How can I possibly lose weight?
jigglyjones
Posts: 2 Member
I am very new to this site. It says I get 1630 calories.
I've always heard that you have to burn more calories than you eat to lose weight. I have a back injury and I can't really exercise, especially not enough to burn more than 1630 calories a day. So how the heck do I lose weight then? What can I do to burn that many calories? My doctor wants me to lose weight to help my back, but if I can't exercise, I'll never lose weight. I don't know what to do!
I've always heard that you have to burn more calories than you eat to lose weight. I have a back injury and I can't really exercise, especially not enough to burn more than 1630 calories a day. So how the heck do I lose weight then? What can I do to burn that many calories? My doctor wants me to lose weight to help my back, but if I can't exercise, I'll never lose weight. I don't know what to do!
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Replies
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You burn calories just existing.
In order to lose weight, you simply consume fewer calories than that.
Exercise just helps the process a long a bit, and makes things a little easier, but isn't necessary to lose weight.13 -
You burn calories just existing.
In order to lose weight, you simply consume fewer calories than that.
Exercise just helps the process a long a bit, and makes things a little easier, but isn't necessary to lose weight.
Ok, so I don't have to exercise and burn that many calories? How do I know how many calories I am burning? I've tried eating 800 calories before, but I didn't lose weight because I was in starvation mode. I don't know how to do this.0 -
Your body will use calories to sustain itself. The 1630 is not the number you have to burn extra via exercise to lose weight but the number your body needs to maintain life while at a slight deficit to make it convert fat reserves into the extra energy needed to live.
Making an assumption you have asked to 1lb weight loss a week thats ~3500 calories deficit needed each week. So your body would need around 2130calories a day to maintain itself. 1630 eaten would give your body a need to convert fat into 500cals a day. If you exercised on top that would be more fat converted and faster loss of weight but it is not necessary.
The key to weight loss is in the kitchen and not the gym!9 -
jigglyjones wrote: »You burn calories just existing.
In order to lose weight, you simply consume fewer calories than that.
Exercise just helps the process a long a bit, and makes things a little easier, but isn't necessary to lose weight.
Ok, so I don't have to exercise and burn that many calories? How do I know how many calories I am burning? I've tried eating 800 calories before, but I didn't lose weight because I was in starvation mode. I don't know how to do this.
Have you entered your details into MFP? And selected sedentary as your activity level? And selected to lose 1 lb/week?
If so, the number of calories MFP gives you will take all your details into consideration and will give you a number of calories that includes enough of a deficit for you to lose 1 lb/week if you stick to that number.3 -
jigglyjones wrote: »You burn calories just existing.
In order to lose weight, you simply consume fewer calories than that.
Exercise just helps the process a long a bit, and makes things a little easier, but isn't necessary to lose weight.
Ok, so I don't have to exercise and burn that many calories? How do I know how many calories I am burning? I've tried eating 800 calories before, but I didn't lose weight because I was in starvation mode. I don't know how to do this.
800 calories calculated how? You need to get some scales and start weighing food portions out to get real proper `accurate figures for your intake.1 -
1630 IS a deficit, if you set MFP up correctly. what are your stats?5
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To lose weight you just have to eat fewer calories than your TDEE which is your total daily estimated expenditure- or in other words your maintenance calories. You don't need to exercise! You burn calories just by existing (it takes calories to beat your heart, breathe, keep all your organs functioning, etc), and even things like thinking, talking, regular body movement etc burns calories. Even digesting food burns calories!
To avoid going into "starvation mode" don't eat less than your BMR- your basal metabolic rate. That's the minimum calories you need just to survivie.
Myfitnesspal should have calculated your calories correctly if you entered your stats properly, but if you want to check your TDEE and BMR and make sure that 1630 is within those two numbers you can use an online TDEE calculator- just google that.
You may need to adjust down a bit if you are say bed ridden or immobile due to your injury because myfitnesspal and the TDEE calculator will assume that even if you mark sedentary that you do normal activities like walk around the house and such, but if all you're doing is not exercising then you're not any different than many other people on this site that also do not exercise and are still losing weight due to simply being in a caloric deficit.0 -
Yes, put exercise to one side for the moment. If you have myfitnesspal set up to lose a pound a week, it will work out how much energy you need every day just to exist, no extra exercise, and then it will take away 500 calories - that's your "deficit", and that will mean you lose weight. You do not need to take any exercise, you just need to measure and log what you are eating accurately and you will lose weight. As others have said, as your injury is limiting your activity, you need to set up the activity level as "sedentary".
It's really not as complicated as people like to make it out to be. You'll get there. Good luck!1 -
You will still lose weight without exercising but you wont change your shape. So if youre a pear youll become a smaller pear. Try gentle exercises in the pool. There is always something.1
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Chilli7777 wrote: »You will still lose weight without exercising but you wont change your shape. So if youre a pear youll become a smaller pear. Try gentle exercises in the pool. There is always something.
This is the case regardless if you exercise or not, you cannot change from say a pear shape to an apple shape, by exercising.
Op, I lost 50lbs with no exercise factored in at all. I'm now several years into maintenance doing the same thing. I control my weight completely by the amount of calories I eat, and that's all that is needed for weight loss and maintenance. Also, feel free to take a peek at my profile pics, and see what a 'before' pear looks like vs an 'after' pear looks like, all done with no exercise
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Consume in the region of 1630 calories over a sustained period of time.
That's all.2 -
If you selected weight loss as a goal, then the numbers MFP threw back at you will result in weight loss.
Sounds magical. Sounds impossible that you could suffer through being heavy for so long, because you figured that trying to lose would require even more suffering, when in fact no suffering through exercise or starvation is required AT ALL, and all you have to do is trust the numbers. Trust me. Been there, done that. I felt like a royal horse's *kitten* to learn that it was that simple, and I let my condition deteriorate for years for no reason.
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PaulaWallaDingDong wrote: »If you selected weight loss as a goal, then the numbers MFP threw back at you will result in weight loss.
Sounds magical. Sounds impossible that you could suffer through being heavy for so long, because you figured that trying to lose would require even more suffering, when in fact no suffering through exercise or starvation is required AT ALL, and all you have to do is trust the numbers. Trust me. Been there, done that. I felt like a royal horse's *kitten* to learn that it was that simple, and I let my condition deteriorate for years for no reason.
Right? It's almost painful when you finally realize how easy it could have been all this time and all the efforts and suffering and expense you put yourself through for years were unnecessary! I think of the years I wasted either being unhappily overweight or unhappily starving myself and just want to cry.
All you have to do is eat within the right range of calories that isn't even that low, then once you get to your goal weight slowly increase calories and bring them up to maintenance. It's so simple it's stupid and it doesn't seem like it will work but it does.9 -
If you set up MFP correctly, the number it spits out IS the number of calories you shoudl be eating in order to lose the weight you want to lose. All those other numbers (how many calories it ttakse to keep you alive, how many calories you burn in an average day) are ALREADY THERE.1
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You're screwed. You are weighed down with too many excuses and can't possibly lose weight.8
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Mavrick_RN wrote: »You're screwed. You are weighed down with too many excuses and can't possibly lose weight.
Ouch!!!!2 -
Eat 1630 calories per day. You don't have to exercise to earn those calories.1
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Mavrick_RN wrote: »You're screwed. You are weighed down with too many excuses and can't possibly lose weight.
I see a lack of knowledge but no excuses. The OP clearly thinks they have to burn the recommended daily calorie allowance. If I thought that was what I had to do, I'd feel weighed down too.5 -
Mavrick_RN wrote: »You're screwed. You are weighed down with too many excuses and can't possibly lose weight.
Harsh and imo unwarranted. OP was genuinely confused, not making excuses.6 -
I lost almost 60 pounds in almost 6 months without exercise. Just took commitment to learning how to feed my body.1
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I was confused about the same thing until I did a lot of reading and research using the Getting Started pinned threads. I had NO idea how to figure out what was a maintenance calorie setting vs. how to get that deficit. I also thought you had to exercise away 1500 calories to get it. I even posted an "am I doing it right?" thread because it's kind of a trick to get the hang of it.
OP, you are not making excuses...hang around and we'll help you figure it out. I PROMISE you can do this without exercise unless you WANT to exercise. In fact, I set up my whole plan around losing weight if I did absolutely zero exercise because I am truly a lazy person. I do some (like, I walk my dog), but that's it, and I've lost 30+ so far. You can do it!!3 -
jigglyjones wrote: »You burn calories just existing.
In order to lose weight, you simply consume fewer calories than that.
Exercise just helps the process a long a bit, and makes things a little easier, but isn't necessary to lose weight.
Ok, so I don't have to exercise and burn that many calories? How do I know how many calories I am burning? I've tried eating 800 calories before, but I didn't lose weight because I was in starvation mode. I don't know how to do this.
I strongly recommend that you get a food scale and be sure you're choosing accurate database entries for the food you eat, because if you thought you were consistently eating 800 calories and you weren't losing weight, then, like many people, the methods you have been using to estimate the calories you are consuming are not accurate. There is no such thing as "starvation mode" in the sense that you are using the term (not losing weight because you are eating too few calories).2 -
I lost 72 pounds without exercising beyond a little walking. There are other health reasons to exercise, but you don't need to for weight loss.3
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@jigglyjones As others have said, the calorie 'burn' includes those used just by existing. Having said that, if your back injury makes you less mobile than even sedentary allows for it's even more important that you calculate your input as precisely as you can, as you may not have the wiggle-room that more active people have. Weigh, on a digital scale, absolutely everything that you eat. Double check the food database entries that you use against the package or an external website (USDA or the manufacturer or store/restaurant for example). Keep to 1630 for 4-6 weeks and then adjust if you're not losing at the predicted rate.1
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I can totally see how "burn more than you eat" and "Calories out must be more than calories in" can be confusing.
To a person who is just starting out and has no knowledge about weight loss, it does come across as literally burn more than you eat...
I just wonder how many people have given up before they've even started because they can't face having to exercise off, say 1600 -2000 calories or however much their daily calorie allotment is.5 -
Christine_72 wrote: »I can totally see how "burn more than you eat" and "Calories out must be more than calories in" can be confusing.
To a person who is just starting out and has no knowledge about weight loss, it does come across as literally burn more than you eat...
I just wonder how many people have given up before they've even started because they can't face having to exercise off, say 1600 -2000 calories or however much their daily calorie allotment is.
This really makes me wish our schools (I'm American) offered better, more comprehensive education about health and weight. It's so hard to get it right with all the crap information floating around out there, and I bet that confusion does discourage a lot of people from ever really trying.5 -
jigglyjones wrote: »I am very new to this site. It says I get 1630 calories.
I've always heard that you have to burn more calories than you eat to lose weight. I have a back injury and I can't really exercise, especially not enough to burn more than 1630 calories a day. So how the heck do I lose weight then? What can I do to burn that many calories? My doctor wants me to lose weight to help my back, but if I can't exercise, I'll never lose weight. I don't know what to do!
You get 1630 calories?
Eat 1630 calories
End of3 -
Have a proper diet, control the food you take and do swimming. It can help you lose weight easily while not sweating. Swimming in a pool will help you to avoid injuries because water will help you with your body weight.
Last option is to do some walking for about 30 minutes-2 hours before the sunrise. Don't forget to drink more water before meal and right after the exercise, water is good to loose weight.0 -
Have a proper diet, control the food you take and do swimming. It can help you lose weight easily while not sweating. Swimming in a pool will help you to avoid injuries because water will help you with your body weight.
Last option is to do some walking for about 30 minutes-2 hours before the sunrise. Don't forget to drink more water before meal and right after the exercise, water is good to loose weight.
::scrolls up to see if OP mentioned being a vampire:: what happens if someone walks after sunrise?12
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