Exercise to lose vs exercise to maintain?

embclark

So I have been working out for atleast an hour, 5 times a week, sometimes 6 times a week. Well, I am very close to my goal AND getting worn out to the point where I am pushing my exercises back each day until the last possible moment. This is not a realistic schedule for me for the rest of my life, i know I will give up after a while. For now, the incentive is to lose weight, but once it is lost I will need to lessen my load!

So my plan is 3 days a week for 30 minutes plus taking a walk with my daughter as many days as we have time for... What do you think? This would be for maintenance.

ALSO, when I am eating maintenance calories, do I still eat back exercise calories or are they built in?

Thanks!

beaner1st

You would eat back your exercise calories to maintain your weight.
I exercise to eat since my maintenace calories without exercise are only 1400 at 5"2" 110 pounds.

sarafil

I don't know what kind of exercise you are doing now, but I found when I got to maintenance weight I liked doing mainly strength training; didn't seem to take as much time as cardio and kept my metabolism up, and built muscle (which keeps me looking lean).

JNick77

Gaining, maintaining, losing is all a function of diet. If you want to lose, eat 10% - 20% less than your TDEE, maintain eat at or slightly above TDEE, if you want to gain eat about 50%+ above your TDEE. Don't use MFP and the whole eating back exercise calories crap-ola'. The whole system is fairly inaccurate.

embclark

I am currently doing cardio with some weight work in there. I use the EA Active Sports for the Wii. Also, I have been doing a Jillian Michaels DVD 5 days a week for almost 3 months.

So I do eat back exercise still.

Any other thoughts on how often to exercise?

embclark

No one else?