Monday social media event offers to tip the calorie balance

Cassie Carey, director for Crow Wing Energized, will be the guest lifestyle change coach for the Dispatch social media hour Monday.

Carey is working for both Crow Wing County and Essentia Health for the Crow Wing Energized effort to make healthy choices easier for the community members to make and to provide tools for healthier lives.

Carey has a background in teaching in both physical education and health education, she also is a certified lifestyle coach in the National Diabetes Prevention Program, and graduated with her registered nursing degree in 2014.

In the quest for health, wellness and weight loss, there are tips that can help people make a lasting change.

Calorie tips:

• Rule of thumb for using up or burning calories, 1 mile of brisk walking (15 to 20 minutes) equals about 100 calories,

• If we want to change our weight, we need to tip the balance in favor of fewer calories in and more calories out,

• Eating and being active work together. To lose weight, it is best to eat less and move more. That way, you change both sides of the scale at once,

• Every 1 pound of body fat stores about 3,500 calories,

• Slow, steady weight loss is the best way to lose body fat. About 1 to 2 pounds per week is great,

• To have a healthy well-balanced diet, be sure that you do not eat fewer than 1,200 calories a day.

"There is a reason we eat calories-our bodies need them to survive," Carey reported. "They fuel everything we do, even our breathing. The number of calories we use for an activity depends on the type of activity, the amount of time we are active, and how much we weigh. The number of calories we use depends on our weight and how far and long we carry it."

Calorie balance means the calories people take in through eating and drinking should equal the calories they use through physical activity and their body's other energy needs (for example, breathing, digesting food, sleeping).

A rule of thumb is that 1 mile of brisk walking uses about 100 calories. Most people walk a mile in 15 to 20 minutes.

"So you can see that it would take many miles to burn off a high-fat meal," Carey stated.

How many calories and how much physical activity is needed to tip the balance in favor of losing weight? The amount varies from person to person. The National Diabetes Prevention Program has many tools to help tip the balance in the healthy direction.

"Just remember, the best way to tip the balance is to both reduce the amount we eat and drink and increase the time we are physically active," according to the NDPP. By keeping track of calories, people will learn which foods are highest in calories and find ways to cut back.

Carey will share her knowledge about calories and activity during the Dispatch's social media event Monday.

How to participate

As part of the Your Energized Year to help people reach health goals to move more, eat more healthy foods and lose weight, the Dispatch is hosting a live social media event from noon to 1 p.m. Mondays through June 6. The event brings a guest lifestyle coach to the Dispatch video room to answer questions sent in via Twitter, Facebook or email either before or during the lunchtime event and provide real-time answers. The sessions with coaches are also recorded on video and will be available online as a community resource.

This online segment is aimed at augmenting information in the Dispatch's Monday Motivator page of health and wellness information and quick tips and is in addition to the noon Thursday Lunch and Learn events at the Brainerd Library where lifestyle coaches and other guest speakers are talking with an audience.

To participate in the Twitter health talk, readers have an opportunity to send in questions, via email to getfit@brainerddispatch.com , via Twitter to @brd_dispatch or via the Dispatch Facebook page. Use the hashtag #getfit to keep track of the conversation. Learn tips to make this a summer of fitness.