Diet only for Weight loss?

saundts
saundts Posts: 51 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I am curious, can we lose weight by diet only, watching what we eat and with a calorie deficit only?

Replies

  • livingleanlivingclean
    livingleanlivingclean Posts: 11,751 Member
    Yes.
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    Yes - you don't have to exercise. Watching portions and calories in is the biggest contributor for weight loss.

    Exercise if you can. Strength training can help you retain a larger % of lean muscle mass. It's not a big calorie burner, but it shapes the end result.

    Walking is great too. Active people earn more calories. So if you find sticking to goals is difficult.....go for a walk.
  • Daddy78230
    Daddy78230 Posts: 125 Member
    edited April 2017
    Not necessarily. There has to be deficit of calories, wether that's from restricting calories, exercising more, and or both.
  • nrbutton
    nrbutton Posts: 165 Member
    Every body requires a set amount of energy to perform daily activities and maintain life. The calories needed changes, but the formula is the same for everyone.

    If your body receives it's calorie needs from food alone and you don't go over or under then your body will sustain itself solely on the food you eat.

    If your body receives too many calories then it sets extra calories aside to help sustain life for times of crisis like famine. The body is adept at putting away calories in the form of fat and we can measure the amount of energy available in these fat stores at approximately 3500 calories per pound. So essentially your body puts away about 2-3 days of fuel per pound that could essentially keep you alive without food.

    The problem is we don't experience enough "lean" times to balance the scales so we have to create that through diet which is the exact opposite.

    So the flip side is reducing the amount of calories the body uses from food so it will turn to that stored energy. This is why you can also add exercise to help your body mobilize the stored fat. Not only does exercise demand more energy used, but it also tells your body that you need to maintain as much muscle as your using to perform your daily duties so it will draw as much energy as possible from your fat and preserve muscle mass needed for your activity level.

    According to the calculation to gain a pound you need to eat 3500 calories to gain a pound so simply eating 100 calories more than your body uses every day will equal roughly a 1 pound gain per month or about 10 lbs per year. Taking into account that one tablespoon of peanut butter is about 100 calories it's not hard to see how you could inadvertently be eating more than your body needs on a regular basis. Now to lose that weight it takes a little more attention to detail.

    If you want to lose a pound a week you need to force your body to use 3500 calories from your fat stores because you are eating 3500 calories less in food. If you keep your food intake exactly the same you need to burn 3500 calories a week or 500 per day. That is 35 miles walked per week at a moderate pace of 3 mph. You could reduce your caloric intake by 500 calories per day or do a combination of the two, but in the end it literally just comes down to

    CICO- calories in/calories out
    If you eat more than you use you gain weight. If you use more than you eat you lose weight
  • saundts
    saundts Posts: 51 Member
    Thank you nrbutton!!!
  • crazyycatlady1
    crazyycatlady1 Posts: 292 Member
    Yep, that's how I lost around 50lbs.
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
    Yes, but no. I could, but I never would. I'd be so hungry all the time if I had to eat my sedentary calories for long that I'd soon decide it's not worth it.
  • saundts
    saundts Posts: 51 Member
    Does anyone else have any input on this topic?
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    saundts wrote: »
    Does anyone else have any input on this topic?

    A calorie is a unit of energy. Our bodies require quite a bit of energy to support mere existence plus our day to day goings on. When you consume a balance of energy...i.e. your CI=CO, you maintain weight. When you consume more energy than your body requires, that excess energy is stored as fat...body fat is just stored energy...it's like your backup generator. When you consume less energy than you expend, that difference has to be made up for...so your backup generator kicks on and you burn body fat to make up for the deficiency.

    Looking at the numbers...I maintain on around 2,400 calories without any exercise...that means to lose about 1 Lb per week I need to eat 1,900 calories (500 calorie per day deficit = 3,500 calories over the week). With regular exercise I maintain my weight on around 2700-3000 depending...that means with regular exercise I could still lose 1 Lb per week eating 2200 - 2500 calories per day.
  • gabesmom04
    gabesmom04 Posts: 8 Member
    I've lost 30 pounds since October with diet alone. I have recently started walking and jogging daily to help with those last 5 pounds, it gets harder to lose when you get close to your goal. I would recommend exercise from the beginning to give yourself extra calories and also to cover any logging mistakes. Good luck!
  • Chadxx
    Chadxx Posts: 1,199 Member
    Of course you can. Weight loss is entirely about energy balance. Now, where did I put that....

    Oh, here it is.
    dxq2y09ojmqq.jpg

    That said, I do recommend exercise for fitness and body composition.
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    I had 30lbs to lose, and i was a sedentary slug for the first 24 of those. I did zero exercise, and 3000 steps was a high day for me :weary:
  • saundts
    saundts Posts: 51 Member
    Thank you all for your input.
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 9,271 Member
    I used to work in a nursing home and I saw people who were totally sedentary, did absolutely no exercise, some did no purposeful movement at all as they were virtually comatose and tube fed - they sometimes lost weight.

    Of course their intake was minimal too ( and if they lost significant amount of weight their tube feeds were increased)

    But point being they didn't need exercise to lose weight.
  • heiliskrimsli
    heiliskrimsli Posts: 735 Member
    saundts wrote: »
    I am curious, can we lose weight by diet only, watching what we eat and with a calorie deficit only?

    Yes.

    Exercise is for other things - improving your cardiovascular health, keeping your bones strong, making sure you have muscle mass, lowering blood pressure and resting pulse rate.

    Diet is for weight loss.
  • TimothyFish
    TimothyFish Posts: 4,925 Member
    saundts wrote: »
    I am curious, can we lose weight by diet only, watching what we eat and with a calorie deficit only?

    Yes, but the people who do that soon discover that the person hiding under their excess fat isn't the fit, healthy, happy person they thought he was. And to top it all off, they just spent several months eating rabbit food to get him out. Most people who are trying to lose weight have bigger goals than just "lose weight." Many are looking for such things as improving blood pressure, reducing bad cholesterol, improvement in mood, more energy, improved sleep, and better physical appearance. For those things you need regular exercise. So, you might want to consider whether your goal is to lose weight or to get fit.
  • crazyycatlady1
    crazyycatlady1 Posts: 292 Member
    edited April 2017
    TimothyFish wrote: »
    saundts wrote: »
    I am curious, can we lose weight by diet only, watching what we eat and with a calorie deficit only?

    Yes, but the people who do that soon discover that the person hiding under their excess fat isn't the fit, healthy, happy person they thought he was. And to top it all off, they just spent several months eating rabbit food to get him out. Most people who are trying to lose weight have bigger goals than just "lose weight." Many are looking for such things as improving blood pressure, reducing bad cholesterol, improvement in mood, more energy, improved sleep, and better physical appearance. For those things you need regular exercise. So, you might want to consider whether your goal is to lose weight or to get fit.

    It really will just depend on the individual person. I was actually pretty happy with how I looked/felt after I lost the extra weight with no exercise, and all my health markers had improved pretty dramatically as well-including normalizing a high glucose number. I also didn't eat 'rabbit' food-I did an IF protocol and alternated between low calorie days and then maintenance level days (around 1,800-2,000 calories). This meant I was still eating pretty close to how I was previously eating, still eating out at restaurants several times a week etc.

    Looking back at how I went about things, I have no regrets not exercising during my active weight loss phase and if I had to do it all over again, I'd go the same route. I transitioned into maintenance with no problem, and now 4 years into successful maintenance I still manage my weight completely by my calorie intake. My current bmi is around a 20 and my twice a year blood work panels still come in great (total cholesterol is a 143, glucose number is in the 80s and 90s, blood pressure 102/74 etc).

    I'm not saying the OP shouldn't exercise, but we all need to figure out how to go about things in a way that's realistic and sustainable for each of us, individually.

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