Comic Strips

The caloric calculation is only based on the effort at time of exercise, you continue to burn afterwards for several hours as muscles recover and heal -all that takes energy, and energy only comes from burning.

You gain muscle at the gym.

You lose weight in the kitchen.

The exercise is not (primarily) for weight loss. It's so your body doesn't feel like a useless sack of potatoes the whole day. So you're not out of breath when picking something up from the ground. The weight loss is unfortunately primarily achieved in the kitchen.

At least, that's my experience. But maybe if you used to not move at all it makes a big difference. I lost weight when I changed my diet for the better, and I gain weight whenever I slip up significantly. But when I stopped running 15km per week (for health reasons) I didn't really gain a significant amount, maybe a kg (accounting for noise). I did become a useless sack if potatoes though, so I'm back in the grind.

Yes, it's WAY easier to avoid eating that 1000kcal burger, than to burn 1000kcal

To me the point of regular exercise, especially cardio, is that if I run every day, my body simply doesn't want to eat the unhealthy food. I can't run if I've eaten a sleeve of Oreos that day. And afterwards my body craves hearty, healthy meals and vegetables.

I don't understand the idea of "rewarding" yourself with crappy food after you exercise to burn calories.

I suggest adopting the mantra "food is not reward, food is not entertainment".

Please. You don't use exercise to lose weight. That's what bootleg weight loss drugs are for.

Some things I've learned throughout the years that may be useful to some people:

• if your aim is to use a lot of energy, dialing down the intensity significantly and working for a longer time is the way to go
• basically all cardio machines at the gym are going to be boring as all hell, going outside and doing activities is a lot more fun
• baking in activity into your day-to-day routines is very helpful. Transporting yourself by biking, walking, taking transit, a mix of all of the above makes a large difference
• cardio as a means of losing weight has a downside in that vigorous exercise provokes a lot of hunger. make sure to combine with small sustainable changes in diet for best results

This one hits close to home. I was in great shape the first half-plus of my life. Played sports, swam competitively, did the Marine thing. Always had a reason to want to not be out of shape, mainly so doing things didn't suck.

Lost reason. Packed some pounds on, maybe 20 or so.

Finally decided about a year and a half ago to start running again, and so now I run like 35-40 miles a week, and every run I see the calories. Run for 45 minutes, burn like 650 calories. Costco has these cookies that I have to avoid seeing, and each cookie is 200 calories, and I can easily eat three, four, five at a clip, with a nice tall glass of milk. And so I'll run for 90 minutes, and literally offset the benefit entirely in 10 minutes watching Netflix before bed.

It's not fair. But it is what it is. And so my reason to run is chocolate chip cookies.

As someone else mentioned, humans are hilariously good at cardio. And the more you do it the more efficient you become at it, which means less calories burned.

Then there's NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis) which is unconscious movements you perform during the day. This accounts for a huge number of calories you burn during the day. Both exercise and cutting calories reduce NEAT, especially at you get leaner.

This isn't to say you shouldn't cut calories or exercise. Reducing caloric intake absolutely works, you just need to be aware that your body will adjust to it, and that you should take breaks from dieting occasionally to bring your daily estimated calorie burn back up. Exercise should be thought of as something that improves health with a side benefit of some caloric burn.

Just my opinion.

People see that and think: wow exercise is pointless, instead of, maybe it's weird to eat a 1200kcal meal at mcdonalds

It's actually infuriating how energy efficient the human body is...in peace time anyways.

It is easier to limit excess calories than to burn them with exercise, for sure.

But I do the recommended 30 minutes of “moderate exercise” and I see 200 calories, so it is maybe not entirely as dismal as this?

Humans are hilariously efficient at running. Skipping a candy bar is easier than running two miles.

Part of the trick is finding an exercise that's actually enjoyable to do so that you don't care how hard you're working or how much time has passed. Time is gonna pass extra slow on a treadmill and feel really difficult, if you're not enjoying it. I find that the bicycle is that sweet spot for me, I do it because it's fun not because of my health.