Burning off lunch calories
Hey, you, with the Reuben, dripping Russian dressing on the expense reports. And you, with the chopped salad, dropping bacon bits into your keyboard.
The office lunch — which 62 percent of us eat at our desks, according to the 2011 Desktop Dining survey from the American Dietetic Association and ConAgra Foods — can deal a caloric wallop if you’re not careful.
Deceptively fattening salads and sodium-heavy soups can surprise people who think they’re making healthy choices, said Jenny Sucov, editor of EverydayHealth.com.
Skipping lunch, or waiting too long to eat, slows metabolism, encourages overeating and hurts concentration, said Amy Jamieson-Petonic, director of wellness coaching at the Cleveland Clinic and a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association.
And though the Desktop Dining survey shows that most office workers make the healthful choice of bringing lunch from home, giving them control over ingredients, for the 41 percent of us who buy lunch out or eat takeout at our desks, popular meals can pack a heavy punch.
Take a look at the top lunch foods ordered at restaurants and taken back to the office to eat, according to market research firm NPD Group. We give examples of each from popular restaurants, then used the calculator at everydayhealth.com/calorie-counter.aspx to determine what you’d have to do to burn them off.
Of course, calories aren’t the only concern. People should also watch sodium, saturated fat and added sugar, Sucov said. And it’s best to eat a nutritionally dense meal of complex carbohydrates and lean protein, plus fruits and veggies, to leave you feeling full and nourished, said Jamieson-Petonic.
But when it comes to weight loss, the key is to burn more calories than you consume (erase 3,500 calories to lose a pound).
The calculations are based on a 150-pound person. People who weigh less would have to exercise longer to burn the same number of calories.
