A breakdown of how our bodies use calories in a day

Here is a pie chart showing the breakdown of where most calories are used throughout the day 🥧⁣⁣

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As you can see the just staying alive (this includes things like your heart beating, breathing, all your internal organs doing their thang) requires the largest chunk of energy. ⁣⁣

Everyone’s ‘just staying alive’ calories differ depending on your sex, weight and height mine are around 1450. This means if I were to lay in bed all day without moving my body would still require this many calories just to maintain my current weight. We are CONSTANTLY burning calories, even whilst we sleep.⁣⁣

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The next largest section is daily movement, this is also referred to as NEAT (non exercise activity thermogenesis). This includes all activity that is not classed as exercise but just general moving about your day. Think of anything that gets your body moving such as; gardening, cleaning the house, walking to town and having a boogie in your bedroom to your favourite playlist. ⁣⁣

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Then we have the energy required to digest the food we eat (this is called the thermic effect of food). The food you eat looks very different going in to your body than it does when leaving your body 🍍⇨💩 this process requires energy.⁣⁣

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Finally the smallest section of the chart- Exercise 🏃🏼‍♀️🏋🏼‍♀️. If you look at how small a proportion exercise contributes to the total daily expenditure of calories you might be surprised. Exercise is an amazing tool and can assist in weight loss but just exercising to burn calories should not be the main focus. ⁣⁣

𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘦𝘹𝘦𝘳𝘤𝘪𝘴𝘦? 🧐 Exercise has many great benefits and is about so much more than burning calories.