Is there a need for exercise?

I believe your question is what is exercise doing for you in terms of weight loss? IMHO... it's creating a calorie deficit that wouldn't otherwise be there.

Bzzzt. If you are using MFP as designed, you will show the same calorie deficit with or without exercise. When you add in your exercise, MFP will add those calories into your daily allowance.

FOOD - EXERCISE = NET (eat until net ~ goal)

In other words: GOAL - FOOD + EXERCISE = REMAINING (eat until remaining ~ zero)

You are only creating an additional deficit in so far as you are slowing down muscle loss.

You will lose muscle mass (I'm not talking bulk) and will therefore not burn as many calories while being sedentary.

If your goal is to lose pounds, then you only need to eat at a caloric deficit. If your goal caloric limit is 1200 calories a day, then cardio exercise simply increases the amount of food you can eat while staying under your caloric limit. If you are not eating back the calories burned from cardio, then you're just increasing your caloric deficit, which will increase the rate that you lose pounds at.

If you lose pounds rapidly without lifting weights (or some other resistance training), your body will have no reason to maintain skeletal muscle, so your muscles will be broken down for fuel along with body fat.

If your goal is to lose fat, then you need to do squats (and, ideally, eat oats). By intensely engaging your muscles, you will encourage your body to maintain them instead of digest them.

So it depends on what you want. If you're only worried about the number on the scale and don't care how you look or feel, then it's perfectly alright to eat at a significant caloric deficit without any exercise. If you want to maintain some muscle to look good and feel strong, then you should do squats. If you're like me and want to earn a cupcake every couple of days, then you can do some cardio, too.

I get you & wasn't offended to your comment. But let's all get along ... in the end we're all here helping each other.

I'm glad you weren't offended. I wasn't trying to offend, just make a point.

the only thing we have to do is pay taxes and die.

however if you want to live a happy and healthy life with few to no health problems and with strong bones, you will exercise

I lost 10 lbs in a month not exercising at all on WW. If youre eating really low calorie, exercise can backfire. I used to eat my exercise calories back on MFP and didnt lose a whole lot of weight. Its not exactly as simple as calories in, calories out. You cant really "burn off" food like you can not overeat. However, i notice when people lose weight that dont exercise they look a lot flabbier and the weight doesnt distribute as gracefully as those who do. So if you're goal is just to lose weight, exercise wont really help the scale budge. Its 80% food, 10% exercise, 10% genetics.

I've lost weight 1,000 times without exercise( that kinda says it all right there).It wasn't until I incorporated exercise three years ago that I KEPT it off.I've done some irreparable damage just dieting and not exercising over the last 30 years or so.


Highly Recommend exercise

^^this^^

For overall health, Yes. Your body NEEDS muscle mass.

I exercise because I want to be strong and healthy. When I first started last March I did some research and decided the working out was the way for me because:
#1 I get to eat more when I exercise. I feel less deprived and don't fall so easily into a binge.
#2 As you lose weight you will lose fat, water and lean body mass. I wanted to keep as much of my lean body mass as possible so my metabolism stays revved. The more muscle I have, the more my body needs to fuel it, and going back to #1 the more I get to eat.