Why I don't count exercise calories

Here is an older blog I decided to repost just for fun:



Why I don't count exercise calories

Or--why I don't count them that much.

Sometimes it seems like half the comments on these boards are concerned with estimating, tracking, and logging exercise and activity calories. At any given time of day or night one can find the topic "what kind of HRM should I buy?" on the first page of the "Fitness and Exercise" Message Board.

I am going to propose a different approach. This is in keeping with some of my other recent posts in which I am recommending a more simplified strategy for weight loss, one that has more emphasis on focusing one's efforts in a few key areas rather than getting too caught up in what I consider peripheral items.

This approach is based on my background and personal exeperience with my own weight loss; it has been reinforced by my experience with the weight loss program run by the medical fitness center where I have worked for 16 months now.

I don't mean to assert or imply that this is the ONLY approach, or even that it is the best approach for everyone. Ultimately, the overall strategy is not that different--it's another means of managing energy output vs energy intake. It is also meant primarily for those starting a program, with a high level of body fat.

Here it is in a nutshell: Increase your daily calorie intake and stop including exercise calories routinely into your eating plan (i.e. "eating back exercise calories"). REFUEL after your workouts (carb/protein snack, 150-400 calories, depending on length/intesnity/calories expended during workout), but not more than 1/2 the exercise calories and do not bother with tracking recreational or activity calories (cleaning, dog walking, yardwork, wearing high heels, golf, etc. And get out of the 1200 calorie/day herd.

Here are some of my reasons:

1. Our methods of estimating calories expended during exercise are imprecise at best. I've explained this in detail on numerous occasions. Sometimes the number you get is no more accurate than just making one up out of thin air--at best they are no more than 75%-80% accurate.

2. Even if you do calculate an accurate BMR and could accurately calculate exercise calories, a good 20%-30% of your daily total energy expenditure (TEE) comes from casual activty and other physical factors. And that number is not only just a rough estimate, it can also vary widely from day to day. So despite our best efforts, most of us only have a vague idea of what we are burning every day.

3. Most people starting a weight loss program can and should be eating more than 1200 calories per day. In our program, the minimum calorie expenditure recommended by our dietitians is 1600 for females, 1800 for males. I think you can be a little more aggressive than that, but anyone over 180 lbs should do just fine on 1500 calories per day.

4. If you are eating a decent number of calories (1400-1800/day), and you are starting out, and you have a high level of body fat, the chances of going into "starvation mode" are low to nonexistent, in my experience. And that is true even with calorie deficits of over 1,500 per day.

Again, this is as much an accounting strategy as anything else. One could say "well, I start at 1200 calories/day and then just add exercise and activity and get to the same place".

And if that works for you, that is fine. What I am trying to do is take away a lot of the arithmetic and research that I think is unnecessary. For beginners, there is no need to be that precise about your energy output. As long as you are eating a minimum number per day, and incurring a defict, you should have success. To me, that is a lot easier than trying for the 500th time to figure out the number of calories burned in a Zumba class. I also think that routinely trying to eat 1200 calories a day is more stressful and can be counterproductive at times.

There are reasons to track exercise calories--since calories expended during a workout can represent the total amount of aerobic work performed, tracking your calories can be used to set goals and monitor fitness improvement. Heart rate monitors are excellent tools for improving and maintaining the quality of your workouts and training program.

But if you want to try a more streamlined approach, consider setting your daily calories a little higher, and working out and being as active as possible. I think it is more important to focus on calorie intake than it is to count every exercise/activity calorie because you are worried about starvation mode.