How much exercise does it take to burn off junk food?

Here’s a junk food revelation: If you drink a can of Coke, you’ll need to run at least 14 minutes

Photo by Polina Tankilevitch/Pexels

Cheat days are the best days. But recently, diets are more forgiving when it comes to occasional indulgences. Unfortunately, a moment of weakness can easily turn your cheat day into cheat week and eventually, you’re back to old habits. Don’t let all the progress slip away so easily. Run through these reminders every time you’re tempted to eat your favorite junk food.

1. A regular McDonald’s cheeseburger has 290 calories according to the nutritional information provided by the company. This needs at least half an hour of running or biking. If you’re just looking at calories, then it’s not that bad. But the bigger issue here is that it contains over 800 grams of sodium.
2. A single glazed doughnut from Dunkin Donuts contains about 240 calories. You need roughly 25 minutes of running and biking or an hour of weight training to shed them off. That’s just for a plain glaze, so doughnuts with icing and other toppings are bound to have more.
3. A can of Coke contains 139 calories. You only need to run or bike for at least 14 minutes or do 18 minutes of Zumba according to an app made by Coca-Cola itself. Though the calories might not seem a lot, it also has about nine teaspoons of sugar, which is an alarming amount for a drink.
4. A cup of white rice contains 220 calories with 47 grams of carbs, which is about 31 percent of the daily recommended carb intake. To work this off, you need to bike or run at least 23 minutes. It doesn’t seem that bad if it’s just one cup on its own.
5. For all the fries addicts out there, you’re not going to like the fact that a large McDonald’s fries contains 490 calories and 23 grams of total fat. But if you’re willing to run or bike 45 minutes, then you’re good.
6. For everyone who resorts to pancit canton when they can’t afford anything else, it has a total of 290 calories a pack. Consider that sometimes one isn’t enough. But if you’re willing to spend around half an hour of running or biking to burn them, you’re also good.

In hindsight, you might think that these numbers aren’t so bad. You can probably work out the calories anyway. However, those numbers will pile up. And honestly, do you really want to put extra effort just to burn off extra (and usually empty) calories that could easily have been avoided?