We are pleased to announce that as of March 4, 2025, an updated Rich Text Editor has been introduced in the MyFitnessPal Community. To learn more about the changes, please click here. We look forward to sharing this new feature with you!

Exercise to lose vs exercise to maintain?

embclark
embclark Posts: 186 Member
edited December 2024 in Fitness and Exercise
So I have been working out for atleast an hour, 5 times a week, sometimes 6 times a week. Well, I am very close to my goal AND getting worn out to the point where I am pushing my exercises back each day until the last possible moment. This is not a realistic schedule for me for the rest of my life, i know I will give up after a while. For now, the incentive is to lose weight, but once it is lost I will need to lessen my load!

So my plan is 3 days a week for 30 minutes plus taking a walk with my daughter as many days as we have time for... What do you think? This would be for maintenance.

ALSO, when I am eating maintenance calories, do I still eat back exercise calories or are they built in?

Thanks!

Replies

  • beaner1st
    beaner1st Posts: 229 Member
    You would eat back your exercise calories to maintain your weight.
    I exercise to eat since my maintenace calories without exercise are only 1400 at 5"2" 110 pounds.
  • sarafil
    sarafil Posts: 506 Member
    I don't know what kind of exercise you are doing now, but I found when I got to maintenance weight I liked doing mainly strength training; didn't seem to take as much time as cardio and kept my metabolism up, and built muscle (which keeps me looking lean).
  • JNick77
    JNick77 Posts: 3,783 Member
    Gaining, maintaining, losing is all a function of diet. If you want to lose, eat 10% - 20% less than your TDEE, maintain eat at or slightly above TDEE, if you want to gain eat about 50%+ above your TDEE. Don't use MFP and the whole eating back exercise calories crap-ola'. The whole system is fairly inaccurate.
  • embclark
    embclark Posts: 186 Member
    I am currently doing cardio with some weight work in there. I use the EA Active Sports for the Wii. Also, I have been doing a Jillian Michaels DVD 5 days a week for almost 3 months.

    So I do eat back exercise still.

    Any other thoughts on how often to exercise?
  • embclark
    embclark Posts: 186 Member
    No one else?
This discussion has been closed.

Categories