Why do so many people ignore calories burned with exercise in CICO?

12467

Replies

  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
    ncboiler89 wrote: »
    CoolRider_ wrote: »
    Nobody here is burning 4000 calories a day.

    I don't think the numbers were meant to be literal.

    I don't either but also don't think that they helped either. They provided some of the confusion. But I've also given up hope for clarification.
  • This content has been removed.
  • ruggedshutter
    ruggedshutter Posts: 389 Member
    I don't see what the problem is by telling people that weight loss happens in the kitchen and exercise is to increase your health. I say it because it's true. 90% of your weight loss is going to come from having a calorie deficit. Burning 200-300 calories is only about 10% of most people's daily calorie burn. Increasing that 10% isn't going to do a whole lot to your overall calorie deficit each day. That's equivalent to not eating a couple of cookies or a handful of peanuts.
  • maidentl
    maidentl Posts: 3,203 Member
    sgthaggard wrote: »
    999tigger wrote: »
    Some people manage to dismiss exercise altogether and the contribution it can make towards burning calories and potential deficit.

    They first focus on consuming less because thats easier for most people to do than burn the equivalent. I think I get your point OP in that exercise can still make a significant contribution in terms of calories burned towards helping you stay in deficit. You are annoyed because people dismiss it?
    The ever-popular "exercise for fitness, diet for weight loss" makes me a bit nuts.

    I get that a lot of people overestimate their burn. I see it daily amongst my friends. But that's really not a reason to discount it's effect on weight loss.

    I ran 5k yesterday. That allowed me to have a sizeable dinner with hundreds of calories to spare. Throughout this whole process, exercise has allowed me to eat at a reasonable level so that I don't feel deprived and I don't feel like giving up.

    It frustrates me as well. My TDEE without exercise is about 1600 calories. So I simultaneously have people on here insisting that no one should eat 1200 calories and people insisting that we don't burn that many calories with exercise, so don't count on it too much for your deficit. :confused:
  • onyxgirl17
    onyxgirl17 Posts: 1,722 Member
    ncboiler89 wrote: »
    onyxgirl17 wrote: »
    I think many times people overestimate exercise calories...

    Which is the opposite of ignore.

    ... in a way it could justify ignoring exercise cals, if they are overestimated anyways.

  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    maidentl wrote: »
    sgthaggard wrote: »
    999tigger wrote: »
    Some people manage to dismiss exercise altogether and the contribution it can make towards burning calories and potential deficit.

    They first focus on consuming less because thats easier for most people to do than burn the equivalent. I think I get your point OP in that exercise can still make a significant contribution in terms of calories burned towards helping you stay in deficit. You are annoyed because people dismiss it?
    The ever-popular "exercise for fitness, diet for weight loss" makes me a bit nuts.

    I get that a lot of people overestimate their burn. I see it daily amongst my friends. But that's really not a reason to discount it's effect on weight loss.

    I ran 5k yesterday. That allowed me to have a sizeable dinner with hundreds of calories to spare. Throughout this whole process, exercise has allowed me to eat at a reasonable level so that I don't feel deprived and I don't feel like giving up.

    It frustrates me as well. My TDEE without exercise is about 1600 calories. So I simultaneously have people on here insisting that no one should eat 1200 calories and people insisting that we don't burn that many calories with exercise, so don't count on it too much for your deficit. :confused:

    I have never seen anyone here insist that no one should ever eat 1,200 calories. I have seen people point out that 1,200 isn't a good goal for many of the people who select it (usually because they set their weekly goal too high or because they have a mistaken idea this is what they "need" to eat for weight loss).
  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
    ...what are your recommendations for a person who doesn't use the TDEE method... say for a person like me whose health is dodgy enough not to be able to be consistently active.

    In terms of weight loss, a person in that state is unlikely to be fit enough to generate enough of a burn to be worth tracking. Especially since risk of over-estimating is so high.

    Personally I wouldn't bother logging it at all, other than as an intellectual exercise or if you want to see if your exercise habits are changing.

  • HeySwoleSister
    HeySwoleSister Posts: 1,938 Member

    Well, yes. It DOES happen when you're just laying around on the sofa watching television. Unless you're a zombie. I don't want any zombies on this forum.

    I vote 'Yes' for Zombies on the forum.

    I know, right? What is all this "I don't want any zombies on this forum," bigotry.

    I'm pro-zombie rights. They deserve to be welcomed and encouraged to buy a food scale to weigh appropriate portions of brains.
  • sgthaggard
    sgthaggard Posts: 581 Member
    I don't see what the problem is by telling people that weight loss happens in the kitchen and exercise is to increase your health. I say it because it's true. 90% of your weight loss is going to come from having a calorie deficit. Burning 200-300 calories is only about 10% of most people's daily calorie burn. Increasing that 10% isn't going to do a whole lot to your overall calorie deficit each day. That's equivalent to not eating a couple of cookies or a handful of peanuts.
    300 calories is my daily deficit. Exercise, for me, is the difference between losing weight and maintaining.

  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    MrM27 wrote: »
    What a surprise, the OP never came back to acknowledge anything. On the plus side it seems everyone is in agreement that the OP is making no sense at all. That's pretty rare on MFP so you know it's bad.

    it does seem we have about 100% consensus on this thread....

    maybe that is why OP has not waded back in???
  • ILiftHeavyAcrylics
    ILiftHeavyAcrylics Posts: 27,732 Member
    EWJLang wrote: »

    Well, yes. It DOES happen when you're just laying around on the sofa watching television. Unless you're a zombie. I don't want any zombies on this forum.

    I vote 'Yes' for Zombies on the forum.

    I know, right? What is all this "I don't want any zombies on this forum," bigotry.

    I'm pro-zombie rights. They deserve to be welcomed and encouraged to buy a food scale to weigh appropriate portions of brains.

    As long as they aren't my brains that's fine with me.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    sgthaggard wrote: »
    I don't see what the problem is by telling people that weight loss happens in the kitchen and exercise is to increase your health. I say it because it's true. 90% of your weight loss is going to come from having a calorie deficit. Burning 200-300 calories is only about 10% of most people's daily calorie burn. Increasing that 10% isn't going to do a whole lot to your overall calorie deficit each day. That's equivalent to not eating a couple of cookies or a handful of peanuts.
    300 calories is my daily deficit. Exercise, for me, is the difference between losing weight and maintaining.

    I don't understand -- a deficit doesn't "care" if it is created through diet or exercise. I understand that exercise can help make a deficit a lot easier (I do this myself) because we can eat more, but a deficit is a deficit.
  • hortensehildegarde
    hortensehildegarde Posts: 592 Member
    sandryc79 wrote: »
    Am I the only person who is not even sure what the OP is trying to say?

    no I had the same question
  • hortensehildegarde
    hortensehildegarde Posts: 592 Member
    sandryc79 wrote: »
    Am I the only person who is not even sure what the OP is trying to say?

    I just don't get where people who say it doesn't matter if you exercise and those calories don't really count.

    I've never seen anyone say this. I see people say that they choose not to eat back their exercise calories. I see people say they put their activity level at highly active and don't log their exercise. I see people say they do TDEE so they don't eat back their exercise calories. I have seen people say where you don't need to exercise to lose weight/create a deficit.

    I have never ever seen anyone say that calories expended via exercise don't count in CICO.
  • maidentl
    maidentl Posts: 3,203 Member
    maidentl wrote: »
    sgthaggard wrote: »
    999tigger wrote: »
    Some people manage to dismiss exercise altogether and the contribution it can make towards burning calories and potential deficit.

    They first focus on consuming less because thats easier for most people to do than burn the equivalent. I think I get your point OP in that exercise can still make a significant contribution in terms of calories burned towards helping you stay in deficit. You are annoyed because people dismiss it?
    The ever-popular "exercise for fitness, diet for weight loss" makes me a bit nuts.

    I get that a lot of people overestimate their burn. I see it daily amongst my friends. But that's really not a reason to discount it's effect on weight loss.

    I ran 5k yesterday. That allowed me to have a sizeable dinner with hundreds of calories to spare. Throughout this whole process, exercise has allowed me to eat at a reasonable level so that I don't feel deprived and I don't feel like giving up.

    It frustrates me as well. My TDEE without exercise is about 1600 calories. So I simultaneously have people on here insisting that no one should eat 1200 calories and people insisting that we don't burn that many calories with exercise, so don't count on it too much for your deficit. :confused:

    I have never seen anyone here insist that no one should ever eat 1,200 calories. I have seen people point out that 1,200 isn't a good goal for many of the people who select it (usually because they set their weekly goal too high or because they have a mistaken idea this is what they "need" to eat for weight loss).

    OK, to be fair, the thread I saw the other day said 99.9% of people shouldn't eat 1200 calories.

  • yopeeps025
    yopeeps025 Posts: 8,680 Member
    in
    This will be good.
  • sgthaggard
    sgthaggard Posts: 581 Member
    sgthaggard wrote: »
    I don't see what the problem is by telling people that weight loss happens in the kitchen and exercise is to increase your health. I say it because it's true. 90% of your weight loss is going to come from having a calorie deficit. Burning 200-300 calories is only about 10% of most people's daily calorie burn. Increasing that 10% isn't going to do a whole lot to your overall calorie deficit each day. That's equivalent to not eating a couple of cookies or a handful of peanuts.
    300 calories is my daily deficit. Exercise, for me, is the difference between losing weight and maintaining.

    I don't understand -- a deficit doesn't "care" if it is created through diet or exercise. I understand that exercise can help make a deficit a lot easier (I do this myself) because we can eat more, but a deficit is a deficit.
    That's exactly my point - a deficit doesn't care how it's created. I could create a deficit through diet alone, I could create one through exercise alone, or I could create one through a combination of both. Discounting exercise by saying it improves your health but has nothing to do with weight loss is where I take issue.

    Not everyone needs exercise to lose weight but it can play a major role.
  • SergeantSausage
    SergeantSausage Posts: 1,673 Member
    I don't see what the problem is by telling people that weight loss happens in the kitchen and exercise is to increase your health. I say it because it's true. 90% of your weight loss is going to come from having a calorie deficit. Burning 200-300 calories is only about 10% of most people's daily calorie burn. Increasing that 10% isn't going to do a whole lot to your overall calorie deficit each day. That's equivalent to not eating a couple of cookies or a handful of peanuts.


    100%, Bro.

    ALL of you weight loss comes from a calorie deficit (modulo water).

    All of it.

  • This content has been removed.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    maidentl wrote: »
    maidentl wrote: »
    sgthaggard wrote: »
    999tigger wrote: »
    Some people manage to dismiss exercise altogether and the contribution it can make towards burning calories and potential deficit.

    They first focus on consuming less because thats easier for most people to do than burn the equivalent. I think I get your point OP in that exercise can still make a significant contribution in terms of calories burned towards helping you stay in deficit. You are annoyed because people dismiss it?
    The ever-popular "exercise for fitness, diet for weight loss" makes me a bit nuts.

    I get that a lot of people overestimate their burn. I see it daily amongst my friends. But that's really not a reason to discount it's effect on weight loss.

    I ran 5k yesterday. That allowed me to have a sizeable dinner with hundreds of calories to spare. Throughout this whole process, exercise has allowed me to eat at a reasonable level so that I don't feel deprived and I don't feel like giving up.

    It frustrates me as well. My TDEE without exercise is about 1600 calories. So I simultaneously have people on here insisting that no one should eat 1200 calories and people insisting that we don't burn that many calories with exercise, so don't count on it too much for your deficit. :confused:

    I have never seen anyone here insist that no one should ever eat 1,200 calories. I have seen people point out that 1,200 isn't a good goal for many of the people who select it (usually because they set their weekly goal too high or because they have a mistaken idea this is what they "need" to eat for weight loss).

    OK, to be fair, the thread I saw the other day said 99.9% of people shouldn't eat 1200 calories.

    So even that poster acknowledges there would still be some people for whom it is an appropriate goal, right? You just disagree with that poster about the percentages.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    sgthaggard wrote: »
    sgthaggard wrote: »
    I don't see what the problem is by telling people that weight loss happens in the kitchen and exercise is to increase your health. I say it because it's true. 90% of your weight loss is going to come from having a calorie deficit. Burning 200-300 calories is only about 10% of most people's daily calorie burn. Increasing that 10% isn't going to do a whole lot to your overall calorie deficit each day. That's equivalent to not eating a couple of cookies or a handful of peanuts.
    300 calories is my daily deficit. Exercise, for me, is the difference between losing weight and maintaining.

    I don't understand -- a deficit doesn't "care" if it is created through diet or exercise. I understand that exercise can help make a deficit a lot easier (I do this myself) because we can eat more, but a deficit is a deficit.
    That's exactly my point - a deficit doesn't care how it's created. I could create a deficit through diet alone, I could create one through exercise alone, or I could create one through a combination of both. Discounting exercise by saying it improves your health but has nothing to do with weight loss is where I take issue.

    Not everyone needs exercise to lose weight but it can play a major role.

    The deficit creates the weight loss. We can choose how we want to create it. It can play a major role. It can play no role.
  • jofjltncb6
    jofjltncb6 Posts: 34,415 Member
    maidentl wrote: »
    maidentl wrote: »
    sgthaggard wrote: »
    999tigger wrote: »
    Some people manage to dismiss exercise altogether and the contribution it can make towards burning calories and potential deficit.

    They first focus on consuming less because thats easier for most people to do than burn the equivalent. I think I get your point OP in that exercise can still make a significant contribution in terms of calories burned towards helping you stay in deficit. You are annoyed because people dismiss it?
    The ever-popular "exercise for fitness, diet for weight loss" makes me a bit nuts.

    I get that a lot of people overestimate their burn. I see it daily amongst my friends. But that's really not a reason to discount it's effect on weight loss.

    I ran 5k yesterday. That allowed me to have a sizeable dinner with hundreds of calories to spare. Throughout this whole process, exercise has allowed me to eat at a reasonable level so that I don't feel deprived and I don't feel like giving up.

    It frustrates me as well. My TDEE without exercise is about 1600 calories. So I simultaneously have people on here insisting that no one should eat 1200 calories and people insisting that we don't burn that many calories with exercise, so don't count on it too much for your deficit. :confused:

    I have never seen anyone here insist that no one should ever eat 1,200 calories. I have seen people point out that 1,200 isn't a good goal for many of the people who select it (usually because they set their weekly goal too high or because they have a mistaken idea this is what they "need" to eat for weight loss).

    OK, to be fair, the thread I saw the other day said 99.9% of people shouldn't eat 1200 calories.

    So even that poster acknowledges there would still be some people for whom it is an appropriate goal, right? You just disagree with that poster about the percentages.

    I'd guess that about 99.9% of us people who believe that 1200 isn't a good goal for many of the people who select it would disagree with that particular poster about the percentages.
  • sgthaggard
    sgthaggard Posts: 581 Member
    sgthaggard wrote: »
    sgthaggard wrote: »
    I don't see what the problem is by telling people that weight loss happens in the kitchen and exercise is to increase your health. I say it because it's true. 90% of your weight loss is going to come from having a calorie deficit. Burning 200-300 calories is only about 10% of most people's daily calorie burn. Increasing that 10% isn't going to do a whole lot to your overall calorie deficit each day. That's equivalent to not eating a couple of cookies or a handful of peanuts.
    300 calories is my daily deficit. Exercise, for me, is the difference between losing weight and maintaining.

    I don't understand -- a deficit doesn't "care" if it is created through diet or exercise. I understand that exercise can help make a deficit a lot easier (I do this myself) because we can eat more, but a deficit is a deficit.
    That's exactly my point - a deficit doesn't care how it's created. I could create a deficit through diet alone, I could create one through exercise alone, or I could create one through a combination of both. Discounting exercise by saying it improves your health but has nothing to do with weight loss is where I take issue.

    Not everyone needs exercise to lose weight but it can play a major role.

    The deficit creates the weight loss. We can choose how we want to create it. It can play a major role. It can play no role.
    To paraphrase what I just said, yes, exactly that. ;)

  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    jofjltncb6 wrote: »
    maidentl wrote: »
    maidentl wrote: »
    sgthaggard wrote: »
    999tigger wrote: »
    Some people manage to dismiss exercise altogether and the contribution it can make towards burning calories and potential deficit.

    They first focus on consuming less because thats easier for most people to do than burn the equivalent. I think I get your point OP in that exercise can still make a significant contribution in terms of calories burned towards helping you stay in deficit. You are annoyed because people dismiss it?
    The ever-popular "exercise for fitness, diet for weight loss" makes me a bit nuts.

    I get that a lot of people overestimate their burn. I see it daily amongst my friends. But that's really not a reason to discount it's effect on weight loss.

    I ran 5k yesterday. That allowed me to have a sizeable dinner with hundreds of calories to spare. Throughout this whole process, exercise has allowed me to eat at a reasonable level so that I don't feel deprived and I don't feel like giving up.

    It frustrates me as well. My TDEE without exercise is about 1600 calories. So I simultaneously have people on here insisting that no one should eat 1200 calories and people insisting that we don't burn that many calories with exercise, so don't count on it too much for your deficit. :confused:

    I have never seen anyone here insist that no one should ever eat 1,200 calories. I have seen people point out that 1,200 isn't a good goal for many of the people who select it (usually because they set their weekly goal too high or because they have a mistaken idea this is what they "need" to eat for weight loss).

    OK, to be fair, the thread I saw the other day said 99.9% of people shouldn't eat 1200 calories.

    So even that poster acknowledges there would still be some people for whom it is an appropriate goal, right? You just disagree with that poster about the percentages.

    I'd guess that about 99.9% of us people who believe that 1200 isn't a good goal for many of the people who select it would disagree with that particular poster about the percentages.

    I disagree myself.
  • eeelizabeth2012
    eeelizabeth2012 Posts: 132 Member
    Exercise plays a bigger part than I realized. I would go to the gym daily and cut my calories... but it wasn't enough. Nothing was ever enough. I focused more on calories than on my workouts. THAT did not work.

    Ever since I got a Fitbit 3 weeks ago I lost 5 lbs. I am always moving trying to get more steps and beat people at challenges. I now workout EASILY 2-4 times a day and this helps cravings and bad eating because I am more focused on moving and less on food.

    This is what works best for me.
  • magerum
    magerum Posts: 12,589 Member
    I don't get it. Writer says, "I'm exercising 4,000 calories a day and eating 2,000 calories but I'm not losing weight" and the answer is almost always CICO. Then there's the accusations that the poster is not logging calories accurately, not weighing the food, and that even though they claim to exercise, it's always "CICO". Huh? Is not burning calories by exercising calories out?

    How can you say that you don't have to burn calories to have the CO part of CICO? Do you think it happens when we just lay around on the sofa watching television? EXERCISE burns calories and is part of the CALORIES OUT! Whoever is guilty, stop saying that exercise doesn't contribute, because it does. To those who cannot exercise for health reasons, I am not talking about you, even though I have a friend here who has everything against her yet she is still excelling.

    Okay, off my soapbox.

    If you're alive, then yes you do.
  • orlandodenise
    orlandodenise Posts: 54 Member
    I bought a bike Monday last week. Ive eaten basically the same calories as before but because of the extra effort of riding the bike to the gym and back - I lost 6 pounds this week ! Ive had to up the calories and slow down the exercise.
  • fatcity66
    fatcity66 Posts: 1,544 Member
    newmeadow wrote: »
    I was told by a fitness expert that if an individual is unable to run for two miles within 20 minutes, cardiovascular efforts will be mostly futile in terms of significant calorie burning.

    ETA: Thanks all, for the tips on manually adjusting exercise calories burned. I didn't know that could be done.

    That "expert" sounds like they're full of ****.
  • acorsaut89
    acorsaut89 Posts: 1,147 Member
    edited March 2015
    nannersp61 wrote: »
    I want to add a point about calories in. A few weeks ago I noticed I was not losing weight. I was eating between 1200 to 1500 a day and exercising 1 1/2 hours to 2 hours every day. Averaging 10,000 to 12,000 steps a day. I talked to my health coach about it. She suggested that because of all the exercise I was doing that I was not eating enough food. Specifically, I needed to double my protein intake, up my carbs and watch my sodium to keep it under 2200 a day. I did that and lo and behold, the pounds began coming off, easily! I am no longer having rebound weight gain after a loss. So, consider the kinds of foods you are eating and the effect exercise is having on your body. Sometimes exercising for more than two hours begins to tell your body that you are in starvation mode so it shuts off your metabolism and holds back on releasing fat. Eat more of the right kinds of food and you will begin to see progress again.

    Um but no . . . this type of starvation mode is a myth.

    Chances are that before you saw you body coach you were eating more than you thought you were and therefore consuming more than you needed to.

    If you eat less than what you burn in a day, you will lose weight. This whole eat more to lose is also a myth.

    Further - what exactly is the "right kind of food" because I eat burgers and pasta and pizza and ice cream and cupcakes and well everything and I still lose weight. It's not the right kind of food, it's the right amount of food that counts. Everything in moderation.
  • acorsaut89
    acorsaut89 Posts: 1,147 Member
    sgthaggard wrote: »
    999tigger wrote: »
    Some people manage to dismiss exercise altogether and the contribution it can make towards burning calories and potential deficit.

    They first focus on consuming less because thats easier for most people to do than burn the equivalent. I think I get your point OP in that exercise can still make a significant contribution in terms of calories burned towards helping you stay in deficit. You are annoyed because people dismiss it?
    The ever-popular "exercise for fitness, diet for weight loss" makes me a bit nuts.

    I get that a lot of people overestimate their burn. I see it daily amongst my friends. But that's really not a reason to discount it's effect on weight loss.

    I ran 5k yesterday. That allowed me to have a sizeable dinner with hundreds of calories to spare. Throughout this whole process, exercise has allowed me to eat at a reasonable level so that I don't feel deprived and I don't feel like giving up.

    But because you ran that 5K you get some extra calories (I don't know how many in your case) to essentially "play with for the day" so that you can eat your sizeable dinner. Working out gives you extra calories, so you can eat more without eating more than your body needs in a day. It helps you get fit, but you can lose weight without actually exercising as long as your intake is less than your output.

    So really, you are exercising for fitness, "dieting" for weight loss. If you didn't have that run, you still could have eaten the dinner you had but you wouldn't have had extra calories, and you may have even gone over your TDEE.
This discussion has been closed.