Why am I exercising...

At least for me, I find it hard to stay around 1800 calories (my daily allotment including deficit to lose ~1 lb a week), so I exercise so I can eat more. I don't necessarily eat back everything I burn off, but it gives me some cushion.

That said, I really exercise because:
1) It makes me feel good,
2) it builds muscle (even cardio does this!) and burns fat, and therefore
3) makes me healthier, and
4) makes me look better, and
5) I enjoy bike racing, marathons, and triathlons, and it's hard to do any of those without exercising, and
6) my family has a history of heart issues, so I exercise to make sure I don't have a heart attack when I'm 46 like my dad did, or die in my 60s like two aunts, one uncle, and two grandparents did.

I suppose I could go on, but that should give you some idea what the point of exercise is.

Based on a purely numerical basis, your question is perfectly understandable.

The real reason you want to exercise is that it builds muscle and muscle burns more calories than fat, which ultimately makes your body more efficient and you healthier.

The other reason is that you can regulate (or offset) what you eat with exercise. Let's say you are allotted 1500 calories today and are on track for meeting that goal. Then you have a moment of weakness and decide to have a piece of cake. Now all you have to do is exercise enough to compensate for you indulgence. Everything has a price right....

If you just eat less to lose weight, you also lose muslce mass. There is a term called yo yo dieting which might explain it better.


"Yo-yo dieting gets its name from the cycle of bingeing, then dieting to lose the weight gained bingeing, then repeating the cycle again and again. Yo-yo dieters typically gain weight over time, and yo-yo dieting without exercise only compounds the problem.

Without exercise, yo-yo dieters lose both muscle and fat during the diet phase, while they gain only fat during the binge phase. Over time, the proportion of fat making up their bodies becomes greater and greater, while the proportion of muscle becomes smaller and smaller.

This results in a significant slowdown of their metabolism, making weight loss more and more difficult."


--Sourced from http://www.caloriesperhour.com/tutorial_exercise.php

I haaate exercise as well, but the only reason I keep doing it (despite not losing any weight, dammit), is the little things like being able to walk up a flight of stairs and not losing my breath.

Also, I think at the very least even if I'm not losing weight/inches, working out is at least helping maintain the current weight rather then gaining pounds/inches.

The calories you are allowed each day as long as you base it off of being sedetary or light exercising daily, is set up so that if you do no exercising, you will still be able to lose that 1-2 lbs a week (or whatever your goal is). MFP creates a calorie deficit for you. So if you go ahead and workout one day and log in your 320 calories from whatever and decide not to eat back your exercise calories, you are creating TOO MUCH of a deficit. Too much deficit = bad news in the long run.

In addition to all the mental and physical health benefits, and in addition to being able to eat more food...I am now at my old weight (which was my goal weight) but I'm smaller because I have been exercising. I know everyone always tells you that, but I had to see it to believe it. It absolutely blew my mind when I thought I could finally get back into my old clothes and now many of them are too big.