It's easy to eat but hard to burn calories

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You've just worked out. You feel so exhausted.  You think you've burned out so many calories coz you've sweat a lot. Then you decide that you deserve a nice meal as a reward and so you eat to your heart's (or stomach's) delight after your workout.  Sounds so familiar, right? 😂

Anyway, I recently used the treadmill and I realized something which I've never realized when I brisk-walk at the park coz I don't keep track of my walking stats. The realization is - it's so hard to burn calories!

For one hour, I brisk-walked 5.3 kms with some slight elevation on the treadmill, and you know how many calories I burned?  Only about 330 calories!!! 😱  Not even enough to burn the calories of a grande frappucino which is about 420 calories or one order of large fries which is about 510 calories.  Not that I eat these foods often but they are the most common food picks for calorie count benchmark purposes.

So the next time you're thinking of eating a high-calorie food or rewarding yourself with a nice meal after having a workout,  remember that it's not that easy to burn calories.   The calories you burn may be way less than what you consume and if this were true, then you may even end up gaining weight.

Perception: You're working out so hard.
Reality: You might be consuming more calories than what you actually burn.

Also remember that it takes only a few minutes to consume food but it takes an hour (or even more) to burn the corresponding calories.  In short, it's easy to eat but it's hard to burn the calories.  😬

Of course, you can burn more calories within an hour (1) by increasing your speed and elevation, or (2) by keeping the same pace but working out for longer hours especially if weight loss is your goal but then again, if you feel super exhausted from the workout, there goes again the temptation to reward yourself with a nice meal afterwards. 😂

In my case, my goal isn't weight loss but just to make sure I don't succumb to a sedentary life that is why I have a weird exercise mindset -

I only do physical activities which I like so I don't feel that exercise is a sacrifice.
I don't push myself to the limits coz if I do, I might use exhaustion or having sore muscles as an excuse to skip exercise for several days.
And I prefer to work out alone so there's no temptation to eat out afterwards.  I just eat my usual meal. 😋

I know myself too much that I know what kind of excuses I could possibly make and so I have to eliminate all the potential triggers. 😂