Reading & Leeds Festival goers burn over 3,000 calories a day from dancing alone

Aug. 28, 2013 - PRLog -- Reading & Leeds Festival goers burn over 3,000 calories a day from dancing alone

With an average of 87,000 people arriving at Reading and 75,000 at Leeds to enjoy a weekend of live music and fast food it may surprise the festival goers to know how many benefits there are to dancing the weekend away. On average festival goers will spend 8 hours dancing each day, that’s a whopping total combination of 696,000 hours of dancing every day at Reading and 600,000 combined hours at Leeds.

Traditionally festivals are depicted as a three day calorie fest of fast food and weight gaining beer and cider however Fitness First can reveal that an average woman will burn 2,400 calories per day and a man 3,086 in dancing alone. With the daily recommended calorie intake for women at 2,000[ii] and 2,500 for men this means festival goers can lose weight, tone up and stay health conscious whilst still having a good time.

Average female festival goers will burn off 2,400 calories a day dancing, or 7,200 over the Festival weekend.
Average male festival goers will burn off 3,086 calories a day dancing, or 9,258 over the Festival weekend.

To make your festival experience fit and healthy Fitness First provides recommendations on what foods to eat to maintain energy, what dance moves will help you burn off the most calories and how to make the most informed choices:

1.      Make sure you stay hydrated: Of course you’re going to want to enjoy your favourite tipple when watching a band but keeping a bottle of water on you means that you can just take a sip between bar visits or every time you’re having a bit of an alcohol break. It also helps to ease any severe hangovers the next morning.

2.      Get your Vitamins: Just because you’re at a festival doesn’t mean you have to neglect your vital vitamins. Festivals are full of places to purchase organic fruit topped frozen yogurt, juice bars and smoothies which are the perfect places to keep you topped up.

3.      Be Informed: Whilst it’s tempting to grab the nearest burger, processed meats and carb loading will only keep you full for so long, meaning spending more money and having less energy to dance. Choose a breakfast with complex carbs and slow release energy like porridge and berries or a wholemeal bagel and for lunch iron rich foods provide long lasting energy such as a steak sandwich or pulses such as humous and couscous.

4.      Always be at the ready:  Queues can be long and food can be expensive so adding a few healthy snacks into your backpack is a win win situation. Fruit, rice cakes, dried fruit, organic granola and seeds are all great ways of keeping energy levels high and hunger at bay meaning more time holding your front of stage space watching your favourite bands.

5.      Get Dancing: The most fun part of being at a festival and one of the best ways to burn fat and tone muscles. But fear not if you’re not that skilled, moshing arguably requires the least amount of skill, but it uses a ton of energy; there are between 400-750 calories burned moshing so dance away!

-Ends-

For further information and a tour of the clubs please contact:

Rebecca Hall at rebecca@halpern.co.uk /020 7349 2511

Laura Blake at laura@halpern.co.uk / 0207 3492490

Notes to Editors

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Fitness First is one of the largest privately owned health club groups in the world with over 370 Fitness First clubs worldwide reaching over 990,000 members in 16 countries. One of the UK’s largest health club groups with over 180,000 members.

The Fitness First Promise is a pledge to all new and existing customers to provide a (fitness) first class service for all. Some of the promises that Fitness First makes to all of their members include;

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Fitness First is a member of ukactive, the trade body which incorporates both private and public providers of fitness, physical activity, nutrition and active lifestyles.

 Based on a national average 140 pound women/180 pound man x 480 total minutes as per the approved formula depicted by, David Nieman, C. Exercise Testing and Prescription, McGraw Hill, 2003.

[ii] http://www.nhs.uk/chq/pages/1126.aspx?categoryid=51