Totally confused by deficit

springlering62 wrote: »

Walking is great. I use it as part of a (I Ike to think) well rounded exercise program that includes cardio, strength and stretching.

But I can sincerely say, I wouldn’t have been as successful as I’ve been without a strong walking element.

Plus, it just makes me feel so happy to be outside- even if it does involve a sniff every 25 or so feet.

I tell the dog “Quick sniff. You don’t need to evaluate the vintage”. But he insists on being a connoseiur.

Ah, bringing back good memories of walking my dog. He was a rescue, and had never been on a leash. He was a husky, and boy could he pull. He was my first (and only) dog as an adult and the family dogs were free roam/no leash. It was quite a learning experience for both of us. Dog Whisperer Cesar Millan videos were helpful to me, as was my boyfriend at the time, who was naturally dominant, lol.

We lived on a golf course and I used to take The Baby there for long walks at dusk when the golfers were gone. There was one stand of trees I used to avoid on the way out as there were simply too many sniffs, but I'd let him have it on the way back.

tomcustombuilder wrote: »

springlering62 wrote: »

It takes me 4-5 miles of walking to make a single turn in my Apple Watch, which is set at 300 calories/cycle. Of that 300, some is TDEE (sorry if I’ve got my terms mixed up- I can never keep those straight).


So really, a much smaller proportion than you expect is actual extra exercise energy expenditure.

“Old Me” thought a three mile walk burned up a whole bag of double stuff Oreos. Ummmm……lucky to even burn a serving of two cookies on that walk. 😢

That’s why so many of us have a disconnect. We think exercise obliterates calories. Sadly, nope nope and nope.

yep. It’s an unfair balance. Walk a mile for a 10 second pleasure of a cookie. Lol, people on the treadmill for 30 minutes thinking they’re burning off a double meat Whopper, large fries and of course, a DIET coke.

That was me.

So, I can totally understand why people are frustrated and think they’re doing “everything right” by adding exercise to their day. It’s hard, right? So surely you “earn” a lot by doing it?

That’s why so many people here say “weight loss is made in the kitchen”.

springlering62 wrote: »

tomcustombuilder wrote: »

springlering62 wrote: »

It takes me 4-5 miles of walking to make a single turn in my Apple Watch, which is set at 300 calories/cycle. Of that 300, some is TDEE (sorry if I’ve got my terms mixed up- I can never keep those straight).


So really, a much smaller proportion than you expect is actual extra exercise energy expenditure.

“Old Me” thought a three mile walk burned up a whole bag of double stuff Oreos. Ummmm……lucky to even burn a serving of two cookies on that walk. 😢

That’s why so many of us have a disconnect. We think exercise obliterates calories. Sadly, nope nope and nope.

yep. It’s an unfair balance. Walk a mile for a 10 second pleasure of a cookie. Lol, people on the treadmill for 30 minutes thinking they’re burning off a double meat Whopper, large fries and of course, a DIET coke.

That was me.

So, I can totally understand why people are frustrated and think they’re doing “everything right” by adding exercise to their day. It’s hard, right? So surely you “earn” a lot by doing it?

That’s why so many people here say “weight loss is made in the kitchen”.

Ha! Or maybe “weightloss is made by staying OUT of the kitchen”

LiveOnceBeHappy wrote: »

I never eat back walking calories. It's just slight movement and, for me, not really exercise. If I workout on a long bike ride, I will eat some of those back.

Oh?🤔

132,824 total steps Avg. 18,975 steps per day. ▼14,283 fewer than last week

total floors 378 total floors ▼ 154 floors below last week

total miles 94.80 total km ▼ 10.26 km below last week

avg. daily calorie burn 2,981 avg. daily calorie burn ▼ 164 cals. fewer than last week

So I should only eat based on the approximately 2100 Cal maintenance MFP would give me for lightly active (which is an over-reach to begin with based on MFP definitions!)

I mean my typical steps a day in 2013 were less than 1000 (so call it a 10000 week?) based on my lifestyle. Which has only changed by deliberately modifying and adding activities

I don't do *anything* more "active" than trail walking 🤷‍♂️

The more universal answer is that just like the Calories you eat don't have virtue based on the virtue of the food choices you made, the calories you spend also don't become more virtuous based on how you came about to spend them.

Whether they were spent because you sprinted up the hill or because you hauled an extra 200lbs of body weight to the gas station to buy Twinkies, you still spent the calories. And they're just as spent as the ones I just burned walking up the hill at a moderate to slow pace while dictating MFP posts.

And if you correctly account for them and if you correctly interpret your weight changes and if you adjust and adhere to your goals and your deficit eating the overwhelming majority of the time and for long enough... you WILL get results. Long term adherence. It's a beautiful concept.

To the OP: as I already discussed on Feb 3, 4.5h of deliberate moderate activity a week exceeds minimum exercise requirements for health but may or may not be sufficient to move you from the equivalent of sedentary to the equivalent of lightly active without taking into consideration what else is happening during your day. You MAY have an overstatement of TDEE issue. But you most CERTAINLY do have the potential of a scale fluctuation issue given the timelines.

Yes, deliberately logging walking on MFP has issues. Just because of math and because it is a long duration low net extra calories task. It still can (and arguably HAS to) be accounted for... with some care.