Читать книгу The Little Book of Calorie Burning - Литагент HarperCollins USD, Ю. Д. Земенков, Koostaja: Ajakiri New Scientist - Страница 4

A calorie is just a unit of energy. Compare it, say, to a lump of coal. You put the right amount of coal in a fire and it burns attractively producing just enough heat to keep your room warm; pile too much coal onto your fire, however, and it bulges messily out of the grate – just like those wobbly muffin bellies you see spilling out between skinny jeans and little crop tops. If, on the other hand, you stoke the fire and make it burn more fiercely it will then be able to consume the extra coal you have put on it. This book will show you how you can stoke your body to make it burn more calories, without adding any curves of the unsexy kind.

It’s not all treadmills and rowing machines and sweaty Lycra. There’s no need even to set foot in a gym if that’s not your thing. In actual fact, everything we do, from talking on the phone to applying mascara, burns calories; the exact quantity will depend on how strenuously we do the activity in question and what our body weight is to start off with.

Get this: one of the startling aspects of calorie burning is that it favours the generously proportioned. During a half hour’s cycling, those who weigh 12 stone will burn at least 90 calories (kcal) more than their skinny 9-stone sisters – the equivalent of two chocolate chip cookies or a scoop of Cherry Garcia.

Even when lying on the sofa reading Hello! magazine for half an hour, the curvy 12-stoner burns 10 more calories than the 9-stone twiglet. Bizarre, isn’t it?

In these pages you will learn how to decide your ideal weight – the one at which you look and feel best – then how to work out the activity level required to achieve it so that you can eat the foods you want while maintaining that perfect weight. Pick the activities you like best and set your own priorities. If you prefer knitting to sex, so be it – you’ll just have to cut back on the cocktails (no pun intended!). It’s safe, scientific and totally sensible.

Let’s start with a little self-analysis to see what your body needs right now.