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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

People must be made so different. Exercise is the main factor in my size & weight. Like, even getting a job where I have to go up the stairs makes a difference.

And remember that there are so many benefits to exercise, beyond body shape. Cardio is so good for your heart and helps ease anxiety, lifting is so good for your bones, yoga helps keep you resilient & mobile so you don't break when you fall down, and helps with balance.

All of them help offset all the sitting most of us have to do at work.

"You just eat less and exercise more."

- Crunch Bandicoot, Crash Nitro Kart

Had a short walk to the store and back. About 130 cal burned. Then I drink a big glass of milk. 300 cal.

Awesome

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

You gain muscle at the gym.

You lose weight in the kitchen.

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?

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.

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.

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

You burn 73 calories by running less than 10 minutes.
A 30 minute jog burns over 300.
Do that twice a week and it amounts to a body weight difference of 90 lbs. (300000 calories) over 10 years with the same diet.
A healthy weight isn't something you achieve quickly and then you're done and can go back to your old "normal" lifestyle.

The human body is kinda magical. If you live an active life, take the stairs, exercise, commute by bicycle, and walk a lot, it'll change to become better at being active over time.
If you sit on your ass all day and eat a lot, it'll optimize itself for sitting on its ass and eating a lot.
So your body does its best to adjust to what you want to do.

(Of course there are medical exceptions where that doesn't work right, too. And the prevailing culture and car-centric infrastructure in the US doesn't make it exactly easy to be active in your daily life.)

caloriemaxxing doesn't just have to be on the treadmill: You can also suffer on a stationary bike!

It's crazy how much work it is to maintain a mid physique. I gym/cardio 6 days a week and am training for a marathon and will still put on weight if I don't track what I eat.

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".

There's some post-exercise calorie burn (measurable as excess post-exercise oxygen consumption) beyond just what the machine says. Some people have found much better effects from repeated shorter bursts of intense cardio (aka HIIT).

Still, personally, I get the best results from doing both slower steady cardio for long periods of time (more absolute calories) and occasional faster speed work (probably more post-exercise calories and more adaptation in my cardiovascular system and bones/muscles/tendons to get better at exercising next time).

And once you get better at exercise, it becomes possible to really burn calories enough to where you have a better calorie budget for eating more delicious food.