Calories in, calories out - it’s not so much that it’s confusing, but that it can be hard to keep track of it all. What if, instead, nutritional labels did all the work for you, by including the amount of exercise it would take to burn off all those calories in the food? A new study found that when teenagers were shown just how many minutes of exercise it takes to burn off a can of soda, the number of people who reached for the sodas fell by 50 percent . In fact, the teens were less likely to buy the sodas if they were shown a sign

saying that it would take 50 minutes of exercise to burn one can of soda off than if they were shown a sign that told them that the sodas were each 250 calories. Thinking in terms of your workout can be an effective way of practicing healthy eating. After all, if you know how much sweat and energy it takes to burn 300 calories, you may be less likely to mindlessly reach for the office candy jar while you work. Does calculating calories in terms of how much you exercise work for you?

Excerpt from: 
Exercise Labels May Be More Effective Than Nutrition Labels