Offsetting...

Is this a personal weirdness or does anyone else find themselves doing similar?

So today I went to Watford (for no real reason other than to get myself out of the house). Walked to the bus stop (about half a mile), walked the length of Watford high street (right from the pyramid, up to the pond, and back to the Market, quick wander round there then tough the Harlequin centre, and back again. It took me about 3-4 hours in total, with one stop for a black coffee and another for an egg mayo sandwich, then came back to Edgware did a little more shopping in the centre there, then got the bus back and walked back from the bus stop with my shopping (1 book, and enough treats to last me a couple of months to stuff in my locker at work).

I then decided to sort out myself some dinner. I decided on pizza, I have one in the freezer (leftover from new years) which is only 890cal for the whole thing. But as it's pizza I decided I had to offset some of that. So before I cooked it, I went for another wander (this time with my gps tracker active on my phone). Did 3.17 miles in 1h & 7 mins. burning about 570cal...

At which point I got home promptly laid myself a guilt trip over wanting pizza and had something else entirely...

This despite the knowing the fact that even if I had the bloody pizza I would still have only been about 1300 calories total for the entire day which is well below the 1500 average I'm supposed to be allowing myself...

Lol.... I don't think you are alone. I've been doing it since i upped my exercise. My treadmill has a calorie counter,as i exercise it counts up the calories being burnt. While it does that my mind starts to convert the read out into what foods i could have offset...50 cals...that's my breakfast gone... 100 cals...that's a slice of toast... 250 cals... A mars bar which i could have had if i had one i had one in the house

I think it is a good strategy and it is also the reason why counting calories increases the chances of success. I have been using bodymedia and that helped me a lot. For instance yesterday I pigged out unfortunately, but the fact that I know more or less exactly how many calories surplus I had puts me in control and I know that over the next 3 days I will have to work out those many extra calories had yesterday.

At least from a fat loss/control point of view it is a great strategy. Then there is the other issue that is to achieve a balanced and healthy diet to build muscle and be healthier in general which requires way more discipline than simple calorie control, and for me it is tougher because I still eat too much sugar and sweet treats, despite being able to control the overall calorie budget.
So offsetting is a good strategy but can't substitute the need for a better diet with less junk food if you want to be healthy and not just slim.

Yes, you are not alone in both offsetting and in then not actually eating the earned treat.
I am managing to lose weight steadily but as above once goal weight / shape is reached, can I eat clean enough to build lean mass / muscle, only time will tell.

What got me afterwards was the fact that I had spent about 4 hours wandering round the shops yesterday... But at the time that didn't count because it was 'unmonitored'.

i do it sometimes just like my mortgage!

i once went for a walk for a cornetto!

A lot of people do offsetting. I never do. Sites like this that have programs that calculate calories burned encourage it. Some weight loss experts consider it to be something that can become an unhealthy obsession. The number of calories burned by exercise is less important to weight loss and maintenance than control over the number you consume.

Yea I wouldn't want it to become obsessional. In this case it was because I really did fancy a Pizza... And the idea got stuck in my head, that if I was going to allow myself somethign so terrible I just had to offset it.

IMO exercise isn't usually about the calorie burn during the exercise it's getting those muscles awake and revved up. They burn more over the day once they've been got going than they do during the exercise itself anyway IIRC.

I pretty much NEVER do offsetting. I count my calories and (mostly) stay within RDI. What I do of bonus exercise counts towards further weight loss, not towards food rewards.

I think we learn a LOT more about food habits by learning to compentsate on RDI instead of compensating with exercise.

If I want pizza, I'll have to make room for it in my other meals. Doesn't mean I can't have pizza - it means I can only have it if my other meals are VERY reasonable.

On the other hand, go for ½ a pizza, and the other meals are a lot easier to plan. Can we learn from this? I think so.

whatever works for the individual, having a treat now and then keeps a person sane, i tend to just incorporate my treats into my overall calories but as i train intensely quite lot its pretty easy for me to do as i burn lot of calories most days.

when i really want to go for it on total cheat day i dont measure or record anything i just enjoy

I think the biggest thing I learned from calorie "budgeting" as kingkeld describes *hi keld!* is that there really aren't any terrible foods. Getting away from that mindset has helped me tremendously toward thinking of this new eating plan as my way of life rather than a diet.

Analogy: a Lexus isn't a terrible car, it's just fairly expensive... but if you budget wisely and aren't overspending on other expenses, you can make it happen. Same for your pizza. Don't 'overspend' on your other meals for the day and taDAH! pizza makes sense. Without guilt.