diet vs. exercise

rhiannajohnson2015 wrote: »

If FP adds calories to your allowance when you enter exercise doesn't that basically negate what you burned for weight loss?

No, because MFP gives you a calorie deficit before exercise. That way people who can't exercise still lose weight.

The idea is you keep your original deficit. The hard part is figuring out how many extra calories you "earned" thru working out. Many MFP'ers start by eating back 75% and then dial back....or increase as needed.

rhiannajohnson2015 wrote: »

If FP adds calories to your allowance when you enter exercise doesn't that basically negate what you burned for weight loss?

No, not if you have set up your profile correctly.

Your calorie goal is your deficit...you don't have to do exercise to create the deficit. It is a deficit before exercise. Exercise then becomes an activity that is not otherwise accounted for.

Part of being healthy and fit is knowing how to and understanding why you would want to properly feed your body. Exercise is very good for you, but it's also hard on the body...your require energy (calories) and nutrients for recovery and repair.

Here's what the math looks like. Let's say I maintain weight with 2300 calories per day without any exercise whatsoever...to lose 1 Lb per week MFP would give me a calorie goal of 1,800 calories. I would lose weight eating that WITHOUT any exercise.

Now I like training my *kitten* off...so let's say I go out for a 30 mile ride...I'll burn about 1,000 calories doing that...so I could eat 2,800 calories and still be in a deficit because my maintenance calories would have moved from 2300 to 3,300 and 3,300 - 2,800 = 500 calorie deficit still.

rhiannajohnson2015 wrote: »

Gotcha, thanks for the responses. So is exercise really worth it then as far as weight loss goes or is it more about the other health benefits?

Exercise can allow you to eat more, which certainly makes weight loss more fun. I also find that exercise helps moderate my appetite, although I understand that doesn't happen for everyone.

rhiannajohnson2015 wrote: »

Gotcha, thanks for the responses. So is exercise really worth it then as far as weight loss goes or is it more about the other health benefits?

For me it helps in that if I could only eat 1800 calories to lose weight I would have failed at this long ago...if I didn't exercise, that would be all I could eat. With my regular exercise I can cut on 2300 calories and I can maintain on 2800 - 3000.

Others try to use exercise to create their deficit rather than using their diet...IMO, this is very inefficient...it is much more difficult to get the kind of exercise you would need to effectively do this on the kind of consistent basis one needs for effective weight loss. This is why you can see people in the gym cranking away for months and not making a dent...they haven't figured out the diet part.

But year...basically diet for weight control; exercise for fitness.

Exercise can be worth it for both purposes! It obviously will make you fitter, but it can also give you cushioning for eating more, so say you normally get 1700 but you'd like to eat two extra eggs or an extra serving of pasta. If you burn whatever, say 250 calories, you can eat those extra calories that would otherwise put you over your calorie limit will still keeping you in a deficit.

I dont eat back exercise calories - i'd just rather lose weight a bit quicker. Ive never been healthier, fitter , energised, not sick etc since 1st Jan when I started 5-6 times a week at the gym and MFP ( and lost 40 pounds )

cwolfman13 wrote: »

orlandodenise wrote: »

I dont eat back exercise calories - i'd just rather lose weight a bit quicker. Ive never been healthier, fitter , energised, not sick etc since 1st Jan when I started 5-6 times a week at the gym and MFP ( and lost 40 pounds )

This eventually will become a problem...it's not as big of an issue when you have a lot of fat to mobilize...it will become problematic as you lean out.

Fit people eat.

I've been on here 1000 days, through a pregnancy even, and I very rarely eat back exercise calories. I didn't when I was at a healthy weight pre-pregnancy, and I didn't when I was pregnant (I exercised until 38 weeks) and I don't now. I'm fine.

I tried eating my calories back but didn't lose any weight for about a month, so I cut back and now I don't eat them back. My workouts haven't suffered and my energy level is good so, for now, I will stick to just eating my base calories. You basically just have to see what your body is going to do. Make sure you give yourself enough time to evaluate results, though. You don't want to eat calories back for 3 days, decide you aren't losing, and cut back.

Not eating back exercise calories is a bad idea if you have a 1000 calorie deficit (a 2 lb/week goal), actually log accurately, and then exercise hard on top of that without accounting for it in your activity level (for example, have yourself down as sedentary).

It may not be if you have plenty to lose, ask for a 1 lb/week goal (or log in a sloppy manner so your 1000 calorie deficit is really 500 calories or so), and then decide to exercise for up to another lb or so/week. That's like what a plans will recommend--cut calories by 500 and then exercise about an hour 5-6 days/week.

If you are doing the former, you'd be losing more than MFP is predicting.

I do think it's unwise to aim for more than 2 lbs/week loss unless really obese and if closer to goal more than 1 lb/week loss. I lowered my own loss rate because my DEXA scan showed that I was losing some muscle mass despite doing progressive strength training, and the obvious culprit was that I'd continued to lose about 1.5 lbs/week even as I was within the healthy weight range. As I have no interest in losing faster if my body fat doesn't go down or I risk significant muscle mass, I lowered my rate.

Ninkyou wrote: »

rhiannajohnson2015 wrote: »

Gotcha, thanks for the responses. So is exercise really worth it then as far as weight loss goes or is it more about the other health benefits?

Calorie deficit for weight loss
Exercise for cardiovascular health

However, exercise does allow you to eat more, which of course, is yummy and fun

+1

It's not an either or proposition. My first reaction to the title of the thread is, Yes and Yes! The diet allowed me to lose enough weight to be mobile. Exercise is fun. If it's not, I find something else to do.

cwolfman13 wrote: »

DawnieB1977 wrote: »

cwolfman13 wrote: »

orlandodenise wrote: »

I dont eat back exercise calories - i'd just rather lose weight a bit quicker. Ive never been healthier, fitter , energised, not sick etc since 1st Jan when I started 5-6 times a week at the gym and MFP ( and lost 40 pounds )

This eventually will become a problem...it's not as big of an issue when you have a lot of fat to mobilize...it will become problematic as you lean out.

Fit people eat.

I've been on here 1000 days, through a pregnancy even, and I very rarely eat back exercise calories. I didn't when I was at a healthy weight pre-pregnancy, and I didn't when I was pregnant (I exercised until 38 weeks) and I don't now. I'm fine.

what is your training regimen like? A lot of people are actually shocked when they start properly fueling they're training...that's when they realize that they weren't really crushing it before.

At anyrate, this isn't something I'm making up...training recovery requires energy and nutrients and I'm not going to sit here and tell people it's not important. Why do you think athletes eat?

My wife is a marathon runner...I'm pretty sure she would suck *kitten* at that and probably be injured all of the time if she didn't fuel that. I'm an Olympic lifter and endurance cyclist...same issues would be abundant if I didn't fuel that training.

But hey...if just losing a bunch of weight as fast as you can is what is most important..well, have fun...no sweat off my back.

You speak a lot of sense!

julianpoutram wrote: »

If your deficit is consistently anything above 500 cals a day, you will suffer from:

Low energy levels
Chronic fatigue
Mood swings
Inability to control body temparature
Headaches, dizzness, faintness

Aaaaand Weight loss

Make sure your diet and exercise do not leave you at a deficit of more than 500 cals a day and do not continue to lose weight once you reach a healthy weight for you. Everyone reacts differently to weight loss and some people get less of the bad effects, that is not an excuse to neglect your diet, in the long run your metabolism and body composition will suffer.

I reccommend weight training as an additional fitness and health aid. It has done me wonders so far.

I hope this helps!

While I'm not positive that 500 cals/day is the correct number here, this advice is otherwise what you are looking at if you have too much of a deficit for too long.