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There was a discussion at work today about this, but no consensus.
Suppose you were trying to lose weight by eating less, and were sticking to a certain amount of calories per day. If on a particular day you went over that 'limit' by x calories, but to compensate did extra exercise above what you normally would to the value of x, would that put you back on track?
E.g. You're trying to stick to 1800 calories a day. You eat 2400 one day. That evening go for a run that uses up 600. You're back to where you should be?
Or is it not that simple?
Sounds about right to me
Me too. Someone was saying it's not equal because 'diet is more important than exercise for weight loss', but I thought that when weight loss advice says that they mean stuff like not eating a Mars bar is easier than running for half an hour.
Bearing in mind that if you hadn't gone for that run you would have still used up [i]some[/i] calories, as part of your basal metabolic rate. So you can't count all 600, but most of them for sure
Expend more than you consume.....
Bearing in mind that if you hadn't gone for that run you would have still used up some calories, as part of your basal metabolic rate. So you can't count all 600, but most of them for sure
Ah yes, good point.
"they mean stuff like not eating a Mars bar is easier than running for half an hour."
This would be my understanding too
Another plus for exercise is that after your run, cycle etc your metabolic rate will be higher for a period after the exercise.
So if you add exercise you could burn off more than the additional calories you consumed.
Bonus!
Another plus for exercise is that after your run, cycle etc your metabolic rate will be higher for a period after the exercise.So if you add exercise you could burn off more than the additional calories you consumed.
thegreatape - Member
Bonus!
Though it's always better to overestimate what your eating and underestimate what you are using....
But it's so easy to do it the other way round 🙂
You consume most of your calories just by existing (and need them to exist). The amount of calories you burn with exercise is relatively small, or rather you need to do a lot of exercise to burn off a burger.
2hr relatively none stop off road ride today, 13 miles, relatively flat but various short sharp climbs. According to Strava (admittedly it's just doing guesswork, but maybe a ballpark)... 197 calories burned. Really not a lot. Don't eat that burger and probably twice that not consumed and I could not do any exercise and maybe lose weight.
The exercise though will help further, but more importantly has a lot of other health benefits. Though it may make you hungry after and then that tempting burger... 😉
Other thing is with exercise you not only burn calories but you may build muscle. Muscle is more dense than fat, so while you may get slimmer you may still weigh the same.