How many calories in a Big Mac meal and how easy is it to burn them off?

No matter where you are in the world (unless you are in the Arctic, dessert of jungle), you can't go more than a few miles without seeing the golden arches of McDonald's. Having been born and raised in England I have grown up being used to it, as there is one or more in every big town, as well as being dotted down every major road in the country. However when I spent several months living over in America I was shocked at just how many restaurants of the fast food giant there were. I lived and worked some twenty minute drive apart, and I would pass no less than 3 in this journey. Just to make this point early on, I have nothing against McDonald's and there were just as many Burger Kings, Wendy's and the like there as well. I am just using them as an example as they are surely the most popular.

With this being the case it is safe to say that I have had my fair share of McDonald's in the past, and there are thousands of people out there who can say the same thing, and many who still eat there on a regular basis.

You don't need to be a quantum physicist to know that this is not healthy, and that the majority of the foods that you will eat at McDonald's are loaded with calories. Burgers and fries are just not good for you, no matter how much salad you put with them.

In this post I just want to simply highlight how many calories are in a Big Mac meal, their premier sandwich that probably sells in it's millions each and every day. What I also want to point out is what you would have to do in order to burn the calories consumed off.

I just want to point out that the regular size meal in the USA is the same size as the large meal in the UK. The USA large is the Super Size that the UK had to abolish a few years back due to it contributing to the serious obesity problem that we have here.

So what do you get in a regular Big Mac meal:                

The Big Mac itself - 576 calories        
Regular fries - 354 calories
Regular coke -  210 calories

Total calories in a regular Big Mac meal at McDonald's = 1,140 calories !

Now that is an awful lot of calories when you consider that myself as a 29 year old guy of average height and weight, who exercises only lightly throughout the week, should be eating approximately 2,000 calories a day in order to maintain my weight. In fact the mathematician in me says that it is well over 50% of the calories I should be eating the entire day.

Well what if you go large....

The Big Mac itself - 576 calories
Large fries - 500 calories
Large coke - 310 calories

Total calories in a large Big Mac meal at McDonald's = 1,386

As you can see that is almost three quarters of the calories I should be eating a day, crazy!

So what do you have to do in order to negate these calories?

Ok so the easiest form of exercise that we all know about is walking. You can walk for exercise and it is not obvious what you are doing, it is not like you are dressed in your track gear and puffing and panting up the road for all to see. A quick 20 minute walk a day is recommended exercise from any doctor. So burning calories walking is something that is easily done.

But how many calories does walking burn? I hear you ask. Well that depends on your weight and how far you walk, as well as the speed that you are walking at.

If I were to walk say 2 miles at an average speed of 3mph, taking 20 minutes per mile or faster, I would only burn off 171 calories. If I walked 10 miles at the same speed I would only burn off 854 calories, in fact in order to burn off the meal of 1,140 calories I would need to walk 13.5 miles. That is a lot of walking just to nullify one meal!

Doing different, more vigorous exercise will help you to burn calories faster, but I thought using burning calories walking as an example was the best idea as that is something that we all have no excuse for not being able to do.

I worked this out using an online calculator that requires your weight in pounds and the distance you plan to walk, check the walking calories calculator out here.

Also if you are American and work in kilometers instead of miles, there are 1.609344 kilometers in a mile.

I just wanted to use this post as an example of how fast food can take up a huge portion of your calorie allowance each day, and can really contribute to weight gain.

Eating something like a McDonald's meal is something that should be more of a treat than a regular occurrence, as the calories involved are really not going to do you any good if you are serious about maintaining or reducing your weight.

Find out how many calories are found in everyday foods in order to work out what your calorie intake is, at my website www.calories-in-foods.com .