Eating Exercise Calories

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It IS odd, and confuses many people at first, but it's the default MFP setup. MFP builds your calories around a deficit, so no exe exercise is needed to lose weight. So any exercise you do is for the benefit of you physical look and cardiovascular health, not to create an additional deficit. You need to eat those back so that your net calories aren't so low as to be unhealthy.

Go with it. It works.

Simple. Exercise should NEVER be used as a weight loss tool. Period. (barring extreme emergencies and professional athletes) It also keeps your intake in line so you don't over exercise. So much for that if we look around here. While MFP is not great at all things, it at least TRIES to uphold the fact that overexercising is a bad thing. We eat crappily for who knows how long, then we "get serious" and start exercising to only under eat more! This causes metabolic problems and leads to the 90 to 95% failure rate in this industry.

Now with that being said, good exercise is beneficial and when the body is in homeostasis, balance that is,with exception of caloric deficit of course, the weight will eventually be optimal. In other words, you will lose weight if need be. Vigorous and extreme exercise should be accompanied by vigorous and extreme eating and a similar dedication to rest.

In my usual, semi diatribe, long winded at times yet passionate responses, I will only cut and paste MOST, but not all, of a response I wrote to a friend a few minutes ago, and it can maybe shine a photon or two for you. ....

"....This is a response because your body would rather you be able to get away from the bear that's chasing you so you can live another day. The hell with whatever food(or liquid) you had in your stomach. Let's get rid of that. The problem is there is no bear chasing you...multiple times a week. And your body will also attempt to protect you the other 23 point whatever hours of the day by changing hormonally, releasing more cortisol and probably generally slowing your metabolism down because it thinks you're going to be running from bears which means at any given day you might not eat. Unfortunately thousands of years (or millions, depending on your spirituality) of genetic expectations are hard to overcome, and your body doesn't know you live in a cozy home with a fully stocked cupboard. This pushing yourself to such a level is only ok because enough people say it is, and because of dumb tv/dvd programs making it seem necessary. Nausea and the like are signals we'd otherwise take seriously right? But its more macho to grin and bare it when exercising. Says who? Sure this is a diatribe of epic proportions but I digress, gladly, it's part of my forte. When we can come to understand that exercise is a stressor to the body to adapt to, and that it's the other 23 hours that make the biggest difference, then we'll be on the right path. Your extra uncomfortable and limit pushing efforts are probably buying you an additional 50 calories a workout. In college football days (and still nowadays to some degree) the macho thing was "you haven't done a real leg workout if you haven't thrown up from it" I never threw up, but did the workouts that everyone else was beside me throwing up from! Now that's "bad *kitten*" to me. There's no need to go down this road of over exercising which is prevalent around MFP and life in general. And I haven't seen ONE person on here do a gazillion calories of exercise and eat 1 calorie over their goal. You're slowing your metabolism down!!! It's a goal, not a limbo stick. And it's a goal for a reason! We chastise the girl that eats 500 calories, but it's cool if we net 500 for the day after a "great burn" of who knows how many calories while under eating. (I'm not talking about you, just warning you) "

It IS odd, and confuses many people at first, but it's the default MFP setup. MFP builds your calories around a deficit, so no exe exercise is needed to lose weight. So any exercise you do is for the benefit of you physical look and cardiovascular health, not to create an additional deficit. You need to eat those back so that your net calories aren't so low as to be unhealthy.

Go with it. It works.

Probably the best response ever to this question. Simple and explains it

^^this!

You should be creating a deficit through exercise, calories consumed or a combination of both.

I personally don't intentionally eat back my exercise calories. I strive to get the amount that I have set for myself regardless.

Ooof. Nothing worse than making a multi quoted post and then waking up and realizing your tablet made you look illiterate.

It IS odd, and confuses many people at first, but it's the default MFP setup. MFP builds your calories around a deficit, so no exercise is needed to lose weight. So any exercise you do is for the benefit of your physical look and cardiovascular health, not to create an additional deficit. You need to eat the exercise calories back so that your net calories aren't so low as to be unhealthy.

Go with it. It works.

Fixed