Why bother logging exercise?

flippy1234

If your goal is to lose weight, why bother logging exercise when you should really just be worrying about calories? If you don't eat back your exercise calories, you will lose weight faster, so why bother?
I am not logging mine. I exercise most days and stay, or try to stay in calorie goal. I feel like if I see how many calories I have expended exercising, it's a false sense that I can eat more.

Just my thoughts....

jemhh

Faster is not always better.

mccindy72

If you are using the MFP system of losing, the calorie deficit is already calculated for you. Any exercise calories you burn are above and beyond that calculated deficit, and the deficit will be too large. If you have too large of a deficit consistently, you run the risk of loss of lean muscle, hair loss, and eventually organ damage. Your skin also needs time to retract with your body as you lose weight, or you will have problems with sagging that won't ever repair without surgery.

avskk

I actually don't log exercise unless I've done an unusual amount of it. Walking or jogging a mile or two? I don't log it. Hardcore cycling 15 miles? I log it and eat back what I'm hungry for. It's really just a way to keep track of how physical activity affects my hunger versus how much it actually burns.

malibu927

I feel like if I see how many calories I have expended exercising, it's a false sense that I can eat more.

That's actually the entire point of exercise calories on MFP. You're better off not eating all of them, as burn estimations can often be high, but they're there to fuel your body and keep your deficit steady. Losing faster isn't always better.

Christine_72

say I was set at 1400 calories. . I then went and burned 1000 calories through exercise. If I didn't eat those back then my net calories for the day would be 400. you would burn out in more ways than one in record time.

mccindy72

avskk wrote: »

I actually don't log exercise unless I've done an unusual amount of it. Walking or jogging a mile or two? I don't log it. Hardcore cycling 15 miles? I log it and eat back what I'm hungry for. It's really just a way to keep track of how physical activity affects my hunger versus how much it actually burns.

It's a good idea to track your weight loss over a few weeks' time and ensure that your rate of loss is still in the range you've set your calorie deficit for ( 1lb., 2 lb., or whatever). Be sure it's not faster than you have your goal set for, so you aren't losing lean muscle. Hunger is not the best indicator of whether you are eating enough.

Yi5hedr3

Eat back half.

rankinsect

I don't log exercise per se because the types I do tend to be very hard to accurately estimate (strength training and HIIT). That said, I regularly dump my data into an excel spreadsheet and calculate my apparent TDEE based on my logs of food and weight. I aim for a calorie deficit that is high without being absurd or unsustainable. I figure my actual calorie goals based off of that.

mccindy72

Yi5hedr3 wrote: »

Eat back half.

That works in the beginning - but then you must verify after several weeks that the correct amount of weight is being lost, and make adjustments accordingly. Blanket statements don't often apply to everyone.

atypicalsmith

I log purposeful exercise, such as two miles on a treadmill or walking my dog a mile, just to keep myself accountable to ME. But if I go into a housekeeping frenzy (which is rare), I don't log it, just as I don't divide the total steps on fitbit by my average steps per mile and put down that I walked seven (or whatever) miles when my only purposeful walking was three or four miles.

random5483

As others have stated, MFP calculates your deficit without counting exercise. When you add exercise, you want to keep your deficit at the same level. If you are aiming for 0.5 lbs or 1 lb a week of weight loss and do moderate exercise, not logging it might be fine. If you are aiming for 1.5 lbs or 2 lbs a week of weight loss or do a lot of exercise, eating back some of your exercise calories is important. Losing weight too fast is unhealthy and can even be dangerous. While 2 lbs is not the absolute limit for everyone (it can be too fast for people who don't have much to lose and those who are morbidly obese might be able to lose a bit more than 2 a week), it is a good rule of thumb.

For most of us, a deficit in the 250-1000 calorie range a day is good. If you do 1000 calories of exercise burn and already have a built in deficit of 1000 calories based on your MFP goals, you are now losing 2000 calories a day. This level of loss is dangerous over several weeks or months. A safer way would be to set a 500-1000 deficit goal, and eat back half to 75% of your exercise burn. This will result in a loss closer to 1.5-2+ lbs. If you start losing more than 2+ lbs a week over a month or more, eat back a little more of your exercise calories. If you loose less, eat back a little less of your exercise calories. For me, my exercise calories are pretty spot on, so I eat back 75% or so of them.

goldthistime

I consider the notification that MFP puts out to my friends that I have exercised today to be a bit of a gold star. It's a little extra motivation. That's why I log it. Having extra calories available doesn't necessarily tempt me to eat more, but on days where I'm hungry, I will eat every last one.

3dogsrunning

Weight loss is a goal for me but performance is also. As others have mentioned, MFP's calorie goal does not include exercise so you are creating a larger deficit when you exercise and don't log it. Deficit is good, a very large deficit is not always the best idea. I've done the low calorie intake/high exercise burns, lost the weight and struggled after. And it affects performance. I prefer to have a moderate deficit. Faster is not always better. It's much easier for me when it comes time to maintain (I lost, struggled, finally was able to maintain goal wegith, then I got pregnant) I was also doing a ton of activity, more than average so it made a big difference in my calorie intake.

SueInAz

Exercise calories don't create a "false sense that you can eat more." Using MFP correctly means that you're supposed to eat more because you exercised. MFP is set up so that you can lose weight without exercise. Not everyone can exercise, after all. You already have the calorie deficit needed to lose weight at the rate you specified in your goals (.5 to 2 pounds per week) when you set up MFP with your personal information. When you exercise, you earn calories to eat because eating them maintains the deficit needed to meet your goal.

If you have a lot of weight to lose, you may find that you don't need to eat the extra calories because you'd have more calories available to eat so hunger isn't an issue. Most of us with only a few pounds to lose, or eating close to 1200 calories per day, seem to find that we need to eat at least some of them back because exercise makes us more hungry.

As others have pointed out, losing weight faster just because you can is not necessarily a good thing. There are adverse side effects like hair loss, excess lean muscle loss, fatigue, and irritability to contend with. Also excess loose skin is more likely since your skin can't shrink fast enough to keep up with your body shrinking beneath it.

daniwilford

I also log aerobic exercise and eat those back. 4 miles of the 6 miles I walked today were purposeful exercise above and beyond my sedentary setting. I log strength training just to help myself keep track. MFP is a tool, make it work for you. Under eating by over exercising is not healthy and is likely to trigger a binge.

Liftng4Lis

MFP already has the deficit built in and therefore is designed to eat back exercise calories. Losing "faster" doesn't mean it's better, it means theres a bigger chance to gain it back. For me, sustainability is key.

BurnWithBarn2015

First of all i log it because it keeps me going...seeing the numbers up there.

Second...when you collect all your data the number of burned calories will matter in the long run. The more data you have the more accurate you can calculate later your TDEE.

Third and most important to me, nutrition's!. When i am on a 1200 - 1500 calorie diet ( or even more) that means that is the minimum to keep my body going and alive. So not working or exercising.
When i go and exercise...yes those burned calories help losing weight. But you should feed the motor back some fuel isn't it? Those 1200 to 1500 calories is a minimum to keep your body going, a minimum. Not to exercise too. You muscles/body will need more protein and sugars and carbs to do this...and most important because it will take some time before you notice it, to KEEP exercising! Lots of people burn out in the long run, for this reason. Not feeding their body.

I was for months on 1200 and yes i could exercise.
Now being on 1500-1600 calories a day + a part of my burned calories, i am far more active again, fitter and energetic to do more. So i burn even more, it takes much longer before i get tired of my exercise so i can exercise longer. My body is stronger because i feed it!
So a win win situations.

So yes you lose more when you dont eat back your burned calories. If it is wise to do so and deprive your body from fuel while you let it work harder in my opinion not wise at all.

Jruzer

She who eats the most while losing weight wins.

CooCooPuff

Jruzer wrote: »

She who eats the most while losing weight wins.

This

And from personal experience, losing weight too quickly is never fun.

Asher_Ethan

The prize of this game is to eat more and lose weight. When I exercise, I get to eat more and still lose. I find it a win, win, win that way.

robertw486

Asher_Ethan wrote: »

The prize of this game is to eat more and lose weight. When I exercise, I get to eat more and still lose. I find it a win, win, win that way.

That's the way I look at it most of the time. Except when I exercise too late in the day and get tired of eating!

Unknown

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Kalikel

flippy1234 wrote: »

If your goal is to lose weight, why bother logging exercise when you should really just be worrying about calories? If you don't eat back your exercise calories, you will lose weight faster, so why bother?
I am not logging mine. I exercise most days and stay, or try to stay in calorie goal. I feel like if I see how many calories I have expended exercising, it's a false sense that I can eat more.

Just my thoughts....

For the same reason you're logging your calories - to make sure you are doing it right. Also, to keep a log of what you've done. I so wish I'd started recording all my exercise right from the get-go. It would be nice to compare then and now.

I don't always eat those extra calories, but I do when I'm hungry. Sometimes I'll eat over my total, if I'm hungry enough!

Some people, especially those trying to gain, need a very good idea of how much they need to eat and the exercise calories count!

Christine_72

One of the main reasons I exercise is so I can eat more

victoria_1024

christinev297 wrote: »

One of the main reasons I exercise is so I can eat more

I was just going to write this same thing!! I usually only eat back half because I'm just guessing at the calories burned, but I'm highly motivated to work out when I get to eat more! I've lost 70 pounds since February so must be doing something right.

Christine_72

I Prelog my day first thing in the morning and 99.9% of the time I'm at least a few hundred in the red. so, if I want to eat the way I do then I have no choice but to exercise. I also have a fitbit, and watching that red number slowly go into the green is a huge motivation

Cahgetsfit

I just like to keep track of what i did in the one place. I don't want to have another app (like those lifting apps) or a spreadsheet. This way on here I can log all my weights - how I've increased from piddly weights to heavier and heavier.

I try not to eat my cals back but if I eat some of them (or all of them) then so be it. I'm already eating at 1700-1800 anyway so it's not such a bit deal like when I tried to do the 1200 and was weak and starving...

VykkDraygoVPR

christinev297 wrote: »

One of the main reasons I exercise is so I can eat more

Yes. So much this. I did an hour of cardio today after work. After that, I had 1200 calories left for supper and beer. I felt like I could eat a moose, I was so hungry during the last 10 minutes of cardio, but it was worth it.

flippy1234

Thanks all. Great advice and thoughts from all of you!