Stupid question but...

no1dragn
no1dragn Posts: 26 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Why can't you exercise away a bad diet? If it is all about calories in calories out shouldn't you be able to exercise that triple scoop of Rocky Road ice cream?

Replies

  • wilsoje74
    wilsoje74 Posts: 1,720 Member
    You can
  • _MG_
    _MG_ Posts: 453 Member
    Who said you can't?
  • kayla_who
    kayla_who Posts: 540 Member
    You can...the problem is when you don't
  • sstevenson2233
    sstevenson2233 Posts: 6 Member
    Yes you can, but if your eating a BLT with home fries and pancakes for breakfast, a Big Mac with Fries and Coke for lunch, and then whatever other high fat carb, sodium, calories item for dinner then just burning 500 calories for the Rocky Road Ice cream defeats the purpose.... If your eating healthy all day and treating yourself here and there and exercising to burn off your treat then of course you can!
  • mschicagocubs
    mschicagocubs Posts: 774 Member
    Yep .... I'm not understanding the question.... you can.

    If I know I am going to be over my calorie limit on a given day (alcohol, going out to eat, ice cream) I burn more calories ....
  • brianpperkins
    brianpperkins Posts: 6,124 Member
    One ice cream desert is not a bad diet. Eating nothing but junk in such quantities that you cannot exercise your way to a deficit and intake that is devoid of macros needed to maintain lean mass no matter what exercise you perform is a bad diet.
  • DavPul
    DavPul Posts: 61,406 Member
    you can't. there aren't enough hours in the day.

    sure, you can get away with it today. perhaps even a few weeks or a month or two. but eventually you either scale back or you get injured/burned out. and at that point you've acclimated to eating 4500 calories or whatever and now you don't just gain back the weight you lost, you gain more, and you gain it fast.
  • Madame_Goldbricker
    Madame_Goldbricker Posts: 1,625 Member
    One ice cream desert is not a bad diet. Eating nothing but junk in such quantities that you cannot exercise your way to a deficit and intake that is devoid of macros needed to maintain lean mass no matter what exercise you perform is a bad diet.

    I'd agree with this but also add that it doesn't have to just be "junk". Eating any food in massive amounts would inevitably mean that the chances of the person being able to exercise to the point where they could burn it off would be pretty unlikely .

    Case in point OP its far easier to lose weight via portion control/calorific intake than it is to burn it off via exercise.
  • Alatariel75
    Alatariel75 Posts: 18,241 Member
    Depends how bad the diet is. If you ate nothing but takeaway 3 meals a day, along with soda, full fat starbucks, desserts and snacks, you might be over your maintenance calories by at least 2500-3000 calories. That's a lot of calories to burn off and many people just wouldn't have the time, particularly day after day.

    So you can exercise away a bad day, or a bad week even, but an ongoing bad diet would beat you in the end.
  • RaggedyAnnazon
    RaggedyAnnazon Posts: 183 Member
    Not stupid, actually a good question. It is about calorie deficit, so if youre eatin 1800 cals of ice cream and burgers but are supposed to be on a 2200 cal diet, you will lose weight. Will you feel good? Probably not. I don't know many people who feel well on a diet like that and those that think they do well...if you've never felt anything better how would you know?

    In regards directly to the question, that scoop of rocky road could be about 275-350 calories or more, depending on the brand. Just looking at the exercise database here, thats an hour walk at a brisk pace (roughly) to burn that ONE serving (if that's all you had, but with ice cream it's hard to have one serving) of ice cream off. So the reason they really say that whole "you can't out exercise a bad diet" is actually more translated to "you shouldn't consume what you can't burn off, or put into a resonable calorie deficite."
  • MyChocolateDiet
    MyChocolateDiet Posts: 22,281 Member
    170 X 3 + 45= 555 cals
    rocky road X scoops + cone = your triple scoop treat.
    source: https://www.baskinrobbins.com/content/baskinrobbins/en/nutritioncatalog.html

    If you divided that by 3 days 555/3 days you'd get=185

    If you looked up a workout that matched 185 you could have this treat twice a week if you did six workouts of at least 185 calories per.

    You're welcome.

    If you feel you must pay me, let it be in chocolate.

    l.jpg
  • DavPul
    DavPul Posts: 61,406 Member
    Not stupid, actually a good question. It is about calorie deficit, so if youre eatin 1800 cals of ice cream and burgers but are supposed to be on a 2200 cal diet, you will lose weight. Will you feel good? Probably not. I don't know many people who feel well on a diet like that and those that think they do well...if you've never felt anything better how would you know?

    In regards directly to the question, that scoop of rocky road could be about 275-350 calories or more, depending on the brand. Just looking at the exercise database here, thats an hour walk at a brisk pace (roughly) to burn that ONE serving (if that's all you had, but with ice cream it's hard to have one serving) of ice cream off. So the reason they really say that whole "you can't out exercise a bad diet" is actually more translated to "you shouldn't consume what you can't burn off, or put into a resonable calorie deficite."


    will-ferrell-elf-you-sit-on-a-throne-of-lies.gif
  • no1dragn
    no1dragn Posts: 26 Member
    Thanks all. I had a trainer tell me that and it didn't make sense to me given the simple solution to losing weight (cals in/cals out). I did not think of the 'how you would feel' argument, which I can now see. Junk food (or any high fat etc food) eaten way out of a reasonable portion size would make one feel physically blah which could lead to the 'I'll work out tomorrow' effect. Yet tomorrow never comes.

    Thanks for your responses.

    Happy workouts!

Categories