Rates of Weight Loss

When you exercise, the number of calories you burn depends on two things:
1. the type of exercise and;
2. your weight.
Dancing for one hour, for example, burns 6.3 calories for every kilogram of body
weight. That means that a 60 kilogram person would burn 378 calories in an
hour. When you walk, you burn 4.2 calories per kilo, so the same size person
would only burn 252 cal/hr (calories per hour) whilst walking. This is still much
better than watching TV where you burn only 0.8 calories per kilo so a 60kg
person would only burn 48 calories in an hour.
To put this in perspective, a large Big Mac meal contains 1,400 calories so this
same 60kg person would have to:

Dance for nearly 4 hours

Walk for 5 hours
Or watch TV for 29 hours in a row (without eating again!)

just to burn off one Big Mac meal!!!!!!!!

Now, that you know a little more about calorie rates, complete the table below
on some celebrities that you might have heard of. You need to find out how
many calories each celebrity will burn off based on their body weight (round to
nearest whole number).
NOTE: Weight loss is also measured in kilojoules (kJ). One calorie = 4.2 kJ. Use
this for Rows 3 and 4.

Taylor
Lautner
76kgs

Sam Rouen

Sam Rouen

(Pre Biggest
Loser)

(Post Biggest
Loser)

154kgs

88kgs

Kyle Lovett
100kgs

Calories per kilo

burnt off for each
activity in a one
hour period:

Walking
4.2
cal/kg/hr

319 cal/hr

_____ cal/hr _____ cal/hr _____ cal/hr

6 cal/min

_____
cal/min

_____
cal/min

_____
cal/min

Tennis
7.4
cal/kg/hr

_____
cal/min

_____
cal/min

_____
cal/min

_____
cal/min

Rowing
9.0
cal/kg/hr

2,873 kJ/hr

_____ kJ/hr

_____ kJ/hr

_____ kJ/hr

48 kJ/min

_____ kJ/min

Swimming
11.2
cal/kg/hr

_____
kJ/min

_____
kJ/min

_____
kJ/min

Based on the table above, answer the following

questions:
1. The average person needs to burn off 7,700 calories to lose one kilogram of
weight.
i.

How many calories would Sam Rouen (pre biggest loser) need to burn off
to get down to 150 kgs?

ii.

How long would it take Sam to burn off this weight by:
- Walking
-

iii.

Swimming

If Sam had a large Big Mac meal, how much longer would he need to walk
for?

2. Kyle decides to play tennis for two hours to help with his fitness regime.
i.
How many calories will he burn in each tennis session?

ii.

If he does this three times per week, how many calories will he burn per
week?

iii.

How many Big Mac meals would this be the equivalent of burning off per
week?

3. Which activity is Taylor Lautner best performing each week to maintain a

healthy body weight? Justify your answer.

4. Examining Sams weight again:

i.
What is the ratio of his pre-Biggest Loser weight to his post-Biggest Loser
weight?

ii.

If he was to lose another 10%, then what would the ratio of his pre-Biggest
Loser weight to this new weight?