SHAPE UP
Use exercise as an appetite suppressant

By Charles Stuart Platkin

Warning: Eating this product could require an additional seven hours of dog-walking. Gannett News Service

Just take a look at all these benefits:

• It helps control weight, develop lean muscle and reduce body fat.
• It reduces the risk of dying from heart disease and developing high blood pressure, colon cancer and diabetes.
• It helps maintain healthy bones, muscles and joints.
• It reduces symptoms of anxiety and depression, and fosters improvements in mood and feelings of well-being.

Yet, even with all this, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that more than 60 percent of Americans do not engage in the recommended amount of daily physical activity. Government recommendations range from 30 minutes to an hour of moderate activity each day.

Not only that, a report from the National Weight Loss Registry states that most dieters who have lost weight and kept it off for five years or more incorporate 60 minutes of daily physical activity into their lives.

But I have another benefit of exercise, and you don't even have to move a muscle. You see, maybe losing weight is as simple as being conscious about what we eat — having something to compare "the value" of the foods we freely toss in our mouths. My suggestion is to use exercise as an appetite suppressant. I'm not trying to depress you. I really think this is a new idea for a diet: "The No Exercise — Exercise Diet." For every single thing you eat, you don't count calories; you just figure out how long you have to exercise to burn off what you just ate.

For instance, if we were to translate a Twinkie into exercise — it would add up to the equivalent of a 30-minute walk. The Food and Drug Administration could even require food manufacturers and restaurants to put the "exercise equivalence" on the food label. Imagine, a statement right there on the Cinnabon Caramel Pecanbon: "Warning: Eating This Product Could Require an Additional 4 Hours and 10 Minutes of Walking or 5 Hours of Continuous Vacuuming."

Just think about the implications. Knowing that we have to walk for 14 hours at a moderate pace for a distance of roughly 43 miles in order to burn off one pound of fat — well, that would certainly discourage me from eating. But if we apply it to specific food items — now that could actually work. After all, it's much easier to imagine passing up a double-decker burger with fries, a couple of super-sized Cokes, and a banana split for dessert than it is to see yourself out there walking 43 miles.

Right now, calories are more like a secret code for nutritionists — it's easier to learn a foreign language than to understand and track calories. At least with this proposed new diet and labeling, you'll know exactly what it means to eat a box of Entenmann's chocolate-chip cookies.

If we were able to translate all of our calories into some type of "cost" system, well, it would certainly put our food choices into perspective.

One thing to keep in mind — these activities would be in addition to the normal physical activity or exercise that you get each day. If you would like to find out how many calories you burn in any activity from gardening to praying, you can go to the activity calorie calculator at www.efit.com/calculators/calorie.jsp.

These calculations can get you started

McDonald's Big Mac, French fries (large), and a Coke (large)
Warning: Eating this product could require an additional seven hours of dog-walking.

Pizza Hut stuffed-crust cheese pie (2 slices)
Warning: Eating this product could require an additional 77 minutes of jumping rope.

Hershey's chocolate kisses (5 kisses)
Warning: Eating this product could require an additional 15 minutes of running.

Hungry Man fried-chicken entree (mostly white meat)
Warning: Eating this product could require an additional 69 minutes of kick boxing.

The Cheesecake Factory black-out cake (1 slice)
Warning: Eating this product could require an additional three hours and 52 minutes of lawn-mowing (and not on a riding mower).

Dry-roasted Peanuts (3 ounces — about 90 nuts)
Warning: Eating this product could require an additional 90 minutes of low-impact aerobics.

Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia ice cream (1 1/2 cups)
Warning: Eating this product could require an additional 129 minutes of riding a stationary bike.

Oreo Double Stuf cookies (3 cookies)
Warning: Eating this product could require an additional 18 minutes of swimming laps.

Pina Colada (8 oz.)
Warning: Eating this product could require an additional 65 minutes of golf, carrying your own clubs.

PowerBar ProteinPlus (1 bar)
Warning: Eating this product could require an additional 55 minutes of vigorous dancing.