Can I just skip the exercise? Confused by another thread...
Replies
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I wouldn't skip the exercise. A bigger deficit does mean more food, :drinker: as long as you are being as accurate as possible with both your logging and your exercise calories. Not to mention all of the other benefits that come from improving your overall fitness, which have already been enumerated.0
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What I never can comprehend is people that say they exercise because it gives them more calories to eat. Exercise makes me FAMISHED for 5 times the calories it burns!
Eating less is all you need to lose weight.
Exercise strengthens your heart, lungs, bones, muscles, improves health, sculpts the body (So we don't just go from fat blob to skinny blob), it also improves our mental state, can help fight depression, make us feel like a beast, gives us confidence in a Zombie Apocalypse, and causes people to say, "wow, you can lift all that?? I can barely lift my trash bag up into the dumpster!"
I haven't had that experience, except with long cardio workouts.
Weights and 20 minute jump rope sessions make me hungry pretty much for maintenance cals. I have to tell myself to eat more than that for gaining0 -
That's not the point. If you are using MFP to determine your deficit (granted not everyone does), it gives you a deficit regardless of your exercise. Then, you log your exercise. So now you have calories eaten - deficit - exercise calories = much larger deficit. That isn't the best way to lose and can sometimes hinder weight loss. Because you already have the deficit built in, you eat back the exercise calories to maintain the deficit.You're correct. If you eat back all your exercise calories, exercise becomes pointless, from a weight-loss standpoint.
Not to mention the fact that if you overestimate your caloric burn during your workout, you will actually be WORSE off than if you didn't exercise at all.
Is anyone really reading and comprehending this? Not that exercise is pointless but that if you eat all the calories back then it negates the calorie burn of the workout as far as weight loss goes. Not that exercise isn't going to help your fitness even if you eat those calories back.
The only time you wouldn't do that is if you were eating at maintenance and only using exercise to create a deficit.0 -
You're correct. If you eat back all your exercise calories, exercise becomes pointless, from a weight-loss standpoint.
Not to mention the fact that if you overestimate your caloric burn during your workout, you will actually be WORSE off than if you didn't exercise at all.
No, because when you set up your profile on MFP, your calorie deficit to lose weight is already figured in.0 -
It's certainly not bad for you. I did it twice, and I lost a total of about 13 inches combined, but not a lot of pounds. If you like it, do it.0
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I'm not getting what is wrong with that statement. It's pretty hard to be exact with exercise calories and if you're only burning 150 or so doing an exercise there really isn't any big need to eat them back. Most people over estimate their exercise and under estimate their food so leaving a buffer zone between calories eaten and exercise done makes perfect sense. That way you aren't back in a couple months complaining you've hit a plateau even though you're doing everything right.
I agree. The #1 reason on MFP for stalled weight loss is not logging intake correctly, followed closely by eating back over-estimated calorie burns. The threads are littered with posts from clearly out of shape people who are logging more calories/hour on the elliptical than Lance Armstrong burned climbing the Alpe d'Huez.
Unless someone is rock solid accurate on both food and exercise logging, IMO a better course of action is to NOT eat back exercise calories until the body says you should - namely, too much weight loss and/or excessive fatigue.
Again, this is advice for the typical MFPer, not for those who are really good at logging/tracking and/or are extremely active.0 -
You're correct. If you eat back all your exercise calories, exercise becomes pointless, from a weight-loss standpoint.
Not to mention the fact that if you overestimate your caloric burn during your workout, you will actually be WORSE off than if you didn't exercise at all.
Is anyone really reading and comprehending this? Not that exercise is pointless but that if you eat all the calories back then it negates the calorie burn of the workout as far as weight loss goes. Not that exercise isn't going to help your fitness even if you eat those calories back.
Here's what you're missing...my MFP calorie goal to lose 1 Lb per week was 1,860 calories...this was based on a lightly active NEAT activity level (DOES NOT INCLUDE EXERCISE)....it includes a weight loss deficit already...my actual NEAT maintenance is 2,360. If I go out and do a 15 mile ride, I'll burn roughly 600 calories...given that my calorie goal is based on my NEAT (as per the MFP method), that exercise is completely unaccounted for. So if I don't eat them, I've now created a 1,100 calorie deficit when my goal was a 500 calorie deficit to lose 1 Lb per week. At no point during my weight loss did I ever have the fat stores necessary to sustain such a deficit.
I lost 40 Lbs averaging about 1 Lb per week loss all the while eat back exercise calories...so your notion that eating back exercise calories negates the weight loss benefits of exercise is completely and utterly invalid. It is only a valid assumption if you're actually trying to create a calorie deficit with exercise or are utilizing the TDEE method. If you're using MFP as designed (a NEAT method calculator) then it works just fine.
I honestly fail to see how something this simple is missed on so many people...it's really, really, really friggin easy and just basic mathematics....0 -
You're correct. If you eat back all your exercise calories, exercise becomes pointless, from a weight-loss standpoint.
Not to mention the fact that if you overestimate your caloric burn during your workout, you will actually be WORSE off than if you didn't exercise at all.
Is anyone really reading and comprehending this? Not that exercise is pointless but that if you eat all the calories back then it negates the calorie burn of the workout as far as weight loss goes. Not that exercise isn't going to help your fitness even if you eat those calories back.
IMHO, it's miopic to say exercise becomes pointless. Does it improve your weight loss for that day if you exercise and then eat some or all of those calories back? No. But, if the whole point of losing weight is for over all health and not just a number on the scale, then exercise is NEVER pointless.0 -
If I go out and do a 15 mile ride, I'll burn roughly 600 calories...
This is not about people who are going out on 15 mile bike rides, this about people logging 400 calories from 20 minutes of Insanity because their HRM told them so.
The "eat it back" idea is correct in theory - but it has serious problems in actual practice. Well, it also has problems in theory, in that the % of TDEE you are eating varies significantly depending on your exercise level, but that's a topic for another thread.
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I have never done 30 Day Shred. But I will tell you that exercise, mostly cardio, is 100% responsible for my 27 lb weight loss. I did not cut my calories. I created a deficit with exercise. I lost fat, lbs, inches and improved by BF%.
Now, this may not work for everyone. But for those of us that gained weight slowly over several years from a sedentary lifestyle, all you need to do is burn a few extra calories per day and you have a deficit.
Anyone that says any type of exercise is useless should be immediately discarded as a source of reliable information.0 -
You're correct. If you eat back all your exercise calories, exercise becomes pointless, from a weight-loss standpoint.
Not to mention the fact that if you overestimate your caloric burn during your workout, you will actually be WORSE off than if you didn't exercise at all.
Is anyone really reading and comprehending this? Not that exercise is pointless but that if you eat all the calories back then it negates the calorie burn of the workout as far as weight loss goes. Not that exercise isn't going to help your fitness even if you eat those calories back.
IMHO, it's miopic to say exercise becomes pointless. Does it improve your weight loss for that day if you exercise and then eat some or all of those calories back? No. But, if the whole point of losing weight is for over all health and not just a number on the scale, then exercise is NEVER pointless.
It's even more "miopic" [sic] to not even finish reading the whole sentence (actually, that's closer to the literal meaning, come to think of it).
I know the bolding didn't help, so I don't have much hope, but here goes:
If you eat back all your exercise calories, exercise becomes pointless, from a weight-loss standpoint.0 -
I'm not getting what is wrong with that statement. It's pretty hard to be exact with exercise calories and if you're only burning 150 or so doing an exercise there really isn't any big need to eat them back. Most people over estimate their exercise and under estimate their food so leaving a buffer zone between calories eaten and exercise done makes perfect sense. That way you aren't back in a couple months complaining you've hit a plateau even though you're doing everything right.
I agree. The #1 reason on MFP for stalled weight loss is not logging intake correctly, followed closely by eating back over-estimated calorie burns. The threads are littered with posts from clearly out of shape people who are logging more calories/hour on the elliptical than Lance Armstrong burned climbing the Alpe d'Huez.
Unless someone is rock solid accurate on both food and exercise logging, IMO a better course of action is to NOT eat back exercise calories until the body says you should - namely, too much weight loss and/or excessive fatigue.
Again, this is advice for the typical MFPer, not for those who are really good at logging/tracking and/or are extremely active.
I think it's hard for the average person who's new to exercise to recognize what excessive fatigue looks like. When I was netting 900 calories a day and work out twice a day I thought that I was perfectly fine. I didn't recognize that I was snapping at friends. I thought the joint pains and lethargy were normal. I thought it was perfectly normal for a dieter to cry in a friend's driveway before a party where I knew there would be cake. Obviously I wasn't fine. And it wasn't until I stalled and started eating more that I could recognize that I hadn't been fine.
In many cases the eat more advice becomes more about the psychological effects rather than the weight loss/starvation mode. Is it always appropriate? Obviously not. But for some posters we see here it's a way to keep the excess fatigue from happening in the first place rather than hoping someone recognizes the effects when they happen.0 -
If I go out and do a 15 mile ride, I'll burn roughly 600 calories...
This is not about people who are going out on 15 mile bike rides, this about people logging 400 calories from 20 minutes of Insanity because their HRM told them so.
The "eat it back" idea is correct in theory - but it has serious problems in actual practice.
Only when people aren't reasonable with their estimates...this is true whether you're talking about the NEAT method or TDEE method...you have to be reasonable in your assumptions and estimates...a little bit of research goes a long way into finding out, for example, you're not burning 1200 calories doing 30 minutes of lap swim.
Whetherr it's TDEE or NEAT, people tend to overestimate their activity...when people actually get real and honest with themselves, that's when they usually start to have success.
Like I said...I lost 40 Lbs doing exactly what MFP told me to do and making allowances in my calorie burns for estimation error. People just need to actually use their brains a little bit...0 -
If I go out and do a 15 mile ride, I'll burn roughly 600 calories...
This is not about people who are going out on 15 mile bike rides, this about people logging 400 calories from 20 minutes of Insanity because their HRM told them so.
The "eat it back" idea is correct in theory - but it has serious problems in actual practice.
Only when people aren't reasonable with their estimates...this is true whether you're talking about the NEAT method or TDEE method...you have to be reasonable in your assumptions and estimates...a little bit of research goes a long way into finding out, for example, you're not burning 1200 calories doing 30 minutes of lap swim.
Whetherr it's TDEE or NEAT, people tend to overestimate their activity...when people actually get real and honest with themselves, that's when they usually start to have success.
Like I said...I lost 40 Lbs doing exactly what MFP told me to do and making allowances in my calorie burns for estimation error. People just need to actually use their brains a little bit...
I lost 40 lbs. too, and by doing whatever I felt like.
I guess we sorta cancel each other out, huh?0 -
You're correct. If you eat back all your exercise calories, exercise becomes pointless, from a weight-loss standpoint.
Not to mention the fact that if you overestimate your caloric burn during your workout, you will actually be WORSE off than if you didn't exercise at all.
Is anyone really reading and comprehending this? Not that exercise is pointless but that if you eat all the calories back then it negates the calorie burn of the workout as far as weight loss goes. Not that exercise isn't going to help your fitness even if you eat those calories back.
IMHO, it's miopic to say exercise becomes pointless. Does it improve your weight loss for that day if you exercise and then eat some or all of those calories back? No. But, if the whole point of losing weight is for over all health and not just a number on the scale, then exercise is NEVER pointless.
It's even more "miopic" [sic] to not even finish reading the whole sentence (actually, that's closer to the literal meaning, come to think of it).
I know the bolding didn't help, so I don't have much hope, but here goes:
If you eat back all your exercise calories, exercise becomes pointless, from a weight-loss standpoint.
I finished the sentence. What I'm saying is that it is nearsighted (focusing on only a decrease on the scale, rather than overall health) to dismiss exercise as pointless from any standpoint. Say you log 30DS as a 174 calorie burn. That isn't such a huge amount that it can be overestimated by much. So even if you did overestimate by say 50 calories, you would still have a 450 calorie deficit. Most of the time, people aren't coming in right at goal so that 50 calories shakes out in the end and isn't going to do any real harm.
ETA: Of course, when someone overestimates a burn and underestimates what they're eating, you would be right. And eating "back" ALL calories can be counterproductive, considering burns are notoriously overestimated on mfp. But is eating back 50-80% of calories going to stall out weight loss? Probably not.0 -
Yep, generally you can tell when the numbers are way off. When I first started at 270lbs, MFP was giving me 1,000 calories for riding a recumbent bike moderately for an hour. :noway: I wish. So I only ate back half of them. Problem solved.If I go out and do a 15 mile ride, I'll burn roughly 600 calories...
This is not about people who are going out on 15 mile bike rides, this about people logging 400 calories from 20 minutes of Insanity because their HRM told them so.
The "eat it back" idea is correct in theory - but it has serious problems in actual practice.
Only when people aren't reasonable with their estimates...this is true whether you're talking about the NEAT method or TDEE method...you have to be reasonable in your assumptions and estimates...a little bit of research goes a long way into finding out, for example, you're not burning 1200 calories doing 30 minutes of lap swim.
Whetherr it's TDEE or NEAT, people tend to overestimate their activity...when people actually get real and honest with themselves, that's when they usually start to have success.
Like I said...I lost 40 Lbs doing exactly what MFP told me to do and making allowances in my calorie burns for estimation error. People just need to actually use their brains a little bit...0 -
If you're seeing results, why do you doubt its effectiveness? Keep it going, you're doing great!
When I exercise, if I don't feel I need extra calories, I don't eat them. It just adds to your calorie deficit and will help with weight loss. Don't starve yourself, but why eat calories you don't feel you need?0 -
You're correct. If you eat back all your exercise calories, exercise becomes pointless, from a weight-loss standpoint.
Not to mention the fact that if you overestimate your caloric burn during your workout, you will actually be WORSE off than if you didn't exercise at all.
Is anyone really reading and comprehending this? Not that exercise is pointless but that if you eat all the calories back then it negates the calorie burn of the workout as far as weight loss goes. Not that exercise isn't going to help your fitness even if you eat those calories back.
IMHO, it's miopic to say exercise becomes pointless. Does it improve your weight loss for that day if you exercise and then eat some or all of those calories back? No. But, if the whole point of losing weight is for over all health and not just a number on the scale, then exercise is NEVER pointless.
It's even more "miopic" [sic] to not even finish reading the whole sentence (actually, that's closer to the literal meaning, come to think of it).
I know the bolding didn't help, so I don't have much hope, but here goes:
If you eat back all your exercise calories, exercise becomes pointless, from a weight-loss standpoint.
I think that you are a little confused.
MFP is set up with a deficit already. Add exercise and the deficit can become too excessive.
Modest calorie deficit for fat loss.
Exercise for health.
The deficit is already factored in and exercise, being extra, works better when you actually fuel it.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10589-for-those-confused-or-questioning-eating-your-exercise-calo
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/952996-level-obstacles-lose-weight-target-fat-easy0 -
No exercise is useless or a waste of time...fitness is essential to overall health and well being. I think where you may be getting confused is that for most of us, it has been ingrained that you try to lose weight by working out...in reality, exercise is an extremely inefficient way of creating a calorie deficit...a much more efficient way of creating a calorie deficit for weightloss is with diet. That is the way MFP is set up and that is why you eat back calories with MFP.
You can lose weight with no exercise at all...all that is required is a deficit of calories. I lost my first 20 Lbs or so with no exercise whatsoever. That said, I wouldn't advise it at all. Exercise is essential to your overrall health and is going to actually change body composition. You can lose the weight with diet alone, but you ultimately will not look as good as someone else of comparable stats who exercised along the way.
Diet for weight control; exercise for fitness.
This. Well said and amen.0 -
If I go out and do a 15 mile ride, I'll burn roughly 600 calories...
This is not about people who are going out on 15 mile bike rides, this about people logging 400 calories from 20 minutes of Insanity because their HRM told them so.
The "eat it back" idea is correct in theory - but it has serious problems in actual practice.
Only when people aren't reasonable with their estimates...this is true whether you're talking about the NEAT method or TDEE method...you have to be reasonable in your assumptions and estimates...a little bit of research goes a long way into finding out, for example, you're not burning 1200 calories doing 30 minutes of lap swim.
Whetherr it's TDEE or NEAT, people tend to overestimate their activity...when people actually get real and honest with themselves, that's when they usually start to have success.
Like I said...I lost 40 Lbs doing exactly what MFP told me to do and making allowances in my calorie burns for estimation error. People just need to actually use their brains a little bit...
I lost 40 lbs. too, and by doing whatever I felt like.
I guess we sorta cancel each other out, huh?
The point is that this is a tool...knowing how to use this tool is pretty easy and it works. People are more than welcome to do whatever they want to do...they can starve their bodies of nutritiona and kill off whatever LBM they desire...they can go workout and not realize how much better their workouts could be if they actually fueled them. People can be as stupid as they want to be, and it's no sweat off my back...but when someone asks me how to use this tool, I'm going to tell them how to use it properly and as designed. You could probably hammer in a screw as well...but using a screw driver properly would probalby be your betterr option. Just because you did whatever you wanted doesn't mean you did anything healthy...
Good luck with everything....hope everything continues to workout for you just doing whatever you want...0 -
MFP is set up with a deficit already. Add exercise and the deficit can become too excessive.
Modest calorie deficit for fat loss.
Exercise for health.
The deficit is already factored in and exercise, being extra, and works better when you actually fuel it.
It all depends. If you plugged in a 1 or .5 pound per week loss, shorting yourself 200 calories spent on a workout is perfectly fine. If you selected 2 pounds per week, yeah, maybe you shouldn't put yourself into starvation mode.0 -
Only when people aren't reasonable with their estimates...this is true whether you're talking about the NEAT method or TDEE method...you have to be reasonable in your assumptions and estimates...a little bit of research goes a long way into finding out, for example, you're not burning 1200 calories doing 30 minutes of lap swim.
A huge portion of our community is demonstrably not "reasonable" with their estimates. Therefore, offering blanket advice of "eat back your calories" is not good advice. And the sad thing is, it's those that are most borderline in their approach that will get harmed the most by blindly following this advice!
Here's another example showing why "eat back your calories" isn't even correct in theory, really - person has a TDEE of 2000 calories. MFP sets their intake at 1600. This is a nice healthy 20% of TDEE deficit. Now this person gets active and starts burning 1000 calories/day. Their TDEE is now 3000. Their deficit is still 400 calories, or barely 10% of TDEE.
Replace "1000 calories" with any value you like - the more you exercise, the smaller the percent of TDEE left after "eat your exercise back". Why would we do this?0 -
I eat back as much of them as I feel I reasonably can for several reasons. Mostly for sustainability. I am far less likely to fall off the wagon if I am eating 2000 calories a day. And it will be an easier transition for when I go into maintenance. Too deep of a deficit is something that definitely should be avoided. There are too many horror stories out there about people struggling with maintenance because they had too low calorie of a diet.If you're seeing results, why do you doubt its effectiveness? Keep it going, you're doing great!
When I exercise, if I don't feel I need extra calories, I don't eat them. It just adds to your calorie deficit and will help with weight loss. Don't starve yourself, but why eat calories you don't feel you need?0 -
I eat back as much of them as I feel I reasonably can for several reasons. Mostly for sustainability. I am far less likely to fall off the wagon if I am eating 2000 calories a day. And it will be an easier transition for when I go into maintenance. Too deep of a deficit is something that definitely should be avoided. There are too many horror stories out there about people struggling with maintenance because they had too low calorie of a diet.If you're seeing results, why do you doubt its effectiveness? Keep it going, you're doing great!
When I exercise, if I don't feel I need extra calories, I don't eat them. It just adds to your calorie deficit and will help with weight loss. Don't starve yourself, but why eat calories you don't feel you need?
Then go for it. You gotta do what works for *you*. :drinker:0 -
To eat that 1,000 calories worth of food.:drinker:Only when people aren't reasonable with their estimates...this is true whether you're talking about the NEAT method or TDEE method...you have to be reasonable in your assumptions and estimates...a little bit of research goes a long way into finding out, for example, you're not burning 1200 calories doing 30 minutes of lap swim.
A huge portion of our community is demonstrably not "reasonable" with their estimates. Therefore, offering blanket advice of "eat back your calories" is not good advice. And the sad thing is, it's those that are most borderline in their approach that will get harmed the most by blindly following this advice!
Here's another example showing why "eat back your calories" isn't even correct in theory, really - person has a TDEE of 2000 calories. MFP sets their intake at 1600. This is a nice healthy 20% of TDEE deficit. Now this person gets active and starts burning 1000 calories/day. Their TDEE is now 3000. Their deficit is still 400 calories, or barely 10% of TDEE.
Replace "1000 calories" with any value you like - the more you exercise, the smaller the percent of TDEE left after "eat your exercise back". Why would we do this?0 -
No exercise is useless or a waste of time...fitness is essential to overall health and well being. I think where you may be getting confused is that for most of us, it has been ingrained that you try to lose weight by working out...in reality, exercise is an extremely inefficient way of creating a calorie deficit...a much more efficient way of creating a calorie deficit for weightloss is with diet. That is the way MFP is set up and that is why you eat back calories with MFP.
You can lose weight with no exercise at all...all that is required is a deficit of calories. I lost my first 20 Lbs or so with no exercise whatsoever. That said, I wouldn't advise it at all. Exercise is essential to your overrall health and is going to actually change body composition. You can lose the weight with diet alone, but you ultimately will not look as good as someone else of comparable stats who exercised along the way.
Diet for weight control; exercise for fitness.
Heart you.0 -
Only when people aren't reasonable with their estimates...this is true whether you're talking about the NEAT method or TDEE method...you have to be reasonable in your assumptions and estimates...a little bit of research goes a long way into finding out, for example, you're not burning 1200 calories doing 30 minutes of lap swim.
A huge portion of our community is demonstrably not "reasonable" with their estimates. Therefore, offering blanket advice of "eat back your calories" is not good advice. And the sad thing is, it's those that are most borderline in their approach that will get harmed the most by blindly following this advice!
Here's another example showing why "eat back your calories" isn't even correct in theory, really - person has a TDEE of 2000 calories. MFP sets their intake at 1600. This is a nice healthy 20% of TDEE deficit. Now this person gets active and starts burning 1000 calories/day. Their TDEE is now 3000. Their deficit is still 400 calories, or barely 10% of TDEE.
Replace "1000 calories" with any value you like - the more you exercise, the smaller the percent of TDEE left after "eat your exercise back". Why would we do this?
Well, when you use TDEE, you don't eat back exercise calories first of all...only with the NEAT method do you eat back exercise calories. If you increased your activity and thus your TDEE you would have to recalculate your activity level and take your 20% from that new number. Increasing your exercise activity has no bearing on your NEAT...your NEAT would remain a constant therefore eating back more exercise calories would have no bearing on your net deficit with a NEAT method calculator like MFP.
With MFP and the NEAT method you are accounting for that exercise after the fact, not before hand...thus you log that burn and eat those calories back; with TDEE you are accounting for that activity on the front end in your activity level...thus eating back exercise calories would be a horrible thing to do.0 -
No exercise is useless. I personally find 30DS to be a great workout, even if it is short and fairly simple. Keep it up.
^^^This! Does it get your heart pumping? Do you sweat? Are you sore the next day? Does it make you feel good? Empowered? Any exercise is better than just laying on the couch. You exercise for good health and fitness. If you don't care about those things then don't do it. Calorie deficit is why we lose weight. However...if you don't have a lot to lose it's going to be really hard to 'change' your body without the help of exercise. Find workouts you like and move your body!!!!0 -
You can lose weight without exercise, but it wont look nice and lean. The 30 DS did amazing for me. I lost like 6 inches...a pant size and 7lbs. It definitely is not a waste.
Dont listen to nay-sayers. Some people may think it's whimpy...but it's better than nothing...and losing weight without exercise does not look good.0 -
You're correct. If you eat back all your exercise calories, exercise becomes pointless, from a weight-loss standpoint.
Not to mention the fact that if you overestimate your caloric burn during your workout, you will actually be WORSE off than if you didn't exercise at all.
Is anyone really reading and comprehending this? Not that exercise is pointless but that if you eat all the calories back then it negates the calorie burn of the workout as far as weight loss goes. Not that exercise isn't going to help your fitness even if you eat those calories back.
Here's what you're missing...my MFP calorie goal to lose 1 Lb per week was 1,860 calories...this was based on a lightly active NEAT activity level (DOES NOT INCLUDE EXERCISE)....it includes a weight loss deficit already...my actual NEAT maintenance is 2,360. If I go out and do a 15 mile ride, I'll burn roughly 600 calories...given that my calorie goal is based on my NEAT (as per the MFP method), that exercise is completely unaccounted for. So if I don't eat them, I've now created a 1,100 calorie deficit when my goal was a 500 calorie deficit to lose 1 Lb per week. At no point during my weight loss did I ever have the fat stores necessary to sustain such a deficit.
I lost 40 Lbs averaging about 1 Lb per week loss all the while eat back exercise calories...so your notion that eating back exercise calories negates the weight loss benefits of exercise is completely and utterly invalid. It is only a valid assumption if you're actually trying to create a calorie deficit with exercise or are utilizing the TDEE method. If you're using MFP as designed (a NEAT method calculator) then it works just fine.
I honestly fail to see how something this simple is missed on so many people...it's really, really, really friggin easy and just basic mathematics....
Perhaps others aren't subscribing to the MFP system, where slow weight loss is recommended (for everyone, no matter their weight). If you're 40 lbs overweight and believe that the only right way to lose weight is to eat back your calories because you're on a 1200 calorie diet, good for you. That will work. If someone else is, perhaps, 100 lbs overweight and they're eating 1800 calories and NOT eating their calories back, good for them. That will work, too. If someone is eating 1200 calories and burning 600 calories every day, that's probably not so good and can have health consequences (hair and muscle loss, vitamin/mineral deficiency, et cetera). Sometimes, I eat back my calories. Sometimes I don't. Those weeks that I eat back the cals, my weight loss slows to about 1 lb; weeks where I've not eaten back the calories, I average about 2 lbs a week. Unfortunately for me, I have a pretty good store of fat, so I can get away with this. Lots of variables here to consider so I don't think it's just basic math.0
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