Is too much exercise counter productive..?
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DavidRocketts
Posts: 80 Member
I set my minimum exercise to 500cal per day, which is achievable easily with 2 dogs to walk. However, I also visit the gym 3-5 times a week and walk a lot. quite common to burn 1200+ calories. In the evenings I get intense carb cravings and find this hard to manage, often caving in at some point, and eating stuff that was not on my plan. Anybody experience this..? Do I just need to find extra willpower, or is too much exercise actually counter productive..?
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Replies
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if you're using MFP method, you should be eating back your exercise cals, so the larger burns shouldn't matter?
whats wrong with carbs?4 -
You should be eating back your excess exercise calories, but how are you calculating them? 1200+ seems very high.4
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I very much doubt you can burn 500 calories walking the dog. I think you are grossly overestimating your calorie burns. But to your question, no, I don't think more exercise is counterproductive. I think restricting your diet too much is counterproductive.7
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In addition to what the others have said (I agree with them) ... the amount of exercise you do depends on your goals.0
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I was wondering too, because I got much hungrier when I walked a lot... but it's really not. I realized when I got a fitbit that I can eat much more than I thought I could.
Also, 500 calories walking the dogs is just about 5 miles. Doesn't sound excessive to me. On days I walk that much (and go to the gym), I can easily burn 1000 calories over my sedentary TDEE. I'm a 39yo 5'5" 140 lbs woman too... guessing a guy would burn off even more from the same amount of activity (I had 26k steps yesterday).
Honestly I suggest getting a fitbit to know exactly how much you're burning in a day so you can eat accordingly.1 -
TimothyFish wrote: »I very much doubt you can burn 500 calories walking the dog. I think you are grossly overestimating your calorie burns. But to your question, no, I don't think more exercise is counterproductive. I think restricting your diet too much is counterproductive.
We don't always walk, often jog cross-country. Twice a day, often wearing a 10kg weighted vest, which equates to weight lost so far. Calories measured via Polar FT4. So no, not 'estimating' anything.. and I would burn 500 calories an hour in the gym also - not difficult when working hard...4 -
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TavistockToad wrote: »if you're using MFP method, you should be eating back your exercise cals, so the larger burns shouldn't matter?
whats wrong with carbs?
Nothing wrong with carbs, did I say that? I just said carb cravings, leading to eating above my plan...1 -
Ft4 is a very basic HRM and walking isn't an exercise where you are likely to get a reasonable calorie estimate from your heart rate.
HRMs only count heartbeats they can only estimate (with wildly differing accuracy levels) calorie expenditure. They absolutely cannot measure energy, only heartbeats.
If those walks add up to a considerable mileage then you may be lucky of course.
To answer your question.....
Would have to attempt to define "too much exercise".
If you aren't accounting for your exercise expenditure and on a low calorie allowance already then too much would be quite achievable in terms of having an excessive deficit.
If you are fuelling your exercise appropriately then too much is very hard to do unless it's causing you physical soreness/injury/insufficient recovery.
If you don't want to follow the MFP eating back exercise calories on the day method then better to set your calorie goal using a TDEE calculator instead.1 -
Just weigh and record your additional foods. I seem to get satisfaction after exercise by having a piece of wheat bread with a big pile of 30 grams of peanut butter on in. I don't seem to get satiety by having a banana. If you can find something that satisfies you and fits within the calories you earned, enjoy that.1
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DavidRocketts wrote: »TavistockToad wrote: »if you're using MFP method, you should be eating back your exercise cals, so the larger burns shouldn't matter?
whats wrong with carbs?
Nothing wrong with carbs, did I say that? I just said carb cravings, leading to eating above my plan...
maybe you need more carbs in your 'plan' to fuel the exercise?0 -
JeromeBarry1 wrote: »Just weigh and record your additional foods. I seem to get satisfaction after exercise by having a piece of wheat bread with a big pile of 30 grams of peanut butter on in. I don't seem to get satiety by having a banana. If you can find something that satisfies you and fits within the calories you earned, enjoy that.
put the banana on the peanut butter....4 -
DavidRocketts wrote: »
We're all adults, so yes, we are in control of our choices. However, there's really only "debate" about appropriately fueling your body by those who don't understand why a person is meant to eat their exercise calories on MFP (and they often don't seem to understand that someone who uses the TDEE method appropriately is also eating their exercise calories, they're just calculated up front).
You really should eat at least some of your calories back. Plan a carby snack at night that fits within your calories (including exercise) - and there you go, "problem" fixed.4 -
HRM or not, those burns are questionable. Also, I'm not sure you said if you ate the calories back? Creating too big a deficit, will be very hard to maintain and cause the issues you are experiencing. Another thing that may help put things into perspective, is to exercise for the training stimulus it provides, not a calorie burn number. then eat to support that training.2
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You don't say what kind of diet you are on or you burning carbs or fat (Paleo / Keto). If you are craving carbs - add more fat! (Banana / peanut butter).0
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Some sensible replies at last, thanks everyone for answering. Generally, I reckon my Polar HRM is not too far out, although, personally I am cautious of eating back more than about 50% to allow for a margin of error. Immediately assuming my calorie calculation is wrong, that I can't possibly burn 500cal in 2 dog walks - I live in the country and travel miles through fields, often with a 10k vest. The whole point is, I think, that I am burning a lot and not fuelling back sufficiently. I have managed to lose 21lbs in the past 3.5 months with my crappy HRM though, so something works. On the whole, I reckon I have been working with too big a defecit, hence, starving hungry in the evening. I had been eating back up to a third, and will up this to 50%. Thanks again to those who took the time to reply.
[Post edited by MFP moderator]-1 -
Too much exercise? If you unable to recover from the days before, perhaps getting more prone to injury doing more exercise, then that might be too much exercise.
Those calories burns you mention seem quite high. No matter the method you choose to calculate your calorie burns, not one method is 100% accurate.
Choose to eat back what you need to. A little trial and error is all you need to do. Perhaps start with eating back 50% of your exercise calories.. Then take the calories you consume, your rate of loss and determine if you are eating back too many or not enough.
Lastly, setup your macros according to your activities and exercise. If you are craving carbs, it might mean for you, you need a small increase in carb intake and also perhaps you can play with meal timing as well.1 -
DavidRocketts wrote: »TimothyFish wrote: »I very much doubt you can burn 500 calories walking the dog. I think you are grossly overestimating your calorie burns. But to your question, no, I don't think more exercise is counterproductive. I think restricting your diet too much is counterproductive.
We don't always walk, often jog cross-country. Twice a day, often wearing a 10kg weighted vest, which equates to weight lost so far. Calories measured via Polar FT4. So no, not 'estimating' anything.. and I would burn 500 calories an hour in the gym also - not difficult when working hard...
The only thing the Polar FT4 "measures" is heart rate and time. The rest is estimates. I know of three ways to measure calorie burn. One is to measure the amount of oxygen you are using. You can use a power meter, but you have to make assumptions about how efficient a person's body is. You can use an altimeter and a wind gauge, but altimeters tend to creep and you still have the problem of assumptions concerning body efficiency.
My issue with dog walking is that most people take their dogs out, let the dogs run all over the place while they stand in one spot. It would take several hours to burn 500 calories doing that. I do see people running with their dogs, but that's not "walking the dog." If the dog is so busy keeping up that he doesn't have time to take care of business then it isn't walking the dog.0 -
DavidRocketts wrote: »
MFP uses the NEAT method (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis), and as such this system is designed for exercise calories to be eaten back. However, many consider the burns given by MFP to be inflated and only eat a percentage, such as 50%, back.
My FitBit One is far less generous with calories than the MFP database and I comfortably eat 100% of the calories I earn from it back.
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/818082/exercise-calories-again-wtf/p10 -
DavidRocketts wrote: »TavistockToad wrote: »if you're using MFP method, you should be eating back your exercise cals, so the larger burns shouldn't matter?
whats wrong with carbs?
Nothing wrong with carbs, did I say that? I just said carb cravings, leading to eating above my plan...
If I go too long without eating, I carve carbs and tend to overeat as well. You've said you're going to eat back more exercise calories and I am confident that this will take care of the carb craving issue for you.0
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