Long exercise purely to eat more?
Replies
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It probably takes a professional to diagnose a real problem. Although it is extremely common for people to exercise so they can eat more or as punishment for indulging, I really don't like that mindset. Exercise should mostly be done to improve fitness and make your quality of life better. Calorie burn and it's helpfulness to weight loss is a bonus. I know every now and then an extra hard or long workout to offset and indulgence isn't a big deal, but it shouldn't be the norm.
That's exactly what she's doing. Exercising allows her to meet her goals and eat a pizza, which improves her quality of life. Which is what you prescribed.13 -
NorthCascades wrote: »It probably takes a professional to diagnose a real problem. Although it is extremely common for people to exercise so they can eat more or as punishment for indulging, I really don't like that mindset. Exercise should mostly be done to improve fitness and make your quality of life better. Calorie burn and it's helpfulness to weight loss is a bonus. I know every now and then an extra hard or long workout to offset and indulgence isn't a big deal, but it shouldn't be the norm.
That's exactly what she's doing. Exercising allows her to meet her goals and eat a pizza, which improves her quality of life. Which is what you prescribed.
Pizza definatly improves quality of life ;D11 -
Christine_72 wrote: »I do, I prelog my day every morning and a lot of the time i start off in the red, and then i walk it off until I'm back in the green again, I average around 15kms a day. If I'm going out for dinner and I know it's gonna be a calorie laden meal, then i'll walk more that day to fit it in.
Yesterday i did it kinda backward, i logged as i ate, and i didnt manage to exercise it all off, i ended up 200 calories over at the end of the day... But today I'm full of energy and not hungry at all, so it'll even itself out.
So to get to the point.. Yes, I exercise purely to eat more.
Yes, I do this as well. As an older woman, just getting the hang of maintaining a weight I haven't seen in 35 years has been challenging. I have eaten to my hearts content all those years and am amazed and a little saddened by how little I can actually eat to maintain. Therefore, I hike and walk...a lot.10 -
NorthCascades wrote: »It probably takes a professional to diagnose a real problem. Although it is extremely common for people to exercise so they can eat more or as punishment for indulging, I really don't like that mindset. Exercise should mostly be done to improve fitness and make your quality of life better. Calorie burn and it's helpfulness to weight loss is a bonus. I know every now and then an extra hard or long workout to offset and indulgence isn't a big deal, but it shouldn't be the norm.
That's exactly what she's doing. Exercising allows her to meet her goals and eat a pizza, which improves her quality of life. Which is what you prescribed.
This is true...but it can also be a slippery slope...
Certainly one of the advantages for me of regular exercise is to be able to just live life and not give a ton of thought to my diet (though I eat pretty well)...particularly when it comes to beer...but it's not the "reason" I guess...
I don't really ever think, "hey...I'm going out for pizza with my kiddos Saturday...better do a bunch of unplanned exercise to make up for it." I think you can easily get into a situation where exercise becomes punishment or penance which isn't a healthy mindset IMO.
IDK, I just exercise regularly...I enjoy a good ride...I guess it generally means that I can enjoy my beers without much thought, but I just don't think about that so much. I ride to ride...3 -
JaydedMiss wrote: »Okay so if anyones here. Here is my fitbits stats, I got a new job and celebrated walking more
If my fitbit says 2600 calories, And my food log says to eat 2600 calories, Which do i listen to closer?
If iv only burned 2,600 calories wouldnt eating 2600 calories put me at even with no weight loss? Normally i eat a few hundred back of what it gives me, Never had it give me 1400 extra calories back from exercise before not sure what to do LOL
Anyone? Id like to not under/overeat0 -
KANGOOJUMPS wrote: »ME!, I do 2 to 3 hours, eat and drink what I want. it works for me!
Oh man, a while back I found some cardio that I really, REALLY loved. Without changing my eating habits I lost like 40lbs over the summer.
...then gained it all back as soon as I stopped, cause I wasn't doing insane amounts of cardio anymore but still eating too much.
So yeah, sustainability is key.
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I follow MFP for calories in, and let fitbit handle calories out. Following 2 different paths to the same destination can get confusing, if that makes sense??
Did you set a deficit in your fitbit app? How much did fitbit say you had left to eat for the day (screenshot below)? If you have both mfp and fitbit set with the same deficit, eg -500 calories per day, then they should roughly match up at the end of the day.
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Puzzled by the responses which say it's risky because it's a slippery slope to exercise bulimia.
By the same token, calorie restriction is risky because it's a slippery slope to anorexia.
And for some people, that is true. So some people would rule out calorie counting as a weight loss strategy, because the similarity to anorexia makes the whole mindset seem disordered to them. That position is understandable, but it's very extreme.
If we can agree that calorie counting is not the same as anorexia (which I hope we can, or why are we here?) then surely we can allow that exercising to eat more is not the same as exercise bulimia.
At the end of the day, it's just another way to create a deficit, and I would argue, a far healthier one than starving yourself without exercise. Especially for short women, maintaining a deficit without exercise can be extremely difficult and I can see nothing unhealthy about increasing exercise in order to allow for more food while still keeping a deficit.
Seems to me some of the objections are more a subjective preference of the TDEE method over NEAT - the feeling that raising your TDEE by increasing activity in order to eat more would be OK, but logging extra exercise above NEAT in order to eat more is not. There isn't a lot of logic there, the two are completely equivalent.22 -
I'm far too lazy to develop exercise bulimia.19
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Christine_72 wrote: »I follow MFP for calories in, and let fitbit handle calories out. Following 2 different paths to the same destination can get confusing, if that makes sense??
Did you set a deficit in your fitbit app? How much did fitbit say you had left to eat for the day (screenshot below)? If you have both mfp and fitbit set with the same deficit, eg -500 calories per day, then they should roughly match up at the end of the day.
They do not match up
Fitbit is set to -750 calories (1.5 pounds) and gives me 2359 total calorie to eat. MFP is set to -2 pounds a week And actually gives me 2600 to eat. Super backwards, Super confused.
Especially when my fitbit says iv only burned 2600..Wheres the negative anything. ..Although its jumped to almost 2800 now...Im beggining to not trust anything
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CattOfTheGarage wrote: »Puzzled by the responses which say it's risky because it's a slippery slope to exercise bulimia.
By the same token, calorie restriction is risky because it's a slippery slope to anorexia.
And for some people, that is true. So some people would rule out calorie counting as a weight loss strategy, because the similarity to anorexia makes the whole mindset seem disordered to them. That position is understandable, but it's very extreme.
If we can agree that calorie counting is not the same as anorexia (which I hope we can, or why are we here?) then surely we can allow that exercising to eat more is not the same as exercise bulimia.
At the end of the day, it's just another way to create a deficit, and I would argue, a far healthier one than starving yourself without exercise. Especially for short women, maintaining a deficit without exercise can be extremely difficult and I can see nothing unhealthy about increasing exercise in order to allow for more food while still keeping a deficit.
Seems to me some of the objections are more a subjective preference of the TDEE method over NEAT - the feeling that raising your TDEE by increasing activity in order to eat more would be OK, but logging extra exercise above NEAT in order to eat more is not. There isn't a lot of logic there, the two are completely equivalent.
So much this. This is why it started, Im 5 ft 3 im generally fine on 1200 but sometimes i just want a snack and i don't really have alot of snack wiggle room 3 -
JaydedMiss wrote: »Christine_72 wrote: »I follow MFP for calories in, and let fitbit handle calories out. Following 2 different paths to the same destination can get confusing, if that makes sense??
Did you set a deficit in your fitbit app? How much did fitbit say you had left to eat for the day (screenshot below)? If you have both mfp and fitbit set with the same deficit, eg -500 calories per day, then they should roughly match up at the end of the day.
They do not match up Fitbit is set to -750 calories (1.5 pounds) and gives me 2359 total calorie to eat. MFP is set to -2 pounds a week And actually gives me 2600 to eat. Super backwards, Super confused.
Especially when my fitbit says iv only burned 2600..Wheres the negative anything. ..Although its jumped to almost 2800 now...Im beggining to not trust anything
How long have you had your Fitbit for? I have found that it took some time to adjust to an accurate burn. It was giving me crazy high burns for a while until it averaged out to my TDEE which is roughly 2200 cals for maintenance.0 -
Personally I'd follow mfp. I'll let someone more well versed in fitbit's algorithms try and explain the discrepancy you're seeing.
I also noticed you did a lot more steps than me, and we got roughly the same calorie burn.. I've adjusted my stats in fitbit to 5 years older than i really am, I also took a few cm's off my height. and reduced my stride length by 20cms! All of this confusion is why i try not to eat more than 50% of my exercise calories back!
Fitbit thinks I'm a short *kitten* 50 year old woman 0 -
I dunno my fitbits calories seemed on point i thought. Match up roughly with calculaters online when i put in my stats walking 3 mph. when i average that into the amount of miles its pretty on point with the extra calories it gives on MFP. This is why i don't eat many back XD Ill eat 1800-2000 and call it a day. Ill be plenty happy with that many, And i think its safe to say i burned that many today 0
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Extrapolating the information will give you the information you need. Just like any on- line calculator people here can only give you the information that worked for them. We all have small differences that work for us. Look at your numbers and see what is working for you.
Do the numbers work with your deficit goal? If no adjust up or down.
Is your Fitbit and your MFP set with the same goals? Make sure your reading of the information given is correct.
I am no data or math whiz but managed to work with the cals MFP gave me, my logging inconsistencies, and my approximate calorie burn per hour of exercise to nail them all down, lose the weight, and maintain for 6+ years.
Find what works long term. The information given on any website or device is a general, use the information to derive your specific CICO.
Cheers, h.3 -
That's what I do and it works fine.
Only thing is if you do it too often, you get used to eating more so if you can't exercise, it can rebound.
Like I was running 5+ miles a day at one point, which let me eat sooo much more. I also intermittently fast, so it was glorious. I would like fast, eat some steamed veggies for lunch, go on a run, and have popeyes and cake for dinner lol.
I had no problems until I hurt my knees and had to stop running for a while.
My appetite took longer to catch up to the lack of exercise, and it was really hard for a minute there, because I was so hungry all the time.
So I would just say yeah, don't do it too often and beware of a rebound effect if anything keeps you from exercising.1 -
JaydedMiss wrote: »Christine_72 wrote: »I follow MFP for calories in, and let fitbit handle calories out. Following 2 different paths to the same destination can get confusing, if that makes sense??
Did you set a deficit in your fitbit app? How much did fitbit say you had left to eat for the day (screenshot below)? If you have both mfp and fitbit set with the same deficit, eg -500 calories per day, then they should roughly match up at the end of the day.
They do not match up Fitbit is set to -750 calories (1.5 pounds) and gives me 2359 total calorie to eat. MFP is set to -2 pounds a week And actually gives me 2600 to eat. Super backwards, Super confused.
Especially when my fitbit says iv only burned 2600..Wheres the negative anything. ..Although its jumped to almost 2800 now...Im beggining to not trust anything
The bolded part is your issue. You need to set them to the same thing and link Fitbit & MFP allowing negative calories. Then the two will figure it out without you needing to worry about it. That is what I do and it works really well.2 -
So habits make a difference. Are you going to be able to walk 10-15 miles a day when you're much older? Cause if not, and you don't change your eating, you're going to gain weight.
Indulging is fine as long as you're not consistently going over your alotted calories for the day.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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CattOfTheGarage wrote: »Puzzled by the responses which say it's risky because it's a slippery slope to exercise bulimia.
By the same token, calorie restriction is risky because it's a slippery slope to anorexia.
And for some people, that is true. So some people would rule out calorie counting as a weight loss strategy, because the similarity to anorexia makes the whole mindset seem disordered to them. That position is understandable, but it's very extreme.
If we can agree that calorie counting is not the same as anorexia (which I hope we can, or why are we here?) then surely we can allow that exercising to eat more is not the same as exercise bulimia.
At the end of the day, it's just another way to create a deficit, and I would argue, a far healthier one than starving yourself without exercise. Especially for short women, maintaining a deficit without exercise can be extremely difficult and I can see nothing unhealthy about increasing exercise in order to allow for more food while still keeping a deficit.
Seems to me some of the objections are more a subjective preference of the TDEE method over NEAT - the feeling that raising your TDEE by increasing activity in order to eat more would be OK, but logging extra exercise above NEAT in order to eat more is not. There isn't a lot of logic there, the two are completely equivalent.
Logging and otherwise keeping a diary isn't "anorexia" or an eating disorder in and of itself...but it can and often does lead to, at minimum, disordered thinking...and beyond that, there is a reason why people with eating disorders are told not to count calories when in recovery. And it's not just ED that's the issue...there are a myriad of mental health issues at play...
Personally, I haven't logged in years...yes, I lost some weight keeping a diary, but I also became obsessed with the whole thing...didn't want to go to dinner with my wife, things like that. It wasn't so much an ED as it was anxiety and OCD...I couldn't get past the fact that I didn't know every little calorie in every little thing...it became something that was brutal to my wife and I's relationship.
Personally, I've done far better just focusing on good nutrition for the most part and enjoying those afternoons or evenings that I have pizza or whatever with my kiddos and exercising regularly with a structured program. I'm way less of an *kitten* doing this than when I was calorie counting and working out to "earn" more food.4 -
Being able to eat more is partly why I do my long, long bicycle rides.
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Christine_72 wrote: »I follow MFP for calories in, and let fitbit handle calories out. Following 2 different paths to the same destination can get confusing, if that makes sense??
Did you set a deficit in your fitbit app? How much did fitbit say you had left to eat for the day (screenshot below)? If you have both mfp and fitbit set with the same deficit, eg -500 calories per day, then they should roughly match up at the end of the day.
I also follow MFP for calories in and let fitbit handle calories out.
@JaydedMiss part of the confusion may be because the Fitbit calorie number isn't complete until the end of the day.1 -
NorthCascades wrote: »It probably takes a professional to diagnose a real problem. Although it is extremely common for people to exercise so they can eat more or as punishment for indulging, I really don't like that mindset. Exercise should mostly be done to improve fitness and make your quality of life better. Calorie burn and it's helpfulness to weight loss is a bonus. I know every now and then an extra hard or long workout to offset and indulgence isn't a big deal, but it shouldn't be the norm.
That's exactly what she's doing. Exercising allows her to meet her goals and eat a pizza, which improves her quality of life. Which is what you prescribed.
+1
And that's exactly how I remained slim and happy, and well fed, most of my adult life. Lots of exercise, lots of eating!
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I do this too! But mostly on weekends, and only about 3-4 miles of walking. I like the padding.0
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JaydedMiss wrote: »I dunno my fitbits calories seemed on point i thought. Match up roughly with calculaters online when i put in my stats walking 3 mph. when i average that into the amount of miles its pretty on point with the extra calories it gives on MFP. This is why i don't eat many back XD Ill eat 1800-2000 and call it a day. Ill be plenty happy with that many, And i think its safe to say i burned that many today
I regret saying it matched i was at 2600 now suddenly im at 3200 burned 2 hours later all i did was walk like 2,000 steps. I super hate fitbit it was good before im not sure whats changed now...-sigh- atleast its still good for step count ill just keep doing what iv been doing
https://gyazo.com/926d929ff0b46361266f3565015736b50 -
I exercise so that I can eat mashed potatoes, so yeah...follow your foodie bliss, just make it sustainable 1
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So habits make a difference. Are you going to be able to walk 10-15 miles a day when you're much older? Cause if not, and you don't change your eating, you're going to gain weight.
Indulging is fine as long as you're not consistently going over your alotted calories for the day.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
Are you saying we should stop exercising now in case we can't exercise when we get old? That's against any health advice I've ever heard.
Or are your saying we should exercise but systematically undereat so that we are prepared for some nebulous future disaster which will render us immobile?
Neither of these seem sensible. And as a personal trainer, I expect you do a significant amount of exercise, that you will likely be unable to sustain into your old age, and that you probably eat enough to sustain that level of activity. If you injured yourself, I expect you would have to reduce your calories during the period of immobility. What's the difference?10 -
Your MFP calorie limit should be set to lose at a sustainable weekly weight loss goal.
You should enable negative calorie adjustments in MFP and set your MFP Activity level to Sedentary if you're syncing exercise with Fitbit.
I ate back 50-75% of my Fitbit exercise calories earned in MFP when I was losing weight, and lost 80 lbs in 12 months.
Now I eat back 100% of my Fitbit exercise calories earned (about 4000 kilojoules a day plus my 6800 kilojoule maintenance calorie base limit) and have maintained my goal weight since April.
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CattOfTheGarage wrote: »So habits make a difference. Are you going to be able to walk 10-15 miles a day when you're much older? Cause if not, and you don't change your eating, you're going to gain weight.
Indulging is fine as long as you're not consistently going over your alotted calories for the day.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
Are you saying we should stop exercising now in case we can't exercise when we get old? That's against any health advice I've ever heard.
Or are your saying we should exercise but systematically undereat so that we are prepared for some nebulous future disaster which will render us immobile?
Neither of these seem sensible. And as a personal trainer, I expect you do a significant amount of exercise, that you will likely be unable to sustain into your old age, and that you probably eat enough to sustain that level of activity. If you injured yourself, I expect you would have to reduce your calories during the period of immobility. What's the difference?
I agree CattOfTheGarage.
I have been exercising quite a bit throughout my whole life, with a few short exceptions, and here I am at the age of 49, still exercising a lot.
Will I be able to maintain that for the rest of my life? I doubt it. I'm fully expecting there will be a time, perhaps when I'm 80 or so , where I won't be able to do what I'm doing now. And at that time, I will have to adjust my diet. Obviously.
Now I mentioned "a few short exceptions" ... in 2001, I burnt my left foot to the bone. I had gone from cycling close to 10,000 km that year, plus a lot of walking, plus weight lifting and snow shoeing and cross country skiing and a whole bunch of other stuff ........ to absolutely nothing. I couldn't even stand up. So I ate less and maintained during the long weeks of recovery.
In 2009, I developed DVT and again, I went from doing a lot of exercise down to almost nothing during the 6 weeks prior to diagnosis. I couldn't figure out what was wrong. I just didn't have the ability to do anything. And then I found out ... DVT. But again, I eased back on what I was eating.
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JaydedMiss wrote: »Okay so if anyones here. Here is my fitbits stats, I got a new job and celebrated walking more If my fitbit says 2600 calories, And my food log says to eat 2600 calories, Which do i listen to closer?
If iv only burned 2,600 calories wouldnt eating 2600 calories put me at even with no weight loss? Normally i eat a few hundred back of what it gives me, Never had it give me 1400 extra calories back from exercise before not sure what to do LOL
This picture shows that, as of the moment you took it, you had burned 2685 calories that day (according to FitBit). Depending on what time of day it was taken, you were still going to burn more calories just by existing - even if you did no further exercise. But it's not an "eat this" number because this number doesn't have any deficit built into it. It's a straight report of your burn.
Assuming you have FitBit and MFP synced, use the MFP number. MFP assumes you will continue to exist until midnight and has added those calories into your daily target too.3 -
I find the more activity I do the more I want/need to eat.
Find a happy medium that doesn't require as much time spent working out is my advice. Something that you want to do consistently all the time/ long term.
I used to do 10 miles+/22000 steps a day, I needed to eat much more and I liked being able to eat more...but when my joints started giving me problems I knew I had to change what I did. I cut back to around 6 miles a day most days (approx 14k steps), my joints were happier and I wasn't as hungry so it felt easy to cut back my calories to my new TDEE of 2000. And I'm happier as I'm not spending so much of my free time working out, I can do other things that I enjoy instead
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