I agree with you and Wannabe, the machines are not accurate. I just assume 200 cals burned and call it a day.

Bananamuffin, I don't calculate calories for exercise at all. I don't count calories most of the time. The way i log my food tells me if i need to make adjustments for the most part, in combination with the scale.

So i would say if after exercise you eat and you think you've eaten more than you calculated that you burnt, then perhaps that's not the best way to figure out if exercise is helping or hindering your weightloss. Its probably inaccurate. Monitor the results on the scale over a period of time.

If you are actually doing that and still find you are eating too much and not losing weight, and you can dismiss all the other factors that contribute to wanting to eat too much, then maybe moderate or even light exercise isn't going to work for you. But I find it difficult to accept.

Even more "accurate" measurements seem suspect to me. For example, I'm not much of a runner. So when I do run, my heart rate stays quite high. For a run of about 30 min over less than 2.5 miles, my heart rate monitor claims I've burned something like 600 calories. I just can't believe that's true.

I find I've enjoyed my exercise a lot more when I don't have to take the time to calculate out how many calories I think I've burned and how many I should eat back to maintain a healthy deficit. It's also more comfortable to vary up the routine or lose track of my exact mileages and/or minutes and is helpful for non-steady activities with several rest breaks, like lifting and dance.

also, really intense excercise is hard. It's hard work and effort. So not doing it always seems the easier option.

So sure it's good for me etc etc. Which is why i love myself after. But starting (and keeping at it) requires will. Just like anything else worth doing (working hard at my job etc). If it was easy there wouldn't be results

I gotta disagree. There can be results when its easy. Its a question of what you find easy and what you find hard.

I don't find it hard to ride a 100km a day when i'm on a tour. but sometimes it can be hard to walk 300 metres.

People who are down on those who feel they can't exercise are just being smug and judgemental.

Yep, after I jog 3 miles my monitor tells me 500-600 cals burned. I wish!

For myself too. I have tried to lose weight a million times in my life by dieting alone, I have done it but they weight ALWAYS came back within less than a year. I have lost and regained 30 pounds at least 3 or 4 times. Very frustrating.

I used to loathe exercise (I used every excuse in the book to avoid) but once I finally bit the bullet in late 2012 I have lost all of my excess weight and have easily maintained for over a year. I would never have these results from counting calories alone. The last 10-15p are by far the hardest to lose.

I lost all my weight with no discernible contribution from exercise.

I exercise lightly, when I can, for my mobility, joint health, and to strengthen specific areas I am weak and prone to injuring.

Exercising to vigorously while dieting is very, very hard on my thyroid and adrenals. I benefit much more from an hour of sleep than an hour of cardio. Living an active life, with plenty of standing and moving and kid wrangling, works for me. I have spent a season exercising vigorously and a season doing nothing, on the same diet. The weight lost was no different. Now, the inches lost differed, as exercise of the type I do shapes the incredibly well. But it doesn't change the scale significantly, even if I am stronger and look better at the same weight.

So for weight loss, I push diet. For vitality and mood control, as well as overall physical condition, exercise helps immensely. More standing and less sitting is never a good thing.

But I will never preach more exercise to a newbie on this site, when most are convinced that killing themselves in the gym and celebrating with a mocha is a great idea

I totally agree. I've been doing weightlifting since 2004 and find it easy but the thought of biking 1km let alone 100? LOL! I don't dare. We need to do what we love. Long-term doesn't happen when you hate it.

If people don't want to be active, I'm not sure why we care. None of us got overweight in the first place from constant activity and proper portions. People know that being active is good for their health, there is no need to call them lazy for not being at the point that is 'good enough' for you (a general you) yet.

I'll play devil's advocate here and say that a sedentary lifestyle is one of the biggest contributing factors to obesity and disease. We have many challenges that meet the mind, school, work, finances, etc. But we have so little emphasis placed on physical activity. I've been a teacher for 12yrs and I can see that physical education programs mean very little to our dwindling education system. More testing, less PE. My students only receive physical education once a week for 45 minutes in school. If we don't foster a love of activity from a young age then how can we expect kids will grow up and discover it on their own when they've been saddled with childhood obesity and diabetes early in life?

Sure, it's true that it's none of our business what another person chooses to do. But as a whole, shouldn't we be interested in the welfare of our national state of health? Health care costs are on the rise, if there's a way to curb it then why shouldn't we?

I also tend to look at it from another perspective. There are many people who cannot exercise due to disabilities and disease. I believe that sometimes people take for granted what their bodies can do and do nothing to provide their body with its true needs. It's a bit shameful.

Yes, I think it contributes, health-wise. I guess I just don't really get the nerve of the whole "lazy" comment.

I'm not disabled, but I have an autistic child. I've gone through months of not being active because I was simple just tired and didn't feel like it. Would it have been better for me? Yes, but I don't feel other people have the right to sit here and call me lazy for it. I can imagine that plenty of people have disrespectful words like that for a lot of girls here, simply for being overweight, no matter how active they are.

I guess my point is that this is one big glass house, 3fc, to be tossing around that term!

I will be training today as usual but should I choose inactivity for whatever reason, so be it. I've been on this journey for 10 years and take extended breaks for my sanity.

I agree with you that the schools have things on the wrong foot. All about nutrition, hardly anything about getting kids to move more. Limited gym, shorter recesses, taking kids AWAY from recess as punishment, etc.

AND... when kids do get exposed to gym and sports, it's always competitive, so those who aren't athletes feel left behind and quit. There needs to be an atmosphere of, "move for health" "move for fun" "move to move" and not "move to WIN!"

I was so mad that our schools tested 3rd graders for their physical abilities. Why am I mad? Because being flexible, or being uncoordinated, or being slow is deemed as BAD or "failing". I was never good at those things. Neither was their father. So, how can I expect my kids to be? Yet... my 3rd grader (who is autistic) who did poorly" on the fitness assessment dances for 2-4 hours at home every single day (with the wii) and he walks to and from school every day, and we often walk around the lake every day. So, he may not be quick, flexible or coordinated, but he's MOVING. He's trim and he enjoys movement. Isn't that what's really important?

I know I felt for the longest time that exercise wasn't for me because I bombed those fitness tests. Well guess who could lift the most in all her bodypump classes? who could do all the jumps and steps in bodystep, and who can walk a fast mile? ME... I don't need to be an athletic star to be fit.

Schools should measure for improvement and encourage improvement... not test at some level and rate you to everyone else. It's demoralizing and counter productive.

I think the term lazy is charged for us, I know I'm not lazy even when I don't exercise. And surely overweight people have endured being called lazy for centuries! But there are times when I am being lazy about specific things, like I don't feel like cooking dinner or I'll put off doing the laundry until tomorrow, or I'll skip my walk today since it's raining etc.

I also wouldn't think someone is being lazy for rejecting exercise, and I'm talking specifically about people who reject all notions of exercise or even activity. I think they are depriving themselves of a better life and taking for granted the abilities that their body possesses. I think they're suckers, everybody knows that the easy route leads to nowhere.

I couldn't agree more, I remember going through these assessments when I was in school and it was like the worst days of my life. Standing in front of all my classmates and trying to do a pull-up, ugh the humiliation! To be truthful, I don't remember a single phys ed teacher helping me become stronger, inspiring me to participate in sports, or urging me to enjoy something. Nope, their focus was entirely placed on the athletic kids, kids like me were relegated to the background, i didn't want to bother with PE and they didn't want to bother with me. I consistently got bad grades in PE, I hated exercise and I never ran the mile, I walked from the start because I knew I'd be the slowest anyway, might as well walk by choice than try and fail. If I only had ONE TEACHER that cared or showed some interest I might have not been such a failure. I was in my late 20's before I realized that I have the potential to be an athlete. I love exercise now, there is no excuse or reason that my potential couldn't have been tapped when I was in school.

I do not think it is the school's job to encourage fitness or teach nutrition.

In my book, that's called "parenting."

Indeed, I'd be angry if the school taught my child that conventional wisdom about nutrition was fact. My kid recently started watching these nutritional videos and then started spouting that "grains are healthy" and "butter is unhealthy." She even when as far to say that "dark bread is healthier."

This is not what I am trying to teach her.

Same goes for people who think chronic cardio is "healthy." I would NOT want the schools to teach my kids that training for a marathon is good for your body. It may be their beliefs, but it's not mine.

I think it's irresponsible to rely solely on parents to encourage fitness or teach nutrition. A lot of kids would be as clueless as their parents in that case. There's a reason we don't rely on parents to teach things like math and grammar. Plus, a lot of kids don't have a safe place or time to do any sort of physical activity once they leave school property. Nor do they have access to healthy foods or a parent to understands proper nutrition.

I think school is a big part of the problem for kids though, all around. Gym classes focus on learning sports instead of making sure all the kids are being active. School lunches are atrocious (and oftentimes so early in the day it might as well be breakfast). Kids get reprimanded for eating in class. What if they're hungry? Goodness! No wonder so many of us have poor eating habits and poor ideas of when and how much to eat. No wonder I gorged myself when I would get home from school as a kid. I hope kids are at least allowed to have water in the classroom these days.