Is it really worth exercising?

missnaynay
missnaynay Posts: 28 Member
edited November 19 in Fitness and Exercise
Hi I've been going to the gym for 2 months now haven't really lost weight mainly gains most weeks I've stuck to my calorie intake but now I haven't been able to reach the gym this week and all of sudden I've dropped 3lbs since Saturday? I weigh daily and I've never lost this much so quickly. Thank you

Replies

  • ramskermfc
    ramskermfc Posts: 41 Member
    Maybe just some water fluctuation? IMHO, yes . . . exercising is well worth the effort if you are trying to lose weight and change your appearance, especially some kind of resistance training. But even if it's only cardio, the more cals you burn vs what you are taking in, the more weight you lose.
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    For most people, it is good to keep exercise and weight loss separated in your mind. Cut calories for weight loss. Exercise for increased fitness.
  • yoherbs421
    yoherbs421 Posts: 160 Member
    Exercise is good for your health!
  • Ironandwine69
    Ironandwine69 Posts: 2,432 Member
    Exercising is an excuse for me to get some Me time.
  • sardelsa
    sardelsa Posts: 9,812 Member
    Exercise is great for health, fun, and body composition.
  • Ironandwine69
    Ironandwine69 Posts: 2,432 Member
    sardelsa wrote: »
    Exercise is great for health, fun, and body composition.

    This
  • Therealobi1
    Therealobi1 Posts: 3,262 Member
    yes exercising is worth it
  • Chieflrg
    Chieflrg Posts: 9,097 Member
    missnaynay wrote: »
    Hi I've been going to the gym for 2 months now haven't really lost weight mainly gains most weeks I've stuck to my calorie intake but now I haven't been able to reach the gym this week and all of sudden I've dropped 3lbs since Saturday? I weigh daily and I've never lost this much so quickly. Thank you
    Surely you know that the weight you lost wasn't fat.

    Let me ask you this would you rather weigh 10 lighter but not be happy with how your body looks or...

    Weigh 20 lbs heavier but dig how it looks?

    A number shouldn't make you happy unless it's a PR front deadlifting/squatting.
  • raquele3394
    raquele3394 Posts: 180 Member
    Yes
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 49,022 Member
    missnaynay wrote: »
    Hi I've been going to the gym for 2 months now haven't really lost weight mainly gains most weeks I've stuck to my calorie intake but now I haven't been able to reach the gym this week and all of sudden I've dropped 3lbs since Saturday? I weigh daily and I've never lost this much so quickly. Thank you
    No retention of water for repair and glycogen storage. You DON'T have to exercise to lose weight. You SHOULD exercise for health and to better your fitness and physique though.
    Think about it: would you rather weigh less but just be a smaller version of yourself or look better and feel better regardless of what the scale says? Unless you go around with your weight stamped on your forehead, no one knows how much you've lost or gained, but they CAN visually see if you're in decent shape or not.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
    9285851.png
  • raquele3394
    raquele3394 Posts: 180 Member
    missnaynay wrote: »
    Hi I've been going to the gym for 2 months now haven't really lost weight mainly gains most weeks I've stuck to my calorie intake but now I haven't been able to reach the gym this week and all of sudden I've dropped 3lbs since Saturday? I weigh daily and I've never lost this much so quickly. Thank you
    Keep going to the gym! It probably water.
  • mca90guitar
    mca90guitar Posts: 289 Member
    No point in me losing weight if I will have no endurance, strength and baby muscles.

  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,681 Member
    I love exercising ... therefore it is worth it. :)
  • tenmyoujis
    tenmyoujis Posts: 9 Member
    exercise is absolutely worth it. without it, you'll lose pounds on the scale but you'll just look the same but smaller. if you're a circle shape, you'll just be the same circle shape but smaller. exercise will lower your body fat percentage, tone you up, make you stronger, shape your body (small waist and peach booty anybody?), and most importantly, make you feel good. plus it's fun! don't worry about the number on the scale. it's about how you look in the mirror and how you feel. remember that body fat % is more important than weight! i'd rather be the same weight and a size 2 than 20 pounds lighter and a size 6. :)
  • canadianlbs
    canadianlbs Posts: 5,199 Member
    weight dumps happen to me too if something takes me out of the gym for long enough that my body decides it doesn't need the extra glycogen/water/whatever it's been storing in my muscles.

    a week sounds about long enough, but those are one-off scale dips. they're kind of nice in a way, but mostly just because lifting does kind of disguise my 'real' weight and now and then it is nice to get a look at that 'real' number, whatever it is.
  • RuNaRoUnDaFiEld
    RuNaRoUnDaFiEld Posts: 5,864 Member
    kimothy38 wrote: »
    I used to wonder why slim people went to the gym/exercise (stupid I know) because if I was slim I wouldn't. Now I know better. I lost 40kg without exercise and though I was thin I wasn't fit. I'm now going to the gym and have lost 15kg so far which is nowhere near 40kg, but I look vastly different and more people notice the change. I'm way fitter and so much stronger and much prefer this athletic look to just being thin. There are so many more benefits to exercising than losing weight - the sense of achievement is a big one for me.


    That is a big one that I hadn't thought about.

    My body continues to amaze me that it copes with everything I throw at it.
  • mskimee
    mskimee Posts: 228 Member
    I always treat my exercise and diet as Diet for weight loss, Exercise to tone. I might be completely wrong in my approach, but it works for me. :)
  • Ann262
    Ann262 Posts: 266 Member
    Exercise is worth it. I would say, if you were on a good diet/meal plan and exercising for 2 months, you should have lost a few pounds...assuming you need to. You may not need to. If you do need to lose weight and you having lost after 2 months of diet and exercise, you need to change something you are doing. Exercise is worth it because health is not only about the number on the scale (which is arbitrary in most cases, BTW). Having a strong heart and strong body is very important too. Young people care more about appearance in a bathing suit that "health". I will say, a toned body is much more attractive than a "skinny fat" body.
  • Penthesilea514
    Penthesilea514 Posts: 1,189 Member
    Exercise is awesome for me, not just physically but mentally is well. It really has helped me keep focused while losing weight and, to steal from DJ, an "anchor" to my day. It is time for me to just do something that is focused solely on me and everything else falls away. I think it has been critical to me so far, so I would say exercise is worth it.
  • bad_dog_ny
    bad_dog_ny Posts: 22 Member
    I wrote this for a man...but it applies to women. In general you want longer thinner lean muscle...not bulk (but in the right spts, bulk can look good) at the end you will see a rep suggestion of 12/8 women should probably change this to 15/10. Good Luck! Previous response:
    I am currently in the same boat. I started at 336 and I'm now down to 265. Setting your calorie goal in MFP is important, and creating a calorie deficit will help you lose weight. But do not underestimate the importance of exercise. While MFP only calculates cardio exercise for additional exercise calories earned, strength training is far more important in the long run. Not only does it burn calories (MFP does jot count them because they are much harder to calculate), but every pound of lean muscle also burns about 75 calories a day, even at rest. Also, especially if you are diabetic, and even if not, toned muscle utilizes insulin far better thus burning the calories you eat more efficiently. My insulin intake went from 140 units per day and is already down to 25 in just a matter of months back at the gym. It started to decline steeply in just 2 weeks, showing I was using insulin better. Plus muscle looks good, and if you can put on 10 pounds of lean muscle you will burn about 750 extra calories a day. That's over a pound of fat every 5 days. For most men it is not that difficult to put on 10 pounds of muscle, and you should not look at just your weight as a measure of fitness. You are better off at a muscular 210 than you are at a flabby 200... and the extra muscle will make it much easier to maintain your weight. I have been fit and muscular much of my life, but I slacked off after I got married, developing diabetes and other health problems. I have lost weight dieting before, but my health problems did not really start to subside until I started taking working out again very seriously. You don't have to do a lot. I strength train every other day, and do cardio everyday. I know it sounds like a lot, but here's a trick. You probably watch a fair about of television. Get a Netflix subscription and choose a program that you will only watch (on a phone or tablet) while doing your cardio. Find something addictive, binge worthy. I started with Breaking Bad which you can download so you don't even need an internet connection at the gym. Episodes are 47 minutes. Doing 47 minutes on an elliptical or a treadmill goes much faster when you are distracted in this way. Don't worry about speed, figure out your target heart rate and go from there. Try to keep your heart rate in that zone and you will find that suddenly you have to up your game to reach that heart rate. Watching Breaking Bad I logged over 400 miles on various machines. For strength training right now I only do 2 sets per body part every other day, and I still have not started on any core exercise, the abdomen and lower back, as I carry most of my excess weight there and it is difficult to do these. That will come later. I would also suggest super setting and circuit training to save some time. Super setting is when you work opposing muscle groups, so you do not have to rest as long between sets. So you do a set for the chest that and then a set for the back then another for the chest and then another for the back. Biceps and triceps is another good group to oppose each other. I then Do shoulders and legs, which is a combination circuit and superset. Shoulders and legs are not related, and the calf is not really related much to the upper leg. So that sort of makes it a circuit as opposed to a superset. However, when I do this routine and instead of doing squats or leg presses I do leg extensions and leg curls, that is a superset in the middle of the circuit. It also adds an exercise to my routine. Every 2 to 3 weeks you should change the exercises you are doing for each muscle group. So for a few weeks I will do a routine such as bench presses and rows two sets each, and I will switch to flies and lat pull-downs for a couple of weeks. I will do leg presses for a couple of weeks, and then switch to leg extensions and leg curls. Unfortunately calf raises are the only exercise I can think to do for the calf, but you could do them the different ways and change the angle a bit. You should also change up your cardio. I generally do treadmill on the days that I Strength train, and elliptical on the days that I do not. You can do this quicker than 40 or 50 minutes, but the longer you go the more calories you earn to eat back. As they said above, only eat back about 50% of the calories you earn. If you are using machines, be sure to enter your current weight to get a more accurate calorie count, but even that will NOT be spot-on, that's why you should not eat back more than 50%. Always get your heart rate into the target zone for a minimum of 20 minutes. When I do a short workout I usually find a half-hour program to watch (Portlandia right now) I pump the elliptical very hard for the first 2 minutes and get my heart rate up, and then I maintain that for 21 or 22 minutes. I will do this sometimes on days I Strength train because for whatever reason I don't have the time to be in the gym that long. My gym is Cheap, Planet Fitness only $10 a month. If you can't afford a gym there are many exercises you can do at home with no weights at all, or with a cheap dumbbell set you can get at a garage sale. Walking is free...just keep a good pace and check your heart rate. Even if you can't maintain a HR at first, keep moving. The bottom line is you need to get moving and do something or maintaining any weight loss will be nearly impossible. And this is not a diet, it is a new lifestyle. You will always have to watch your portions and track your weight and your Fitness, and adjust accordingly. That doesn't mean you can never go to a party again, it just means that the week before or the week after you may have to be a little more strict with yourself. I know I went on for a while, but this is really important stuff and you cannot underestimate it. I did not gain my weight until I stopped my workouts. I really feel that activity is the key Fitness. Calories are important, but activity will burn those calories more effectively. START OFF SLOW, and build up as you udentify your limits. I woyld suggest abkut 12 reps per set to start, then add weight until you can't do 12...but can do at least 8. Stay there until you can do 12 again then add a few pounds. For cardiovascular start easy for a few weeks but monitor your heart, then push a little harder each time until you are maintaining 75%-85% of your maximum heart rate. Do some research to calculate this and determine your most appropriate zone. We can take control of this thing, and it's not nearly as hard as it seems when you first start. Good luck, and feel free to contact me directly if you need any support or advice. I am on the same Journey, but managed to stay fit for a very long time after a pudgy childhood. I simply forgot my body's natural tendencies and let them get away from me. There is no magic pill or potion, just diligence and determination. Best to you.
  • lisarenee127
    lisarenee127 Posts: 14 Member
    Muscle weights more than fat. I have a hard time with that when remembering that when going to the gym. I never weight myself after going cause I bloat up, sometimes bloated up the next day depending on how intense the workout was. If it helps look up muscle versus fat and see the picture of the size differs of the diagram
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    Well you can't be fit without exercise...
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,968 Member
    What's the "cost" to exercise that might not be worth paying in exchange for better fitness and longer life?
  • Rawr1978
    Rawr1978 Posts: 245 Member
    I'm only on my second consecutive day at the gym, but I felt great after. I'm the heaviest I've ever been, and my muscles are going on me. Can't walk far, my gut is in the way,my breathing isnt any great shakes, either. When I lost 65lbs 7 years ago, the sense of accomplishment was more so than the weightloss. I could kick *kitten*.
    Exercise will only be worth it if it fits your goals. If it doesn't fit yours, I would reevaluate and move on.
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