DON'T Eat Exercise Calories!!

kayemme

Honestly, I think people are afraid to not eat them because they feel like they have earned them. They are afraid to be told not to eat them because that means they have to eat less. So if everyone convinces themselves that eating them all is a good thing,

.....

It's controversial to talk about not eating them because people feel entitled to, the culture around here is all about avoiding starvation mode.

I think this brings up a really valid point about our culture and our relationships with food.
Culturally, at least from my viewpoint as a North American, it seems our whole system is based on "rewards" or "earning" for "good behavior." Myself, I think this is the wrong way to look at it, but if it is working for you, then all the best to you.

I think what's more important is to investigate the relationship one carries with food. Why does one eat? Not for the obvious reasons of sustaining the organs, but I mean, really, WHY? Consumption of food is an enormously complex process on *so* many levels.

Eating is an extremely intimate act and should be practiced with the most diligent respect. For people with eating disorders, it's not about a loving relationship, right? Overeating is a disorder. There's something else going on. If you're very worried about "eating your exercise calories" I'd suggest you take a deeper look into what that means.

My ex-husband used to say things like "Oh, what, you want a cookie, now?" for whenever I would be self-congratulatory. It was a good lesson despite the teacher It taught me that we, as a society, expect certain things for "good behavior" instead of just having good behavior for the sake of good behavior. It's so backwards!

To "eat up" your exercise calories just because they're there is just the same as eating a bag of Doritos because they are in front of you. It seems silly to me. If you want to eat some Doritos, eat them. If you're not hungry, don't eat them.

We have such an abundance of food and food-like substances that it's obvious to me that we're confused about what it even means to eat. I use MFP as a method to track my regular habits so I can eventually see a pattern or give myself the knowledge of recognizing "oh, that is a half cup" when it is really a half-cup.

I don't worry about it so much. The "cheats" and the "settings" aren't what's important. What is important is that we take a really good look at ourselves honestly. The only "cheat" is cheating on yourself, and the damage is all yours.

So move your *kitten* around. Eat a cupcake. Or don't eat a cupcake. Just pay attention to yourself and give yourself the respect you deserve.

Chances are we will not go into starvation mode and do "damage" (see this word thrown all over the place yet still do not know what that means) from missing a meal or two....okay, should I duck and cover now?

HA! You'll probably need to duck and cover, but not from me. It's good for the body to skip a meal now and again. Ask anyone in any country other than the United States. It is not at all dangerous (unless you have a medical condition, obviously).

MacMadame

I think this brings up a really valid point about our culture and our relationships with food.
Culturally, at least from my viewpoint as a North American, it seems our whole system is based on "rewards" or "earning" for "good behavior."

I see this a lot not just on this site. This is something I hear a lot from people who are watching their weight but won't change their behavior in some way, such as not being willing to track their food:

"I'm doing everything 'right' but the scale won't move. It's not fair!"

When you question them about how many calories they are eating they don't really know because they aren't tracking but they'll tell you "I'm sure I'm not eating more than X amount and it's healthy food."

Because, apparently, if you eat healthy food and go to the gym, you deserve to lose weight. It has nothing to do with taking in less calories than you burn. :laugh: Oh, and if you get these people to actually track their food? They almost always are eating about 2x as much as they thought they were calorie-wise.

I think it takes a lot of work to have a healthy relationship with food and to approach this whole endeavor logically instead of emotionally. I've been working really hard on my relationship with food for about five years now and I still find myself thinking things like "I can eat whatever I want because I'm a triathlete" or "I deserve that cookie because I <fill in excuse of the day>". And I've never particularly been an emotional eater either. I can image that it would be that much more difficult if you use food to feel good.

kayemme

I think it takes a lot of work to have a healthy relationship with food and to approach this whole endeavor logically instead of emotionally. I've been working really hard on my relationship with food for about five years now and I still find myself thinking things like "I can eat whatever I want because I'm a triathlete" or "I deserve that cookie because I <fill in excuse of the day>". And I've never particularly been an emotional eater either. I can image that it would be that much more difficult if you use food to feel good.

It takes an enormous amount of work and for a variety of reasons. One thing I remember thinking to myself a while back was how we don't just consume food; we consume advertising, propaganda, peer pressure, comparative esteem, etc. So some of us, when we eat "food" are "eating" these things as well. It's a lot to swallow!

I had to actually just stop watching television or reading magazines, shopping at grocery stores, the whole bit. I had to completely drop out for a while to re-set. There was simply too much information being thrown at me at any one moment and I couldn't concentrate on what the real problem was. Once I abandoned those things for a while, I was able to really take a good look at the propaganda to encourage me to "consume" whether it be food or product, ideas or self-comparison. It's so much more than food, you know?

What has worked for me, may not work for other people. I understand that. But what I would really like to see people do in general, which I think *would* work for everyone is to really be honest with themselves about what they're consuming. For me, it was the corporate propaganda mixed with outrageous packaging waste that moved me towards a local, vegetarian-based (not entirely) diet. Because ethics and accountability are involved, it's easier for me to make better choices when I look at it in this way: Who is benefiting from my consuming this? Who is held accountable for the quality of this? Where did it come from? How well were the workers paid? What is my dollar supporting here? Fascism? Slavery? Both?

I recognize this is going slightly off-topic, but when we're talking about something like "do" or "don't" eat exercise calories, it's reinforcing the same paradigm so many of us are trying to avoid. MFP is not the "magic pill" that will make you lose weight. MFP is a great place to hold yourself accountable for your actions and your consumptions.

To say not to eat your exercise calories (on one hand) is sort of a crazy statement, since we all consume different kinds of calories. A diet rich with fats and sugars from processed foods may need to eat more exercise calories because there's not enough fiber in these foods (typically) to sustain a feeling of satiation.

But every change is a baby step, and if a person is used to eating processed foods but is introducing exercise into their lives, then so be it. Eat them up and then eliminate one processed food at a time until you are able to sustain a whole-foods diet. There are no arbitrary rules.

Anyway, I'm not aiming to stand on a box about it; I'm just sayin' that people are making different kinds of choices that will affect whether or not they should or shouldn't eat exercise calories.

alantin

There is also the aspect of the body as an organism that needs proper nourishment (both in quality an quantity).
"SHBoss1673" or "Banks" wrote an excellent post about "eating to fuel your body" which addresses the issue about why eat exercise calories from the point of view of how to burn body fat most efficiently.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/108362-eating-to-fuel-your-body-very-long

It was interesting to read about your thoughts on the relationship with food, kayemme. We don't have that north american 'treat for being good' mindset so much here, or at least what you wrote feels very alien to me, but I too have reassessed my relationship with food during the past couple of years. Before I ate too much (including all sorts of sweets too) just because I never really thought about the correlation to body weight and health issues. Food just tasted so good so I ate. Now I get just as much enjoyment from food as I did back then but I'm more aware of what I eat and I eat when I need to and as much as I need to. I'm a pragmatist about this and think that in order to make good educated choices, understanding how we use food, what we use it for, and how much of it is needed, is imperative. It just seems to me that often the reasons people give to the advise for not to eat the exercise calories is more along the lines of 'I worked so hard to burn them so why eat them back' or 'I feel I can lose more if I don't eat them' without any research to back it up. It just isn't that simple!

I liked what you said about it not being a magic pill. It is about control of your self and of your own life.
For many people it should also provide some measure of freedom from the whims of marketing industry.