A very very simple thought on "exercise calories"

We all know this comes up all the time with very different views. The crux of the issue seems to me to be this:

If you want consistent(ish) weight loss, then you need consistent(ish) calorie deficits. BMR is basically a constant, and lifestyle is basically a constant. The target calorie deficit is a constant. Exercise is a variable. If it wasn't it'd be part of lifestyle. That's the whole point of measuring it separately, because its variable.

The only way to keep a constant calorie deficit if you have variable calorie usage is to have a proportional calorie intake, That is, by eating in proportion to your exercise, or "eating your exercise calories".

If you don't care about constant calorie deficits (and therefore you don't care about constant weight loss) then don't worry about it. You can have constant eating plans and variable exercise, and just accept that you'll have variable calorie deficits. Sometimes you'll loose weight and sometimes not. The only thing you have to be careful about here, is the risk of very large deficits and the risk of losing motivation when you don't see results.

There's nothing else to it. If you exercise, you have a choice between constant weight loss or constant eating.




A couple of reasons people seem to avoid eating exercise calories:

Some people like to "eat part of their exercise calories". This is usually because they're afraid that they're overestimating their calorie burn during exercise. If you think that's what you're doing, then fine. But if you know you're measuring everything correctly, then you're left with the choice I mentioned above. And why not try to measure exercise more accurately, rather than applying an arbitrary fraction to an imprecise estimate? If you do this partial approach because you want to hege your decision, getting a bit of a deficit bonus as a 'reward' for a good workout, but not going to extremes, then this is fine too, as long as you're aware that taking it too far will slow down your weight loss (or at least, make it variable).

Other people seem to feel that they need more margin of error overall. Maybe their BMR estimate is wrong, or they occasionally underreport food or overreport exercise. That's fine too, but if you find that you aren't getting results with a particular target, why not give yourself the extra margin of error by changing the target, which is constant and under your control, rather than applying some arbitrary fraction to your exercise, which is variable?

Finally, people often feel that if they eat their exercise calories, what was the point of exercising? I have a lot of sympathy for this approach. You work out, and you're rewarded with a bigger deficit and faster weight loss, right? But actually, the fastest weight loss seems to occur when you have a constant (and appropriate) deficit. Best to change your motivation for exercise (there are many good reasons beyond having an uber-calorie deficit for the day). If you think of exercise as creating a 'bonus' deficit, rather than part of your strategy of achieving your 'normal and consistent' deficit, then I don't think you're going to do as well as you could. But each to their own. Just remember that super large deficits are just as bad, if not worse than super large surpluses.


Well, nothing technical here and not trying to be preachy... just a slightly different way of thinking about this issue that might settle a few questions for some people. Hope it helps at least someone.