Eating back exercise points

Health. Looking good once you've lost the weight. Good for your heart. There's so many reasons to exercise. There's a big difference between just being skinny and being healthy.

If you got your calorie goal from MFP - exercise calories were not included in the equation. That means people who exercise (and don't fuel workouts) would create a larger deficit than intended.

What's wrong with really aggressive weight loss (ie: large deficits)? You run the risk of increased muscle loss. Most people would like to lower their body fat %, fast weight loss doesn't support that very well.

Exercise more, eat more. Win.

Also! Retaining as much lean mass as possible is one of my primary goals, strength training helps with that.

Plus, Zumba is fun!

Exercising was making me retain weight, so I quit it. When I get closer to my goal than I'll start up again, for right now I lose so much more weight if I keep away from workouts.

PinkCuddleMonster wrote: »

Exercising was making me retain weight, so I quit it. When I get closer to my goal than I'll start up again, for right now I lose so much more weight if I keep away from workouts.

Not likely. Exercising was probably making you retain water for muscle repair (a good thing). Exercise by itself cannot help you retain fat. Exercise helps you burn more calories. If you burn more calories than you eat, you lose fat. Weight, especially in the short term doesn't show that.

You are perfectly okay to lose weight without exercise, but I wanted to point out that exercise in and of itself does not make you retain fat, only water in the short term - sometimes - because the body is finicky and doesn't run on a schedule with respect to water weight.