What should you choose for someone who exercises hard six days a week in the gym but is otherwise stationary?
It is okay to put that you are doing moderate or heavy exercise if it doesn’t change your calorie goal in your tracker. We want to ensure that when you do this, it does not add calories for you to eat back because of your exercise. If it does add significant calories to your goal, stick with the sedentary option.
This addition of calories is a big struggle with some of our patients. We will work with them to get them macros or calorie goals. But if they work out, their apps may say they can increase their food intake. That is not the point of physical activity, which can make losing weight more challenging.
Get more NEAT
People who move frequently throughout the day typically have much better health outcomes than those who rely solely on going to the gym for an hour and sitting for the rest of the day. Their NEAT, Non-exercise activity thermogenesis, plays a much more significant role in weight loss. Our ancestors were more physically active people during the day. They weren’t going to the gym.
Because of this, we recommend getting up every 30-60 minutes to move. Go to the bathroom, check out the water cooler, or walk around the office. Get out of your chair!
Exercise has tons of health benefits, but it shouldn’t be your primary modality to treat weight.
