Whats the point to exercise then?

erickirb

Exercise, while dieting helps you retain lean muscle (more so with strength training), so you lose mostly fat, not muscle, helps you be stronger, good for the heart, allows you to eat more etc.

The only reason you eat the calories back is because MFP already restricts your calories and ignores calories in your activity level. Your body needs fuel to perform so if you use fuel for exercise you are taking it away from other necessary functions. Look at it this way eating 1300 calories and not exercising is like eating 1700 calories after burning 400 as 1300-0*1700-400.

The way MFP is set up you will lose your goal amount of weight with no exercise, so if you burn more calories you need to eat those to meet your weekly weight loss goal, otherwise you should lose faster, but a large portion of that may be lean muscle, not fat, not to mention your energy levels will be lower, your workouts will not be as effective, you may lose hair, your skin may and nails may become weak and brittle,etc.

Pifflesmom

I asked my dietician about this and since she recommends this site to all of her clients, she made it nice and easy for me: EAT YOUR NET CALORIES FOR THE DAY.

So far, so good! Almost 16 lbs. down in about 5 weeks.

chiera88

the website is designed to lose weight without exercise, just dieting, exercising is for health, strength, and muscle toning. also, it balances out your net calories for the day if you ate alot or want to

amuhlou

MFP's daily calorie goal already gives you a deficit to reach your weight loss goals WITHOUT exercise.

Exercise is good for more than just weight loss, it helps prevent disease.

Mamaincali

Are all the studies wrong that say to lose weight you must work out 5-6 days a week and to maintain you must work out 3-4 days a week? I know there is research now that says everyone should do 30 min exercise 7 days a week for your health.

I've dealt with depression over the years and exercise always worked better than any pill at making me feel better.

UpEarly

Personally... I don't exercise for weight loss. I was a regular exerciser - even when I weighed 202 pounds. (I currently weigh 147) I exercise to make my heart stronger, to keep my bones healthy, to improve my balance, to maintain my lean body mass so I look/feel younger than my current 40 years. I exercise to give my HDL levels a boost, to improve the way my body metabolizes sugar, to have a lower resting heart rate, and to keep my blood pressure low. I exercise for the endorphins. I exercise because it helps me sleep better at night.

You don't have to exercise lose weight. You can sit still and eat at a calorie deficit, and still keep losing. But exercising is really beneficial for your overall health.

bethdris

I eat back about half of my exercise calories.

Remember this though.

When you exercise, it revs up your body for the rest of the day. Even after your done exercising, your body (especially with weight lifting) is eating at that fat.

It's best to workout in the morning for this reason, but whatever works for you is fine.

Exercise is SO important.

I work on a cardiac floor as a nurse and I wish I could sit down with you all in a coffee shop and explain in detail why we need to workout.

If you aren't convinced, watch Forks Over Knives documentary.

It'll scare you onto your treadmill.

GOOOD luck!

Just added this to my Netflix queue..thanks!

erickirb

I try not to eat my exercise calories back - I don't see the point in doing the exercise, then eating the calories straight back.

Although, if I do feel hungry, and need to nibble a snack, I always have some extra calories to use if need be.

this will probably cause you to lose lean muscle, the closer you get to your goal weight the more important it is to have a smaller caloric deficit one way to make it smaller is by eating exercise calories, or you can set your goal to maintenance, eat all of those cals and let the exercise be your deficit.

davitalynette

Dieting helps you look good in clothing.

Exercise helps you look good naked.

I like this!!!!!

Mamaincali

I asked my dietician about this and since she recommends this site to all of her clients, she made it nice and easy for me: EAT YOUR NET CALORIES FOR THE DAY.

So far, so good! Almost 16 lbs. down in about 5 weeks.

Your net calories meaning exercise or not?

erickirb

Are all the studies wrong that say to lose weight you must work out 5-6 days a week and to maintain you must work out 3-4 days a week? I know there is research now that says everyone should do 30 min exercise 7 days a week for your health.

I've dealt with depression over the years and exercise always worked better than any pill at making me feel better.

what studies say that?? You don't have to workout at all to lose weight, you just need a caloric deficit. Weight loss is essentially 80% diet, 10% exercise, 10% genetics.

teelynn35

Dieting helps you look good in clothing.

Exercise helps you look good naked.
[/quote

I like this answer:) short & simple]

jezlightyear

If you aren't convinced, watch Forks Over Knives documentary.

i love documentaries and have been trying to find ones to do with nutrition, thankyou!! (:

ekz13

:noway: cause every week you don't exercise....MFP eats a kitten...









.....so I've heard

erickirb

I asked my dietician about this and since she recommends this site to all of her clients, she made it nice and easy for me: EAT YOUR NET CALORIES FOR THE DAY.

So far, so good! Almost 16 lbs. down in about 5 weeks.

Your net calories meaning exercise or not?

Your net goal is your caloric goal on MFP so if your goal is 1300 and you burn 400 you need to eat 1700 to net 1300 (1700-400). So to hit your net goal you must eat your exercise calories.

lynn1982

Dieting helps you look good in clothing.

Exercise helps you look good naked.

This.

And because I love the endorphins that come with exercise. And I love food. And I want to be healthy, not skinny.

jacksonpt

I asked my dietician about this and since she recommends this site to all of her clients, she made it nice and easy for me: EAT YOUR NET CALORIES FOR THE DAY.

So far, so good! Almost 16 lbs. down in about 5 weeks.

Your net calories meaning exercise or not?

Net means yes, that's the point of "net"

30yearssincebikini

I love MFP to death, but I don't personally trust their calories allotted for exercise. I just don't see how they can know for certain how many calories you have burned. By eating your exercise calories, if they are not accurate, you could be overeating. I say don't eat them back, unless you are hungry. Listen to your body. If you get hungry, then eat something. But to lose weight, don't eat too much.

MaximalLife

I've been reading some people say eat back your exercise calories and some people say don't eat back your calories. I thought its supposed to be burn more, eat less to lose weight? If you eat back your exercise calories then why even exercise? That seems to defeat the purpose of exercise.

As was already mentioned above, MFP determined our total daily calorie goal that DOES NOT include exercise to lose 1 pound [recommended].
And after we complete an exercise and log it in, our daily calorie limit increases.

This is because MFP advising us to eat back those exercise calories.
Large deficits are not recommended, because while you will lose weight, what's the quality of the weight loss?
In that healthy?
What happens is decreased lean body mass - MUSCLE - which LOWERS metabolic rate, making weight loss even harder.

The quick loss, low-calorie diets may do wonders on the front end, but once the diet is over, you have a body that burns calories more slowly -- and you gain weight.
Think long term, and be wise.
Exercise intensely, but eat back the calories.
The exercise will RAISE your metabolism and burn more fat at rest.

Hahahaha! You beat me to it, Max!

OK, 1 point for me - race you to the next one!

erickirb

I love MFP to death, but I don't personally trust their calories allotted for exercise. I just don't see how they can know for certain how many calories you have burned. By eating your exercise calories, if they are not accurate, you could be overeating. I say don't eat them back, unless you are hungry. Listen to your body. If you get hungry, then eat something. But to lose weight, don't eat too much.

hunger is not the best indication of caloric needs.

OP: If you are using MFP or the machines caloric burn estimates I would suggest eating 60-75% of them, if you are using a HRM 90-100% of them should be eaten back.

MaximalLife

I love MFP to death, but I don't personally trust their calories allotted for exercise. I just don't see how they can know for certain how many calories you have burned. By eating your exercise calories, if they are not accurate, you could be overeating. I say don't eat them back, unless you are hungry. Listen to your body. If you get hungry, then eat something. But to lose weight, don't eat too much.

I had to lower the burn rates across the board about 25% to find my "zone".

TeaBea

I asked my dietician about this and since she recommends this site to all of her clients, she made it nice and easy for me: EAT YOUR NET CALORIES FOR THE DAY.

So far, so good! Almost 16 lbs. down in about 5 weeks.

Your net calories meaning exercise or not?

NET means calories in VS. calories out.

Example: Eat 1500 (in) exercise 300 (out) = 1200 NET

I exercise for maintenance. No, I'm not at goal yet. But when I do reach my goal .... I don't want to diet for the rest of my life! The "new" smaller me will require fewer calories the the "old" bigger me ..... Exercise calories give me some breathing room. Lifestyle changes ..... I NEED exercise!

Pifflesmom

@jessburch - when you go to 'my home' and look at the top, it calculates your calories for the day including exercise to equal your NET calories (right hand side). That's the number you should strive for every day. Some days when I have done a lot of exercise, I can't always quite make it, but it's what I strive for and it's working for me!

vvanm

Exercise boosts seratonin and endorphins and it helps your brain function and boots the metabolism. By lowering anxiety and stress (cortisol) you can make better food choices. Moderate exercise like walking is a good start to set the daily habit of doing something. Do something you enjoy and can stick with. "In my day" we used to exercise playing tennis, swimming, hiking, dancing, or just going to outside activities. I've never gotten used to the gym idea, but other people love it and you can work all the muscle groups. Start out slow and work up to your comfort level so you don't get burned out.

ksylvan

Dieting helps you look good in clothing.

Exercise helps you look good naked.

That was awesome and well said. :-)

BaconMD

I looked at the MFP estimates, and there are many days in the summer where I spent 6-8 hours straight of walking the banks of the Montreal, fishing.

Apparently doing this for 6 hours burns more calories than I consume in an entire day. Something seems wrong to me... If it's right, then that's all the exercising I'm going to do this summer, because that's way more fun than walking and running on my treadmill.

AND more effective it seems (walking at 3.0 for 6 hours burns less (2446) than fishing along the river for 6 hours (2596)... according to MFP).

I dunno, I just set my own calorie target and my activity and exercise is just on top of that. I would rather just eat consistently and if I am too hungry or weight loss stalls, I'll reevaluate then. I don't do crazy intense exercising anyhow (well, except for fishing! lmao).

kennethmgreen

To lose weight you need to be in a healthy caloric deficit. There are 2 ways to accomplish that:

1) Set your daily caloric intake at a deficit
This is what most people do, and is how MFP is designed to work. You figure out your daily caloric need (TDEE, or total daily energy expenditure), then set your calorie goal lower than that. For example.. if your TDEE is 1800, you might set your daily calorie goal to 1400. That puts you in a caloric deficit and you will start to lose weight*. When you exercise you burn additional calories. These burned calories are not accounted for in your TDEE or the calorie goal you set based on your TDEE. So exercising increases that caloric deficit. The thing to watch here is how big that deficit gets. Every body responds differently, but the larger the deficit the worse it is for your body (the assumption is that the larger the deficit gets the harder it is to properly fuel your body). And this is why people recommend eating back exercise calories.

2) Use exercise to create the deficit
With this method you set your daily caloric intake to equal your TDEE. Then you exercise and burn calories. Those burned calories are not accounted for when you set your daily goal equal to your TDEE, and thus you end up in a deficit. The size of that deficit is dependent on your workouts. You burn 75cals walking the dog and your deficit is 75 cals. You burn 500 cals running and the deficit is 500.



*This is VERY simiplified and makes A LOT of assumptions, but is good enough for this conversation.



As with everything, there is some variance here. Every body resonds differently to diet, exercise, nutrition, etc. so there is some trial and error required to find your body's "sweet spot". Pick one of the above methods, do it for a couple of months and see what happens. Then you can make a couple of subtle changes here and there, do that for a month or two and see if you body responds better or worse. But always start with one of the above methods, then go from there.

Problem is, many other websites (and nutritionists and doctors and trainers and books and magazines and wife's best friend who is into fitness and really smart) use some version of #2. So when people mention "eating your exercise calories back" to their nutritionist/doctor/trainer/wife's best friend who is into fitness and really smart they usually fail to mention (or fail to understand themselves) how MFP really works. So the nutritionist/doctor/trainer/wife's best friend who is into fitness and really smart comes back and says "Of course you shouldn't eat your exercise calories! That's crazy talk! I'm a nutritionist/doctor/trainer/wife's best friend who is into fitness and really smart so I should know!" The MFP member comes back and reports this as gospel for why you shouldn't eat your exercise calories back.

The truth is, there is no way to answer the question "Should I eat my exercise calories back?" without more information or making some assumptions. Others have spelled it out already better than I can. But I hate seeing this question posted so often without any context. Yes, there are times when you should not eat your exercise calories back if you want to lose weight. And there are times when you should eat your exercise calories back to successfully lose weight. It's just math. Generally speaking, MFP is designed so that you eat your exercise calories back. You can certainly lose weight doing it differently.

jacksonpt

To lose weight you need to be in a healthy caloric deficit. There are 2 ways to accomplish that:

1) Set your daily caloric intake at a deficit
This is what most people do, and is how MFP is designed to work. You figure out your daily caloric need (TDEE, or total daily energy expenditure), then set your calorie goal lower than that. For example.. if your TDEE is 1800, you might set your daily calorie goal to 1400. That puts you in a caloric deficit and you will start to lose weight*. When you exercise you burn additional calories. These burned calories are not accounted for in your TDEE or the calorie goal you set based on your TDEE. So exercising increases that caloric deficit. The thing to watch here is how big that deficit gets. Every body responds differently, but the larger the deficit the worse it is for your body (the assumption is that the larger the deficit gets the harder it is to properly fuel your body). And this is why people recommend eating back exercise calories.

2) Use exercise to create the deficit
With this method you set your daily caloric intake to equal your TDEE. Then you exercise and burn calories. Those burned calories are not accounted for when you set your daily goal equal to your TDEE, and thus you end up in a deficit. The size of that deficit is dependent on your workouts. You burn 75cals walking the dog and your deficit is 75 cals. You burn 500 cals running and the deficit is 500.



*This is VERY simiplified and makes A LOT of assumptions, but is good enough for this conversation.



As with everything, there is some variance here. Every body resonds differently to diet, exercise, nutrition, etc. so there is some trial and error required to find your body's "sweet spot". Pick one of the above methods, do it for a couple of months and see what happens. Then you can make a couple of subtle changes here and there, do that for a month or two and see if you body responds better or worse. But always start with one of the above methods, then go from there.

Problem is, many other websites (and nutritionists and doctors and trainers and books and magazines and wife's best friend who is into fitness and really smart) use some version of #2. So when people mention "eating your exercise calories back" to their nutritionist/doctor/trainer/wife's best friend who is into fitness and really smart they usually fail to mention (or fail to understand themselves) how MFP really works. So the nutritionist/doctor/trainer/wife's best friend who is into fitness and really smart comes back and says "Of course you shouldn't eat your exercise calories! That's crazy talk! I'm a nutritionist/doctor/trainer/wife's best friend who is into fitness and really smart so I should know!" The MFP member comes back and reports this as gospel for why you shouldn't eat your exercise calories back.

The truth is, there is no way to answer the question "Should I eat my exercise calories back?" without more information or making some assumptions. Others have spelled it out already better than I can. But I hate seeing this question posted so often without any context. Yes, there are times when you should not eat your exercise calories back if you want to lose weight. And there are times when you should eat your exercise calories back to successfully lose weight. It's just math. Generally speaking, MFP is designed so that you eat your exercise calories back. You can certainly lose weight doing it differently.

you're absolutely right... and the problem comes when people try to mix different approaches. They need to pick on and go with it. Do weight watchers or don't. Do MFP or don't. Do what your wife's best friend's doctor says or don't. But don't mix pieces of MFP with pieces of some other program.

Mamaincali

I am 320 lbs, 5'6.5", 31 F. I have a desk job and chose sedentary and I chose the option lose 2 lbs per week and Mfp says I can have 1730 calories a day. When I exercise I wear my heart rate monitor. Yesterday I walked slow for 27 minutes and burned 497 calories. I know I burn more right now because of my weight so if I am already set to eat 1730 calories and I eat back my exercise calories I just want to make sure I am supposed to be eating around 2200 calories then. On Saturday I walked faster for 37 minutes and burned 651 calories. I did have 200 calories still left to eat that day that I didn't eat.

And I like that saying, eat healthy to look good in clothes and exercise to look good naked! I'm going to post that on my fridge and in my car! That's great motivation to keep exercising! And yes I know several skinny flabby people so this all makes sense! I hadn't run across this explanation before when people ask if they should eat back exercise calories. All I saw was a yes and no with no explanation. I am not stupid either but all these studies sure do make this stuff confusing when they contradict themselves.

CakeFit21

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There's is no point to exercise, obviously. It's a conspiracy contrived by sportswear companies.