80% Consumption, 20% exercise: Change my Mind

flashesbuck
flashesbuck Posts: 27 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I know it, I just need to do it. I have preached it before "You can't out run calories." I need to get back on track with good-ol MPF and tracking my calories. Take a look at my weight history. I was able to loose a solid 100lb about 6 years ago. Then slowly gained (most of it) back. Several life changes, but a lot of exercise has done me no good. Last summer I got into cycling. That helped, but still not able to keep up with my consumption. At the start of it all, I was logging what I ate, and the weight fell off! Being a faster runner (was really into jogging/running) was more of a by product (looking back at it now).

One way I like to look at it:
Consumption (calorie intake)= weight loss/weight gain
Exercise= modify your physical appearance
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Replies

  • jenncornelsen
    jenncornelsen Posts: 969 Member
    Yup. Can't outwork a bad diet I think is the phrase.
  • margbarco
    margbarco Posts: 128 Member

    One way I like to look at it:
    Consumption (calorie intake)= weight loss/weight gain
    Exercise= modify your physical appearance
    [/quote]

    That’s mostly how I think of it. I log calories to lose/maintain weight, but I exercise for improved health markers, decreased anxiety, and a more pleasing physique.
  • debrakgoogins
    debrakgoogins Posts: 2,034 Member
    cupcakesandproteinshakes wrote: »
    People who are super active can outrun the fork but for your desk based person who is overweight, probably not.

    This is only true if the person is burning more calories than they are consuming because of the exercise they are doing. Calories are key.
  • sardelsa
    sardelsa Posts: 9,812 Member
    cupcakesandproteinshakes wrote: »
    People who are super active can outrun the fork but for your desk based person who is overweight, probably not.

    Yup I outrun my fork all the time. All I have to do is add some cardio or a bit more activity and I am in a deficit. Also very often the more I eat the more active I become.

    In the end it's about being in a deficit...either by decreasing food intake, increasing activity, or both.
  • gemiller87
    gemiller87 Posts: 137 Member
    MikePTY has a very useful insight in his response. It's not always direct connection. You can't necessarily always burn off all your calories. But I personally, and even believe there's research to support this, also think that when you are constantly physically active you are less likely to binge, eat unhealthy (because you feel like crap eating trash then working out), and more likely to stay hydrated. All of those effects are just as valuable as the actual calorie burn itself.
  • glassyo
    glassyo Posts: 7,585 Member
    MikePTY wrote: »
    cupcakesandproteinshakes wrote: »
    People who are super active can outrun the fork but for your desk based person who is overweight, probably not.

    Unless they are a professional athlete, it's pretty close to impossible. LeBron James and Michael Phelps? Probably. But active guy who exercises 6 or 7 days a week for an hour or 2? Not likely.

    Now you have to understand what we say by this: Not that some people don't naturally eat at their maintenance or deficit level through activity. Sure. Some people are naturally better regulators than others. What "you can't outrun the fork" means is that you can't eat as many calories as possible and still lose weight, just because you exercise. It's an important distinction.

    Back before my lifestyle change, there were days I could regularly put back 4000-5000 calories in a day, without that much effort. Those type of days are not getting outran, even if I went to my 90 minute Krav Maga class every day.

    OMG, thank you for that! Every time I see that I think, "Yeah, well, my 125 lb weight loss says otherwise!"
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    edited January 2020
    The percentage thing makes no sense to me, but how I would put it is that anyone who has been overweight for any length of time or, especially, obese, likely needs to find a way to control calorie intake as well as simply trying to rely on exercise.

    I do find that exercising makes it easier for me to control calorie intake (I naturally tend to eat better and am less likely to overeat when exercising) in addition to being able to eat more.
  • Silentpadna
    Silentpadna Posts: 1,306 Member
    Agree with the 80/20 in general. Because the activity part of our calorie burn is relatively small, consumption is a far bigger driver for most of us - and it's the easiest to modify. But I live by 3 things, because for most of us it's about more than just weight loss - it's about what we can do and how we look (yeah I know - a little bit of vanity, even for us 50+ guys who may never look like a fitness model):

    1. Calorie balance for weight (negative for losing fat, positive for gaining muscle mass)
    2. Cardio for cardio fitness (ability to perform with endurance)
    3. Weight training for shape (needs to be progressive overload) and strength

    Leaving 1 of those out will generally leave me wanting.

    But yeah, the 80/20 is good mental reminder of what is likely the most important.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,886 Member
    lemurcat2 wrote: »
    The percentage thing makes no sense to me, but how I would put it is that anyone who has been overweight for any length of time or, especially, obese, likely needs to find a way to control calorie intake as well as simply trying to rely on exercise.

    I do find that exercising makes it easier for me to control calorie intake (I naturally tend to eat better and am less likely to overeat when exercising) in addition to being able to eat more.

    Right, exercise is very important to me, but I would not be able to quantify this with a percentage.
  • lgfrie
    lgfrie Posts: 1,449 Member
    Whenever I miss my workouts for a couple/few days, the calories-in part of the formula starts to hit the skids. Without the sweaty workout and the feeling of working toward a better, healthier me, there seems to be no reason not to have that extra bag of chips. Conversely, a good workout puts me in a "healthy" mindset and makes it so much easier to resist temptation and stay on plan. All in all, I think 80/20 may be correct from an arithmetical, reductionist point of view, but at least for me there's a nuanced relationship between diet and exercise that the numbers don't quite capture.
  • FisherGT
    FisherGT Posts: 55 Member
    You can work off the calories if you go backpacking. 4.5 months of backpacking eating 5000 calories a day. Hiking 27-32 miles a day on rocky terrain. I lost 30lb and looked emaciated by the end.
  • bighoopattitude
    bighoopattitude Posts: 37 Member
    I agree. Former competitive soccer player here. I just gave up the sport so I’ve been reflecting about it a lot. Anyway, a lot of teammates were overweight because they didn’t watch their diet so despite the intense exercise they were still fat. Most people don’t even touch competitive sports so I can only imagine how much less people doing average workouts are burning.

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