So you exercise to eat?

Renae_Nae

Here's my personal rant. And NO it's not about you! But if you feel like it's about you then someone has probably thought it about you

If you are tracking EVERYTHING you do (shopping, walking the 4 houses down to visit your neighbor, etc) then you are exercising to eat. You are trying to gain that extra calorie not so you can be "correct" or "accurate" but so you can sqeeze that hersey's kiss out of the day! Let it go!

Oh, and yeah, you can go running without a HRM. You'll survive if you don't know exactly how long or how far we ran. It was only about 20 mins, it wasn't a half marathon in which you actually burned significant calories that make you need to eat more. Also, please stop talking about the donut shop at the end of the 5K race...you (especially since you took so many freaking walk breaks) can't complain you're not losing weight when you get a donut every freaking time we're done with a run.

It's one thing to know you are going to your brother's B-day party and are probably going to eat more so you do an extra workout that morning...but when you live every day of your life based on whether or not you can track the calories for your workout or what you are eating then you're not living.

And lastly...please stop getting mad at me when I tell you I've lost more weight when you ask me how I'm doing. I've told you how I do it and you refuse to believe that eating to fuel your body will help you lose weight. Oh, FYI...I haven't worked out in 3 days and the scale is down another pound...but I'll wait to tell you when you ask me Friday and tell I can tell you its down 2 pounds!

Bobby_Clerici

Sometimes I exercise to eat - sure!
When I know I have a dinner out where I plan to let it fly, I will offset some of the damage with a few more hours of cardio.
That's different than counting all these bogus activities as exercise, but sometimes I am guilty of doing more just to eat more.
Life is to be lived:bigsmile:

BrianSharpe

I've never run a 5K race where donuts were handed out at the finish......where do sign up for one??

cubizzle

KABOOOOM!!!!

vklebanova

LMAO - thank you for posting what I was thinking.

I think as a human you're bound to move throughout the day - it's not necessary to track "shopping" as an activity. Do you really work up a sweat strolling through the mall????

Jomalone2

Well said! Feel better now? lol

cubizzle

I've never run a 5K race where donuts were handed out at the finish......where do sign up for one??

YEAH! screw oranges and bananas I want a freaking donut!

patchesgizmo

lol! I am actually exercising and not just tracking my normal activity. I do count my garden weeding as exercise because I have a huge garden and I do work out when I weed. I appreciate the extra calories, but every week I lower my calories goals a little bit also, so I really am "working" out at it.

Love the post, it was awesome!

vklebanova

My absolute favorite though is when people track obnoxious calories and I see things like " xxxx burned 987 calories, cleaning"

WTF?! what kinda of CRAZZZZY cleaning sessions are you doing?

meerkat70

I've never run a 5K race where donuts were handed out at the finish......where do sign up for one??

My very thought....

(Although I might express a preference for coffee cake.)

Jomalone2

I've never run a 5K race where donuts were handed out at the finish......where do sign up for one??

They really do exist! I remember seeing them and thinking "doesn't that defeat the whole purpose?" I had to walk past them to get to my car - and walking past them without picking one up was harder than the race itself.

meerkat70

I've never run a 5K race where donuts were handed out at the finish......where do sign up for one??

YEAH! screw oranges and bananas I want a freaking donut!

I got a mars bar at my 10k this weekend. I thought that was class.

cubizzle

I've never run a 5K race where donuts were handed out at the finish......where do sign up for one??

My very thought....

(Although I might express a preference for coffee cake.)

raspberry cream cheese danish dash!

mellabyte

I have a friend who is a marathon runner. She jokingly tells me she runs so she can eat anything she wants. :laugh: I'm cool with that, because with the miles she clocks, she damn well better be able to eat what she wants. ^_^

HotCuppaJo

I've never run a 5K race where donuts were handed out at the finish......where do sign up for one??

Lol...NO kidding!!

partpig

Question - I'm new to MFP and am confused on the counting of calories. If i'm allowed to eat 1200 a day and then exersice and it now says my daily goal intake of calories is 1400 - should I still be only eating 1200. won't it say that I'm not meeting my calorie intake? Will my body think that I am starving it or is the 1200 enough? Can someone please explain who this works? Thanks. Tina

softballsharie

Well hey I do this! But I suppose to a different level.

I am very concious about making sure I get as close to my calorie goal as I can without going over. So every day, I log exactly what I am going to eat (based on what I packed for lunch, made for breakfast, and have on my menu for dinner) and I plan my exercises accordingly. If I am right about at my calories, I will only do strength training that day. If I have gone over for some reason, I will add a bit more cardio, so on and so forth.

However, I will never ever log my daily activities. MFP asks you what your activity level is when you sign up! It already has your daily calories built in! So I feel taking it to that extreme is probably cheating yourself. Or maybe I'm just trying to justify my way of logging. Some people disagree with me, but I'm like a pound away from my goal weight and this is the way I've been doing it ever since I joined! So obviously, I'm just doing what works for me. I suppose I can't judge others for doing what works for them, as long as it WORKS.

meerkat70

I've never run a 5K race where donuts were handed out at the finish......where do sign up for one??

My very thought....

(Although I might express a preference for coffee cake.)

raspberry cream cheese danish dash!

Let's pick a route and set up the website!

therealangd

My 5k in June was called the muffin run and I ate lots and lots of muffins. Yummy muffins. They were awesome!

I do exercise so I can eat. All those yummy calories. And the beer. And the spanish coffees. I need to run half marathons just so I can keep up with my alcohol addiction.

I don't judge people though. No point. I don't burn any calories doing that.

Animaniac87

I'm more of an Uh-OH! I went way over today, better go swim some of these calories off so I don't hate myself tomorrow kinda gal.
But it's only on the very rare occasion.

I'm with you on the people who log everything they did like it's some big accomplishment that they washed dishes or spent 8 minutes doing zumba. Every time I see something like that in my news feed I have to do a face palm.

softballsharie

Question - I'm new to MFP and am confused on the counting of calories. If i'm allowed to eat 1200 a day and then exersice and it now says my daily goal intake of calories is 1400 - should I still be only eating 1200. won't it say that I'm not meeting my calorie intake? Will my body think that I am starving it or is the 1200 enough? Can someone please explain who this works? Thanks. Tina

Hey! This is a very good question, and honestly on this site you aren't going to get one answer. I know that I always eat back my exercise calories because it has worked for me all along. Some people never eat their exercise calories back, and that works for them. I say experiment for a couple of weeks, maybe even a month with doing both, or maybe only eating half of them back. Once you figure out what works best, stick with that. :] Hope that helps!