2,200 Calories?

So I finished up the Prevent a Second Heart Attack book and I found everything in it both believable and workable until I get to the last chapter on prevention methods, and that's the one about exercise. If you've been reading here for any length of time you know I'm a huge proponent of exercise. However, I had a little trouble with one sentence in the book: "Studies show that if you burn at least 1,600 calories per week through exercise, you will halt the progression of atherosclerosis - and if you burn 2,200 calories per week, you can actually reverse the progression of atherosclerosis."

More than once I've burned 2,200 calories in a day, let alone a week, and my average week easily tops 1,600. When I was riding my bike to work every day I was burning about 2,000 per week just for that with running and boxing on top of that. So if the numbers in the studies are correct, which in the past I thought they were, then riddle me this Batman: How the Hell did I end up having a heart attack? Maybe what I needed rather than just the number 2,200, was some type of exchange scale. For every slice of pizza add 200 extra exercise calories to the 2,200. For every doughnut add 150 and every jelly bean add 10. At the end of the week I could've added all the junk food calories together and found out I needed to exercise 5,000 calories worth. Maybe then I would have eaten a little less of that crap.

In spite of me not fully agreeing with the 2,200 calorie theory of artery protection, the book is good. The subtitle of the book is 8 Foods, 8 Weeks to Reverse Heart Disease, and the eight foods look good and tasty. More fruits, veggies and fish, less red meat and junk food. Simple enough. Regardless of the calorie number, I'll continue exercising and try to remember that it takes more than exercise to stay healthy.