Occasionally — and especially during the holidays — even the most disciplined people slip up with nutrition and sneak in some junk calories. Most athletes don't worry too much about deviating from their meal plan, since they burn so many calories in daily training. But if you want an exact calculation of how to burn off the meal you just ate, we've got you covered with a Spartan favorite: burpees!

Related: These 3 Workouts Will Burn Off Your Thanksgiving Dinner

At Spartan HQ, we have been conducting research to quantify energy expenditure during the burpee exercise — essentially, what the burpee equivalent to junk food would be. Here's what we found.

How Many Burpees Will Burn Off These Foods?

1 slice of apple pie a la mode 

• Calories = 420
• Burpees for a 130-pound person = 408 
• Burpees for a 180-pound person = 294

1/2 cup of cranberry sauce

• Calories = 209
• Burpees for a 130-pound person = 197
• Burpees for a 180-pound person = 146

1 large serving of French fries 

• Calories = 500
• Burpees for a 130-pound person = 524 
• Burpees for a 180-pound person = 349

1 IPA beer

• Calories = 195
• Burpees for a 130-pound person = 204 
• Burpees for a 180-pound person = 136

1 Slice of Domino’s pepperoni pizza

• Calories = 260
• Burpees for a 130-pound person = 272 
• Burpees for a 180-pound person = 182

1, 8-ounce Ted’s Bison Cheeseburger

• Calories = 730
• Burpees for a 130-pound person = 765 
• Burpees for a 180-pound person = 510
  
  

Related: 6 Healthier, Macro-Friendly Swaps for Your Favorite Thanksgiving Dishes

1 scoop of Ben & Jerry’s Cookie Dough ice cream 

• Calories = 270
• Burpees for a 130-pound person = 283 
• Burpees for a 180-pound person = 189

1, 12-inch roast beef sub from Subway

• Calories = 970
• Burpees for a 130-pound person = 1,016 
• Burpees for a 180-pound person = 677

1 fried calamari appetizer

• Calories = 700
• Burpees for a 130-pound person = 733
• Burpees for a 180-pound person = 489

1 plain bagel

• Calories = 320
• Burpees for a 130-pound person = 335 
• Burpees for a 180-pound person = 223

1 slice of cheesecake

• Calories = 1,000
• Burpees for a 130-pound person = 1,048 
• Burpees for a 180-pound person = 698

1 Egg McMuffin

• Calories = 300
• Burpees for a 130-pound person = 314 
• Burpees for a 180-pound person = 210

1 Cadbury Creme Egg

• Calories = 59
• Burpees for a 130-pound person = 62 
• Burpees for a 180-pound person = 41

How Science Can Calculate the Burpee Equivalent of Food

The first step is to calculate the amount of "work" being performed during a burpee, calculated as:

Work (w) = force (f) x distance (d) –  f = weight of the individual in kilograms –  d = distance from the floor to the maximal height of the head during the jump in meters.

Example, Male Athlete A:

• Height: 71 inches (1.80 meters) – Weight: 180 lbs (81.8 kilograms) – Average vertical jump during 5-minute burpee test: 5 in. (0.12 m)
• Total vertical displacement from the floor to maximal jump height: 1.92 m (height plus jump height) – work = 81.8 x 1.92 – work  = 157 kg/m – Given:  1 kcal = 426.4 kg/m. Thus, 0.368 kcals of mechanical work are exerted per burpee.

External mechanical work, or the work that is being performed, does not equal the amount of work that is being produced internally. Humans aren’t 100% efficient. Efficiency during running and cycling is about 25%. Thus, for the body to perform 25 calories of external work, it must produce 100 calories of energy internally. That means that the body has to produce 1.47 calories of internal energy to produce 0.368 calories of external mechanical work per burpee repetition.

Related: Do You Need to Count Calories to Lose Weight?

We can also calculate energy production during the burpee exercise by measuring oxygen consumption with metabolic cart. We had several athletes perform the burpees exercise at a constant rate for 3 minutes while wearing a portable metabolic measuring system that continuously measured oxygen consumption.  The average rate was 10 burpees per minute, and the average oxygen consumption during the last minute of exercise was 35 milliliters of oxygen per kilogram of body weight per minute (ml O2/kg/min). We found the measured oxygen cost of a single burpee to be 3.5 ml O2/kg/burpee.

To convert oxygen cost to energy expenditure, we did the following:

Example (same athlete as above):

• Total oxygen consumed during a single burpee is calculated as the product of body weight (kg) and O2 cost in ml/kg/min 
• 81.8 kg X 3.5 ml O2/kg/Burpee =  286 mlO2/Burpee or 0.286 liters (l) of O2/Burpee.
• One liter of oxygen is equivalent to about 5 kcals.
• 0.286 l O2 X 5 kcals/l  = 1.43 kcals/burpee.

As you can see, there is good agreement between the 2 methods (1.47 and 1.43 kcals/burpee, respectively).

Spartan Expert and SGX Coach Dr. Jeff Godin is Spartan’s Head of Fitness Education and an Associate Professor in the Department of Exercise and Sports Science, Fitchburg State University.