Will Exercise For Tasties!
pjwrt
Posts: 166 Member
With my annual Winter Weight Gain looming like a jealous husband, I had to get honest with myself:
I over-exercise in order to eat a lot. I'll over-exercise to eat 3500 calories and it works. I'll stay at my target weight of 160.
Take away my exercise debits and I'll gain 2 pounds a day.
With that lightning strike of honesty, I now have to confront my overeating problem. Simple, really. All I need to do is to admit I've eaten enough calories to sustain my body. Sure, if I'm going to plow the back 90 with a teaspoon, I'll have a bigger breakfast. But if I'm going to sit at my desk or run errands, then a light breakfast is all I need.
My cravings don't mean I'm hungry. All they mean is I like the Tasties way too much.
I over-exercise in order to eat a lot. I'll over-exercise to eat 3500 calories and it works. I'll stay at my target weight of 160.
Take away my exercise debits and I'll gain 2 pounds a day.
With that lightning strike of honesty, I now have to confront my overeating problem. Simple, really. All I need to do is to admit I've eaten enough calories to sustain my body. Sure, if I'm going to plow the back 90 with a teaspoon, I'll have a bigger breakfast. But if I'm going to sit at my desk or run errands, then a light breakfast is all I need.
My cravings don't mean I'm hungry. All they mean is I like the Tasties way too much.
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Replies
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Your post is light hearted, but are you concerned about over exercising? I mean, it obvious ‘works’ if you are maintaining yr weight, but are you happy?7
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cupcakesandproteinshakes wrote: »Your post is light hearted, but are you concerned about over exercising? I mean, it obvious ‘works’ if you are maintaining yr weight, but are you happy?
Wasn't lighthearted, really. It's a problem I bet many have. Check it out. Someone exercises for the sole purpose of being able to overeat. That someone stops exercising for whatever reason, but still has the eating habit. Instant weight gain.
Over-exercising to enable overeating isn't a good thing at all.
btw, I've always had a gym, either at home or a membership. At my heaviest, I was still stronger than 99% .2 -
What sort of habits contribute to consuming 3500 calories? Is it large meals, lots of snacking, or very high calorie foods?4
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cupcakesandproteinshakes wrote: »Your post is light hearted, but are you concerned about over exercising? I mean, it obvious ‘works’ if you are maintaining yr weight, but are you happy?
Wasn't lighthearted, really. It's a problem I bet many have. Check it out. Someone exercises for the sole purpose of being able to overeat. That someone stops exercising for whatever reason, but still has the eating habit. Instant weight gain.
Over-exercising to enable overeating isn't a good thing at all.
btw, I've always had a gym, either at home or a membership. At my heaviest, I was still stronger than 99% .
I don't think this problem is talked about enough and very pervasive given the format of the platform basically "rewarding" exercise with food. I recognized I had an issue with this mindset when I found myself running the 3 miles to Chipotle so I could "earn" the guac I like on my bowl. Consequently, I switched from MFP's NEAT + exercise model to back-calculating average TDEE via a spreadsheet found in the wiki on r/fitness. Ditching the transactional relationship between exercise and calories I had developed has been incredibly freeing. I still do workout because it's something I like, contributes to my goals, and is generically good for me but not something I feel I must do or else I'll just get fat, which is basically the fear I held previously whilst trying to out-work my crappy eating habits. Reigning in my logging really helped me foster the "food for fuel" mindset as well. I'm highly numbers-driven so it's similarly freeing to eat requisite to my calories in terms of what my body needs vs making an assessment (usually poorly) based on hunger, and perceived needs/wants.25 -
Do you enjoy your exercise program? If it’s torture and you are tired of it that would be a reason to make a change. Or if your schedule has changed and you have less time available. That’s what happens to most people, family demands eat up personal time for things like exercise.
Or If you are eating the large amounts of food to stuff other emotional things or are eating all junk, it may be worth addressing it. Otherwise why mess with what works unless you are miserable or see it not being a forever lifestyle.1 -
What sort of habits contribute to consuming 3500 calories? Is it large meals, lots of snacking, or very high calorie foods?
I'm a really good cook. I can and do eat it all. Keep in mind my calorie limit is 2200, so an extra 1300 is a nothing to me. Steve's post explains it better than I can. "Rewarding exercise with food" is done by vegans and snackers alike.5 -
jumpingborderterrier wrote: »Do you enjoy your exercise program? If it’s torture and you are tired of it that would be a reason to make a change. Or if your schedule has changed and you have less time available. That’s what happens to most people, family demands eat up personal time for things like exercise.
Or If you are eating the large amounts of food to stuff other emotional things or are eating all junk, it may be worth addressing it. Otherwise why mess with what works unless you are miserable or see it not being a forever lifestyle.
Our winters are wet, cold, and the days are about six hours long. It doesn't take much to be lazy. Every winter I gain weight because of the "rewarding exercise with food" syndrome, when the calorie burning exercises are out of the equation.4 -
jumpingborderterrier wrote: »Do you enjoy your exercise program? If it’s torture and you are tired of it that would be a reason to make a change. Or if your schedule has changed and you have less time available. That’s what happens to most people, family demands eat up personal time for things like exercise.
Or If you are eating the large amounts of food to stuff other emotional things or are eating all junk, it may be worth addressing it. Otherwise why mess with what works unless you are miserable or see it not being a forever lifestyle.
Our winters are wet, cold, and the days are about six hours long. It doesn't take much to be lazy. Every winter I gain weight because of the "rewarding exercise with food" syndrome, when the calorie burning exercises are out of the equation.
Our winters are wet, cold, and have short days (the whole living in the Northwestern United States thing) and it's also the time I'm the most likely to lose weight. Erging at least three days a week with the loose logging that I do will do that. Wet, cold, and short days doesn't automatically mean "no exercising/training" If it did, Norway wouldn't be as dominant in nordic skiing as they are (though I don't know how wet it is there).4 -
jumpingborderterrier wrote: »Do you enjoy your exercise program? If it’s torture and you are tired of it that would be a reason to make a change. Or if your schedule has changed and you have less time available. That’s what happens to most people, family demands eat up personal time for things like exercise.
Or If you are eating the large amounts of food to stuff other emotional things or are eating all junk, it may be worth addressing it. Otherwise why mess with what works unless you are miserable or see it not being a forever lifestyle.
Our winters are wet, cold, and the days are about six hours long. It doesn't take much to be lazy. Every winter I gain weight because of the "rewarding exercise with food" syndrome, when the calorie burning exercises are out of the equation.
So what is the key problem here, from your perspective?
You're saying you exercise for food (I can see that as potentially psychologically troubling). You further say that you over-eat when your activity level drops in Winter (I can see that as potentially troubling in both literal weight-management terms, and psychologically).
From your OP, it sounds like it's the self-control side, i.e., not reining in the eating when exercise drops, that you're most worried about, but I'm not sure. That doesn't really sound like it's about rewarding exercise with food per se, but rather about wanting to eat at calories similar to your with-exercise calorie goals, even when not exercising (in other words, about habit or satiation or other dimensions of satisfaction . . . maybe even boredom).
You could go to TDEE method, but it sounds like you'd need different Summer and Winter TDEEs, so I'm not sure whether that's a good solution if the key problem is the self-control side.
Like you, I'm much more naturally active in Summer, but as a result of the thing I love doing (on-water rowing) being a seasonal thing in my climate. The MFP method works very well for me, in this context. I still am active in Winter, but do lots more cocooning/hibernating. (I'm sure it helps me that this was my activity pattern for a decade before losing weight.)
Is there any way to use non-exercise distraction (like hobbies) to help reduce Winter over-eating? Is there an opportunity, since you're a cook, to try shifting dietary composition in a less calorie-dense direction in Winter, and still have it be super tasty? Tastes vary, but for me, "tasty" is not always synonymous with "high calorie", and "high calorie" isn't synonymous with "filling" or "psychologically satisfying".
I have hobbies (sedentary) that I do more of in Winter, but I'm not sure how material that is to me, personally, making the MFP method work without it feeling obsessive. (I won't say I've never "exercised for food" in that bald way, but it certainly would be a super-rare thing, like getting an extra bike ride or two in a week where I have a party coming up, say; mostly I exercise for fun (when I can) or to maintain health/conditioning (Winter
).
It's not everyone's approach, but for me, if I can figure out a way to game my natural inclinations in ways that lead to making my goals easier, that's a good contributor to success. (I'm in year 4 of maintenance after roughly a year of loss, BTW, so this is experiential. But I don't assume my experience will be similar to others'.)
Edited: Typo, minor rewording of sentence for better clarity9 -
jumpingborderterrier wrote: »Do you enjoy your exercise program? If it’s torture and you are tired of it that would be a reason to make a change. Or if your schedule has changed and you have less time available. That’s what happens to most people, family demands eat up personal time for things like exercise.
Or If you are eating the large amounts of food to stuff other emotional things or are eating all junk, it may be worth addressing it. Otherwise why mess with what works unless you are miserable or see it not being a forever lifestyle.
Our winters are wet, cold, and the days are about six hours long. It doesn't take much to be lazy. Every winter I gain weight because of the "rewarding exercise with food" syndrome, when the calorie burning exercises are out of the equation.
Our winters are wet, cold, and have short days (the whole living in the Northwestern United States thing) and it's also the time I'm the most likely to lose weight. Erging at least three days a week with the loose logging that I do will do that. Wet, cold, and short days doesn't automatically mean "no exercising/training" If it did, Norway wouldn't be as dominant in nordic skiing as they are (though I don't know how wet it is there).
I look forward to Nordic skiing every winter. It's the most fun I can have with my clothes on, it's beautiful, and it's a great way to escape the rain. It's also a low impact (until you crash) way to burn lots of calories.
Think snow! ❄️5 -
Are you saying that if exercise yielded no extra calories for you to eat you would stop doing it? You get no other sense of satisfaction, accomplishment, or enjoyment from the experience?9
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I have explored this in my ED recovery. Excessive exercise is a form of purging. It is quite serious. I hope you aren't to the point of obsession, but definitely don't overlook a support group or therapy if you find you can't figure out the solution on your own.
Best of luck
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Are you saying that if exercise yielded no extra calories for you to eat you would stop doing it? You get no other sense of satisfaction, accomplishment, or enjoyment from the experience?
I get the bolded, plus I sleep better, exercise is crucial for my mental health, and when all goes well I get blissed out too.
The rain keeps me indoors (and that's when I lift or do more intensive yoga) but the cold does not.1 -
I think one of the biggest problems I had in the past with my unsuccessful weight loss endeavours was the 'exercise = more food' mindset. The fact that I wasn't tracking my calorie intake only exacerbated the problem because I'd 'reward' my 300cal workout session with a 1000cal feed.
The shift in thinking to decouple exercise from weight loss and linking it to fitness went a long way to fixing this. So instead of "exercise = more food" it became "exercise = more fitness" and the extra food became a consequence of working out rather than the goal.
If that makes sense?
It also meant that my weight loss wasn't tied up in my workout calories. So if I stop working out for whatever reason my weight loss continues regardless (though obviously my fitness begins to decline)2 -
kshama2001 wrote: »Are you saying that if exercise yielded no extra calories for you to eat you would stop doing it? You get no other sense of satisfaction, accomplishment, or enjoyment from the experience?
I get the bolded, plus I sleep better, exercise is crucial for my mental health, and when all goes well I get blissed out too.
The rain keeps me indoors (and that's when I lift or do more intensive yoga) but the cold does not.
I have no idea what constitutes disordered thinking with this which is why I was curious to see how the OP views it.
I admit that part of my plan for exercise and NEAT improvement is about food calories but that has nothing to do with today. I am trying to lay the foundation for maintenance and giving myself a decent calorie allowance then. I see it more as offsetting some of the many calories my TDEE has declined as I have lost weight. I am not trying to replace all of them but I think I would be happier at 2400-2500 than 2000 which is what I would have gotten if I remained sedentary. 200-250 in NEAT and the same in exercise is not a big ask.
However, mostly I do it for fitness. I do get a sense of accomplishment and I do enjoy it a fair amount of the time.3 -
I think one of the biggest problems I had in the past with my unsuccessful weight loss endeavours was the 'exercise = more food' mindset. The fact that I wasn't tracking my calorie intake only exacerbated the problem because I'd 'reward' my 300cal workout session with a 1000cal feed.
The shift in thinking to decouple exercise from weight loss and linking it to fitness went a long way to fixing this. So instead of "exercise = more food" it became "exercise = more fitness" and the extra food became a consequence of working out rather than the goal.
If that makes sense?
It also meant that my weight loss wasn't tied up in my workout calories. So if I stop working out for whatever reason my weight loss continues regardless (though obviously my fitness begins to decline)
I don't know that I've ever looked at exercise being a reason to eat a ton of food in a reward sort of way, which is nice I suppose. I tend to see it as, "ok I need to eat more because I just burned 500 calories" or, if we take tonight as an example, "I will order a hamburger and fries because I didn't eat a snack before this workout and I burned at least 400 calories" - turns out I burned 514 calories according to Concept 2's online calorie counter.
The second option is closer to the problematic idea of "exercise = all of the food I want", but even then, it's very tempered. The idea is not that I can eat and drink whatever I want without negative repercussions. The idea is that I need to eat more calories to take into account what I burned, a hamburger and fries is reasonable in that context, and it's a heck of a lot easier to fit a dinner that consists of those foods into my daily calories after burning more than 400 calories than if I hadn't.
When I was climbing competitively in my youth it was more like "I need protein now!"1 -
OP to eat an additional 1300 cals which is what I think you said you ‘overate’ by that’s quite a lot of time doing cardio. If you are doing that most days and it’s preventing you from doing other things you need to do in life, I can see why you are concerned.
In your situation I would talk to a therapist. I’m not saying you necessarily have disordered eating, but I think it would be helpful to work out what is vested in maintaining your current pattern of eating/exercising versus eating less and exercising less. It’s a way of controllling your weight that doesn’t seem to be working for you.
The solution is simple and you have identified it: eat less, exercise less. I think a professional can help you put in place steps to achieve a happier balance.7 -
Therapy? Who would do that? A Glutton-ologist?
My best bet is to really modify my diet. I wasn't out-of-control for that long and never totally out of shape.0 -
Therapy? Who would do that? A Glutton-ologist?
My best bet is to really modify my diet. I wasn't out-of-control for that long and never totally out of shape.
A therapist. There are thousands of them and plenty of them specialize in treating people who are dealing with what you've written. Seeing a therapist is probably one of the wiser things someone can do for themselves in general10 -
Therapy? Who would do that? A Glutton-ologist?
My best bet is to really modify my diet. I wasn't out-of-control for that long and never totally out of shape.
I would suggest a specialist in cognitive behavioural therapy as a first off.
Issues with eating are so common that any kind of therapist with a few years of experience would be able to help. And if they can’t they would be duty bound to say it was out of their expertise and maybe refer you on to a more specialised practitioner.
No need to be faeceitious. I’m trying to help.8 -
When your exercise capacity is reduced you may need to change the kind of foods you eat to feel fuller on less.4
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cupcakesandproteinshakes wrote: »Your post is light hearted, but are you concerned about over exercising? I mean, it obvious ‘works’ if you are maintaining yr weight, but are you happy?
Wasn't lighthearted, really. It's a problem I bet many have. Check it out. Someone exercises for the sole purpose of being able to overeat. That someone stops exercising for whatever reason, but still has the eating habit. Instant weight gain.
Over-exercising to enable overeating isn't a good thing at all.
btw, I've always had a gym, either at home or a membership. At my heaviest, I was still stronger than 99% .
I don't think this problem is talked about enough and very pervasive given the format of the platform basically "rewarding" exercise with food. I recognized I had an issue with this mindset when I found myself running the 3 miles to Chipotle so I could "earn" the guac I like on my bowl. Consequently, I switched from MFP's NEAT + exercise model to back-calculating average TDEE via a spreadsheet found in the wiki on r/fitness. Ditching the transactional relationship between exercise and calories I had developed has been incredibly freeing. I still do workout because it's something I like, contributes to my goals, and is generically good for me but not something I feel I must do or else I'll just get fat, which is basically the fear I held previously whilst trying to out-work my crappy eating habits. Reigning in my logging really helped me foster the "food for fuel" mindset as well. I'm highly numbers-driven so it's similarly freeing to eat requisite to my calories in terms of what my body needs vs making an assessment (usually poorly) based on hunger, and perceived needs/wants.
I stopped logging my exercise calorie credit/debit and now I just see my Maintenance goal. Any Exercise credit is now put into a secret Swiss FAT account for that day---sometime this week, probably---when I eat too much.0 -
jumpingborderterrier wrote: »Do you enjoy your exercise program? If it’s torture and you are tired of it that would be a reason to make a change. Or if your schedule has changed and you have less time available. That’s what happens to most people, family demands eat up personal time for things like exercise.
Or If you are eating the large amounts of food to stuff other emotional things or are eating all junk, it may be worth addressing it. Otherwise why mess with what works unless you are miserable or see it not being a forever lifestyle.
Our winters are wet, cold, and the days are about six hours long. It doesn't take much to be lazy. Every winter I gain weight because of the "rewarding exercise with food" syndrome, when the calorie burning exercises are out of the equation.
Our winters are wet, cold, and have short days (the whole living in the Northwestern United States thing) and it's also the time I'm the most likely to lose weight. Erging at least three days a week with the loose logging that I do will do that. Wet, cold, and short days doesn't automatically mean "no exercising/training" If it did, Norway wouldn't be as dominant in nordic skiing as they are (though I don't know how wet it is there).
I'm glad someone else pointed this out. I'm in Northern New England and I don't have a gym membership and I'm still staying active. It really does combat the winter blahs, too.1 -
MelanieCN77 wrote: »When your exercise capacity is reduced you may need to change the kind of foods you eat to feel fuller on less.
Nutritious food instead of empty calories, yes. It's tricky in our junk food society and when one is a good cook.....
I lost 7 pounds this week by not logging my exercise deficits; back to my goal of 160. I used those deficits as an excuse to eat more.
Concentrated on my goal of 2100 calories of nutritious food. Note it: I haven't drank soft drinks or booze in 40 years and red meat in years. Nearly vegetarian if I can break my weekly fish and hot link habit.2 -
MelanieCN77 wrote: »When your exercise capacity is reduced you may need to change the kind of foods you eat to feel fuller on less.
Nutritious food instead of empty calories, yes. It's tricky in our junk food society and when one is a good cook.....
I lost 7 pounds this week by not logging my exercise deficits; back to my goal of 160. I used those deficits as an excuse to eat more.
Concentrated on my goal of 2100 calories of nutritious food. Note it: I haven't drank soft drinks or booze in 40 years and red meat in years. Nearly vegetarian if I can break my weekly fish and hot link habit.
Seven lbs. in a week is a lot of exercising. But unless all you do is exercise or it's wreaking havoc on your body, I'm not sure I see the downside. I know you brought it up as a concern for an overeating excuse but I still don't thoroughly understand. You're compensating, in a healthy way, for overeating. I'm in no way trying to be snarky or unsympathetic to your plight but would like to better understand the concerns if what you're doing doesn't take over the rest of your life.
I've often given it some thought about earning extra calories that way just so I can go off the wagon but I'm just too daMn lazy.
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MelanieCN77 wrote: »When your exercise capacity is reduced you may need to change the kind of foods you eat to feel fuller on less.
Nutritious food instead of empty calories, yes. It's tricky in our junk food society and when one is a good cook.....
I lost 7 pounds this week by not logging my exercise deficits; back to my goal of 160. I used those deficits as an excuse to eat more.
Concentrated on my goal of 2100 calories of nutritious food. Note it: I haven't drank soft drinks or booze in 40 years and red meat in years. Nearly vegetarian if I can break my weekly fish and hot link habit.
Seven lbs. in a week is a lot of exercising. But unless all you do is exercise or it's wreaking havoc on your body, I'm not sure I see the downside. I know you brought it up as a concern for an overeating excuse but I still don't thoroughly understand. You're compensating, in a healthy way, for overeating. I'm in no way trying to be snarky or unsympathetic to your plight but would like to better understand the concerns if what you're doing doesn't take over the rest of your life.
I've often given it some thought about earning extra calories that way just so I can go off the wagon but I'm just too daMn lazy.
Just FTR, seven pounds of fat loss would represent around 24,500 calories of deficit.
If one exercised in a way that burned 500 calories an hour (a fairly decent intensity for quite a few activities/body sizes, not super-slacker pace for most), that would be 49 hours of exercise, i.e. 7 hours for each of 7 days, if eating at maintenance. Less time if at an eating deficit, or burning more per hour, of course; more time if lower intensity.
I wouldn't do that, either, but I'm not sure I'd say "lazy" is the reason. Maybe, though.4 -
MelanieCN77 wrote: »When your exercise capacity is reduced you may need to change the kind of foods you eat to feel fuller on less.
Nutritious food instead of empty calories, yes. It's tricky in our junk food society and when one is a good cook.....
I lost 7 pounds this week by not logging my exercise deficits; back to my goal of 160. I used those deficits as an excuse to eat more.
Concentrated on my goal of 2100 calories of nutritious food. Note it: I haven't drank soft drinks or booze in 40 years and red meat in years. Nearly vegetarian if I can break my weekly fish and hot link habit.
Seven lbs. in a week is a lot of exercising. But unless all you do is exercise or it's wreaking havoc on your body, I'm not sure I see the downside. I know you brought it up as a concern for an overeating excuse but I still don't thoroughly understand. You're compensating, in a healthy way, for overeating. I'm in no way trying to be snarky or unsympathetic to your plight but would like to better understand the concerns if what you're doing doesn't take over the rest of your life.
I've often given it some thought about earning extra calories that way just so I can go off the wagon but I'm just too daMn lazy.
The seven pound mark was taken from the Thanksgiving holiday's last day-Sunday night. I weighed in at 165; five pounds over my goal weight. Not good.
I was physically active the following week, beyond the exercising. Ideally, a 4-5 pound loss is more accurate.
This whole sitting behind a desk is brand spanking new to human evolution. My grandparents never had an extra ounce of fat; it is that new. Will humans survive its collective "laziness" is the question, not whether my body can withstand physical activity.Just FTR, seven pounds of fat loss would represent around 24,500 calories of deficit.
If one exercised in a way that burned 500 calories an hour (a fairly decent intensity for quite a few activities/body sizes, not super-slacker pace for most), that would be 49 hours of exercise, i.e. 7 hours for each of 7 days, if eating at maintenance. Less time if at an eating deficit, or burning more per hour, of course; more time if lower intensity.
I wouldn't do that, either, but I'm not sure I'd say "lazy" is the reason. Maybe, though.
You assume I'm sleeping all day. Another assumption is that my body burns calories at the same pace as your equation. Also, I usually have less than two minutes a day on the computer, so not all my posts are Nobel Prize worthy. Sorry1 -
Not sure what you expect people to say or why you're, after some pretty neutral exchanges, vehemently disagreeing with factual comments.
Based on the full discussion including your own input you currently do have a problem of not being able to balance how much you exercise and how much you eat.
And it is a balance. You cannot consequence-free moderate one end without moderating the other.
The first thing you need to answer for yourself is whether at times you eat uncontrollably / binge eat.
Keeping an even keel and not banking calories, i.e. not engaging in deficit eating may allow you to cut down on that. And further working on eliminating or reducing this may allow you to exercise more appropriately for you.
It is not the behaviour or the concept of balancing calories in and out that's the problem.
It is when the behaviour and the concept take over your life in a way that has negative consequences for you that they become problems. And the fact that you posted about it indicates that this is the case for you right now.8 -
MelanieCN77 wrote: »When your exercise capacity is reduced you may need to change the kind of foods you eat to feel fuller on less.
Nutritious food instead of empty calories, yes. It's tricky in our junk food society and when one is a good cook.....
I lost 7 pounds this week by not logging my exercise deficits; back to my goal of 160. I used those deficits as an excuse to eat more.
Concentrated on my goal of 2100 calories of nutritious food. Note it: I haven't drank soft drinks or booze in 40 years and red meat in years. Nearly vegetarian if I can break my weekly fish and hot link habit.
Seven lbs. in a week is a lot of exercising. But unless all you do is exercise or it's wreaking havoc on your body, I'm not sure I see the downside. I know you brought it up as a concern for an overeating excuse but I still don't thoroughly understand. You're compensating, in a healthy way, for overeating. I'm in no way trying to be snarky or unsympathetic to your plight but would like to better understand the concerns if what you're doing doesn't take over the rest of your life.
I've often given it some thought about earning extra calories that way just so I can go off the wagon but I'm just too daMn lazy.
The seven pound mark was taken from the Thanksgiving holiday's last day-Sunday night. I weighed in at 165; five pounds over my goal weight. Not good.
I was physically active the following week, beyond the exercising. Ideally, a 4-5 pound loss is more accurate.
This whole sitting behind a desk is brand spanking new to human evolution. My grandparents never had an extra ounce of fat; it is that new. Will humans survive its collective "laziness" is the question, not whether my body can withstand physical activity.Just FTR, seven pounds of fat loss would represent around 24,500 calories of deficit.
If one exercised in a way that burned 500 calories an hour (a fairly decent intensity for quite a few activities/body sizes, not super-slacker pace for most), that would be 49 hours of exercise, i.e. 7 hours for each of 7 days, if eating at maintenance. Less time if at an eating deficit, or burning more per hour, of course; more time if lower intensity.
I wouldn't do that, either, but I'm not sure I'd say "lazy" is the reason. Maybe, though.
You assume I'm sleeping all day. Another assumption is that my body burns calories at the same pace as your equation. Also, I usually have less than two minutes a day on the computer, so not all my posts are Nobel Prize worthy. Sorry
No, actually, I didn't assume that you sleep all day. I have no idea, but I'd assume you don't. You're a bigger person than I, and certainly may have a very active daily life, as well as being an avid exerciser.
I do assume that a pound of your fat is worth about the same number of calories as a pound of anyone else's fat, as research seems to support that as pretty standard across the population, within a reasonable approximation.
If I questioned anything about what you said, it would be the implication (i.e., admittedly not a clear statement) that you gained 4-5-7 fat pounds from Thursday through Sunday overconsumption. Of course, that's possible. But if the scale was up 5-7 pounds after 4 days of overconsumption, it would be more realistic IMO to assume that a big fraction of that was water retention and digestive contents in transit, rather than fat.
My post's intention was explicitly to respond to the previous post (the one I quoted), which (unrealistically, IMO), implied that 7 pounds of exercise in a week was a "healthy way of compensating for overeating" and that a reason for not doing something like that in order to be able to eat "off the wagon" was being "lazy". I don't think that's true. That's all.
You began this thread with a post that said "I over-exercise in order to eat a lot. . . . With that lightning strike of honesty, I now have to confront my overeating problem." Given some of your subsequent posts on the thread, perhaps that was a bit of a vent, and you don't really think there's a problem. I don't have a reason to disbelieve you; only you have a handle on that.
FTR, my grandparents (and father, when young (b. 1917)) were subsistence farmers. They weren't fat, either, then. It was partly that they were very active, and partly that food was not always . . . ample, to say the least. Dad got fat after retiring from his active job (carpentry, not farming) in the 1980s, then lost weight again largely by eating less (not calorie counting). He didn't much believe in unproductive exercise; he thought it was better to go out in the woods and cut firewood. He thought I should do likewise, instead of exercising, even though my yard only has maybe 15 decent-sized trees.
I wish you nothing but the best, truly.7 -
I definitely let myself eat more if I exercise more .. I didn't realise it was considered unhealthy to "reward" yourself with food. In
weight loss mode my calorie budget was 1200 and in maintenance it's now 1340. I frequently eat well over 2000 calories in a day - although I've never eaten more than 3000 calories in a day since I've started logging. I do an hour of cardio in the morning, take short half hour walks during my work day before I start work and at lunch (if I have time) and in the evenings I go for a short walk with my dogs - I have three Kelpies. For non Aussies, they're like an Australian Border Collie.
I stay within my budget though so on days when I don't exercise or don't exercise much, I just eat less. I do have friends who eg run / do exercise and then eat way more than they burned simply because the exercise alone seems to justify the right to eat more - but I don't do that. I track what I have burned and I track what I eat.
I also genuinely enjoy the exercise - as someone who always hated exercise and didn't do it, I found things I enjoy. For instance, I don't like running but I love walking the dogs as it gives me an opportunity to gently burn calories while listening to audiobooks. I love doing zumba because I am uncoordinated and an absolutely terrible dancer but love the idea of dancing. With zumba it doesn't matter if you are out of time or not even moving the way you're supposed to - as long as you are moving. I also like body combat because it's kind of fun to mix in martial arts moves with a cardio routine.
Sometimes it helps me moderate the food, too. For instance, I'll think - if I eat this, I'd need to do an hour of zumba to work it off. Is it worth it? Sometimes it is, sometimes it's not. I'd hope that it's like all things - balance, self-control and moderation. It shouldn't automatically be a bad thing to exercise more to be able to eat more...?
ETA: Also I acknowledge that OP has a self-acknowledged issue/problem and I am not endorsing that and applaud the fact that OP has acknowledged this. I'm just saying that if one has it under 'control', then surely the whole premise of calories in calories out is about making sure you monitor and keep track of them and as long you control the food and exercise rather than the other way around - surely that's ok?4
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