{orthographic location<6,1.25,-6>look_at a }


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