Online help counting calories

Ever wonder how many calories you really burn during your morning jog? The University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS) has an online calculator that can give you the answer. For someone who weighs 150 pounds and jogs for 30 minutes at about 7 miles per hour, it works out to be about 460 calories. How about playing tennis for an hour? That’s 400 calories. Just plug in your weight, activity and the time you spend doing that activity, and the calculator spits out an estimate for calories burned.

UMMS has 23 other calculators that can tell you your risk of developing heart disease, how many grams of carbohydrates you should eat daily, what the likelihood is that your teenager may try marijuana, and more. But beware: These tests should only be used as guidelines for addressing certain health issues. Still, if you have 15 minutes, it’s interesting. Check them out at

www.healthcalculators.org

. Tips on lightening the load

To make sure your children’s backs aren’t strained or stressed by carrying their school books around, consider these backpack suggestions from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP):

Find a bag with wide, padded shoulder straps and a padded back. Or, consider buying a rolling backpack. Just remember that rolling bags may have to be lugged up stairs and can be hard to roll on soft surfaces (such as grass or snow).

Pack heavier items closest to the center of the back, and use all the bag’s compartments. It should never weigh more than 10 or 20 percent of your child’s body weight.

Remind your children to always use both straps. Using just one strains the back.

For more back-to-school tips, visit the AAP Web site at

www.aap.org

. Compiled from News wire service sources