Burn It Off: How Much Jumping to Undo a Bagel with Cream Cheese?

By , SparkPeople Blogger
Most mornings, you make time to prepare and enjoy a healthy breakfast. Oatmeal, an egg white omelet, whole grain cereal and fruit-infused smoothies make regular appearances at your breakfast table. But when you're running late, breakfast is often the first thing to go. On those hectic mornings, it's often easier to hit the drive-thru, gas station or coffee shop, feeling famished and ready to give in to temping pastries and or muffins. You try to make a good choice by selecting a whole grain bagel with reduced fat cream cheese while at Panera Bread (or Atlanta Bread Company in some regions). Did you make the right choice or will you pay for it later? Just how much damage will one bagel with cream choose do? Find out how long you'd have to jump on a mini trampoline to burn off this doughy breakfast.

Panera Bread bakes fresh breads, bagels and sweet pastries each day. While they taste delicious, they are often larger than a standard serving size, which adds calories and fat to a seemingly healthy meal. According to Panera's Nutrition Guide (you'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open this is a PDF document), the Whole Grain Bagel contains 350 calories and 3 grams of fat, while the 2-oz portion of reduced fat cream cheese adds 130 calories and 12 grams of fat, bringing this breakfast-on-the-run to 480 calories and 15 grams of fat.

According to SparkPeople.com's Fitness Tracker, a 150-pound woman who jumps on a trampoline burns 4 calories per minute. To burn off this chewy breakfast, you'd have to "rebound" non-stop for 2 hours! While jumping on a trampoline is a fun activity, that's a bit much for a bagel, don't you think?

You could save fat and calories on your bagel breakfast by watching your portions. A standard bagel serving is just 3 inches wide and contains 150 calories—not 4.5 oz like this one. And who needs a whopping 2 ounces of cream cheese? Just use enough to taste and you'll drastically cut calories and fat from your bagel breakfast. Better yet, cut that bagel in half and grab an apple or banana when you walk out the door.

Do you think a bagel with cream cheese is worth 2 hours of exercise? If not, tell us which breakfast foods are worth the calories to you!