The 40/40 Club

There are a few 40/40 Clubs that I can think of off the top of my head. One is the 40/40 Club in Major League Baseball that only players who've hit 40 homers and stolen 40 bases in the same season belong to. There's also the insanely hard 40/40 Challenge put on by Fitness Anywhere, the makers of the VERY INCREDIBLY AWESOME TRX Suspension Training System. That calls for 40 Atomic Push-ups and 40 Rows. It's killer.

But there is one more 40/40 rule that's not nearly as cool. This one has to do with Americans and how much they eat and how much they (don't) move. This 40/40 club is infamous because it states that the average American consumes about 40% more calories and burns about 40% fewer calories per day than they actually think they do. That's a double whammy if I've ever heard of one.

That's a massive swing - an 80% swing! It would be one thing if most people were very, very active and consumed 40% more cals than they think they do (and there is probably a good portion of the population that does exactly that), but combine that with the fact that most people are sedentary...well, that's a recipe for disaster. And it is, in my opinion, THE REASON for the obesity epidemic in America. You can't have that kind of misinterpretation of your caloric/energy balance and not pay the price.

This is why being active is so important. This is why you can't move enough. This is why burning calories is of utmost importance. You've gotta turn your body into a furnace for burning fuels - and those fuels are calories from the food you eat. And then once you get the fuels under control enough so that you're giving your machine (your body) the right amount of fuel, you'll achieve all of the fitness goals you've ever wanted. But it takes control of both sides of that caloric balance coin for this to happen.

Livestrong.com and other websites like it give you the ability to track your food AND your workouts. They can give you a MUCH better understanding of where you are, where you've been, and what more you can do to keep your day in line when it comes to calorie consumption and expense.