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MyFitnessPal Community

Exercise results

Ajirvin

Hey, first let me say that I KNOW that losing weight and seeing results is 90% diet. However, is it possible for me to see ANY type of result (can be firming up, losing inches, losing pounds, ANYTHING POSITIVE) with JUST exercise? I’m working on the diet part and I will get there slowly, I just want to know if, in the mean time, I will see anything positive happen to my body while I am working out most days?
I’m 5’6
178 lbs
34% body fat
I go to the gym at least 5 days per week (yoga 2x/week, body sculpt1x/week, and general aerobics appx 3-4x/week
The only weights I’ve been using are on the machines, but I barely use them.
I have only been going for 2 weeks now, but I will be maintaining this schedule, maybe adding in more yoga eventually.
I was living an extremely sedentary lifestyle before.

For those who will ask:
My diet right now isn’t horrible, I stay around 1200-1400 calories, but some days I have intense sweet cravings that I always give in to.

Replies

amorfati601070

From aesthetic perspective, yeah I guess you would tone muscles by using them. Muscle atrophy occurs when it's not used, however I'm not sure how much work constitutes "use", whether it be just walking or something more intents. I'm more into cardio so I see different kind of result. My heart rate goes down as I get fitter, I can go longer and get faster. My quads are kind of disproportionate to my upper body (cycling) but nothing huge.

JeromeBarry1

Read the stickies.

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10300310/most-helpful-posts-fitness-and-exercise-must-reads#latest

artbyrachelh

That's interesting ! Can you keep us updated on your progress? I don't want to discourage you at all, because I think your idea is really cool, but I did this philosophy for about 3 years. I ate what I wanted, didn't count calories, and worked out a lot, and walked a lot. I found it very frustrating because as I exercised more, my appetite increased. Also, all those squats actually made my jeans tighter! (Frowny face). That being said, if you're only consuming 1200-1400 calories, and go from sedentary to highly active, there's no freaking way you won't lose tons of weight! So I say go for it!!

Ajirvin

I’ll definitely keep y’all posted. Like I said, I will change my diet slowly, but everytime I just drop everything cold turkey, I never succeed.

Zeuggma

You can definitely make progress, but you might not notice it as much on the scale.

Here's my experience:
On May 14, I took an inbody at my gym and clocked in at 171.2 lbs and 38.9% body fat.

I started going to the gym, liftinf weights and doing some cardio for 1.5 hours, 4x a week.

On aug 9, i took an in body, and i was down to 167.8 lbs and 35.4% body fat. However, i lost 7 lbs of fat and gained 1 lb of muscle.

In terms of clothes and all that, I barely noticed a difference and was frustrated by the scale. But in terms of fitness, i knew i was getting stronger and faster so i was able to keep it up.

Once i took my second in body, i changed my diet and settled on maintaining my fitness while i cut the fat off.

Since aug 9, im down 16.1 lbs and see a bigger change due to diet. I take my next inbody next week and can update with new numbers.

NorthCascades

Ajirvin wrote: »

I’ll definitely keep y’all posted. Like I said, I will change my diet slowly, but everytime I just drop everything cold turkey, I never succeed.

If you eat the same amount but start to exercise you will lose body fat.

This sort of thing has a lot of inertia, so you're right to ease into it instead of going cold turkey.

AnvilHead

Ajirvin wrote: »

I’ll definitely keep y’all posted. Like I said, I will change my diet slowly, but everytime I just drop everything cold turkey, I never succeed.

There’s no need to “drop everything cold turkey”. I’ve lost 70 pounds and haven’t cut a single thing out of my diet. I just eat more of some things and less of others overall.

Eat foods you like (within the context of a reasonably balanced diet) and maintain a consistent calorie deficit. One of the biggest reasons people fail at weight loss is that they make radical, unsustainable changes in their diet and/or workout routines.

Exercise is a great idea for a lot of reasons, but if you’re not expending enough calories to create a deficit, you’re not going to lose weight. No matter how you create the deficit, it all comes down to calories in/calories out.

AnvilHead

Conveniently enough, I ran across a study by Brad Schoenfeld, Alan Aragon, et al, regarding the effects of resistance training, diet and a combination of the two in premenopausal women: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319499045_Resistance_Training_Combined_With_Diet_Decreases_Body_Fat_While_Preserving_Lean_Mass_Independent_of_Resting_Metabolic_Rate_A_Randomized_Trial

tl;dr: They were randomly divided into 3 groups - one did resistance training only, one did diet only, one did both resistance training and diet. Results were summarized in this excellent infographic, courtesy of ISSN:

JeromeBarry1

@AnvilHead That infographic deserves to be a stickie.

AnvilHead

JeromeBarry1 wrote: »

@AnvilHead That infographic deserves to be a stickie.

I posted it in its own thread in General Discussion: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10601762/diet-vs-exercise-for-weight-loss

TavistockToad

Given your stats, why are you eating so little? The reason you aren't seeing results is that you're not doing something that's sustainable enough... so you burn out and binge...

Ajirvin

I didn’t say I wasn’t seeing results. I’m just starting out.

jayemes

If you're exercising 5 days a week and only eating 1200-1400 calories a day, what do you think you need to change about your diet? If you said you exercise but you're eating 3000 calories a day that would be one thing, but at 178 and 5'6", you're definitely not eating too much. I'm an inch taller and about 5 pounds heavier than you and I'm losing a pound a week without exercise eating 1400-1600 easily. How many calories do you think you should be eating?

Ajirvin

Well I plugged my info into a few places and to lose 1.5 lb a week it said I need to be at 1200 calories. It said around 850 for 2 lbs a week

ZLBmNms

Hi! You will see results just from the change from being sedentary to active. I think - that since you are already aware that you're current eating habits are not the greatest - when you start to exercise, you will become more in tuned and present to your body and the diet, or lifestyle, as I like to call it will follow as you start to drink more of the "Kool-aid" to be healthy. Feeling better (and looking better) is an addiction. But start off with what seems sustainable to you. One step at a time. The amazing thing is that you are actually taking that step and asking to be more educated and better yourself. You should be proud of that. And my tip as far as calories and what MyFitPal says : EVERY SINGLE PERSON IS BIOMECHANICALLY DIFFERENT. Some people have a higher BMR and need more calories. 1200 calories is very little for any person that is active. When you start exercising, you'll for sure be hungrier. The more you consume quality foods, you'll naturally feel more sustained appetite-wise - yes you'll still eat more than when you were sedentary, but not as much as just filling up on empty-nutrient calories - because you're getting the adequate nutrients and amino acids that are necessary for your body to fuel and recover on.

If you restrict calories too much, you lower your BMR. Our bodies are not stupid... they adapt to survive. So if you only give it 1200 calories, it will learn to only use 1200 calories.

I'm 4'11" and around 100 lbs (98-103) and 18-19% BF. I average about 2,000 calories/day. Some days, it's 1,500 calories... some days it's 2,500 calories. And then there are days I need 3,500 calories. When I was running 40-70 miles a week, I ate over 3,000 calories a day. So the more you move, the more energy = calories you need.

Congrats on getting started! Good luck with it all. And remember = fitness and weight loss is not linear. Sometimes you take a step back to make a leap forward.

Cheers!

Ajirvin

Thank you so much for the positive comment! Cheers!

BusyRaeNOTBusty

You'll definitely improve your fitness and health with just exercise.

However you say you are eating around 1200 with the exception of an occasional over indulgence in sweets, right? It's definitely possible you could lose weight averaging around 1500 to 1600 calories per day. Why are you setting such a high weekly goal (1.5 to 2lbs)? If you set a lower goal, like 0.5 to 1lb it will be easier to stick with in the long term and you won't need to ease into it.

AnnPT77

You can get body changes, depending on the exercise, but it won't be fast.

I lost a couple of sizes, and inches off my body, from rowing (mostly) while staying at the same body weight (5'5", 180-some pounds). But it took multiple years.

You'll also get fitter from exercise, even without weight loss. It's possible to have decent cardiovascular fitness while overweight. I got to a resting heart rate around 48 while just over the line into an obese BMI, competed in races (rowing, both boats and machines), even won a few place medals in my age group, and had enough endurance to row several hours a day for multiple days in a row sometimes (rowing camp

).

Cardiovascular improvements are faster than body size improvements without weight loss. If you're consistent, you'll probably be finding you can go harder with cardio exercise, with less panting/fatigue, within 2-3 months.

If you've been very sedentary/inactive, and you did serious, consistent weight work, you'd possibly start to see strength improvements in a similar time scale (predominantly neuromuscular adaptation rather than "adding muscle").

You may start seeing flexibility improvements from the yoga on that same kind of tine scale, maybe even a bit faster.

A lot of this depends heavily on how consistent you are, and how hard you work at things, as well as age and genetic factors.

Consistency with exercise can also lead to improvements fairly rapidly when it comes to stress reduction and mood in general.

Honestly, if you want to see fast results, nice moderate weight loss (pound a week, say) via eating changes will achieve the fastest visible results. In that same 3 months, you'd be down to 166 pounds . . . most of it from fat loss, as long as you keep up the exercise.

SonyaCele

Ajirvin wrote: »

Hey, first let me say that I KNOW that losing weight and seeing results is 90% diet. However, is it possible for me to see ANY type of result (can be firming up, losing inches, losing pounds, ANYTHING POSITIVE) with JUST exercise? I’m working on the diet part and I will get there slowly, I just want to know if, in the mean time, I will see anything positive happen to my body while I am working out most days?
I’m 5’6
178 lbs
34% body fat
I go to the gym at least 5 days per week (yoga 2x/week, body sculpt1x/week, and general aerobics appx 3-4x/week
The only weights I’ve been using are on the machines, but I barely use them.
I have only been going for 2 weeks now, but I will be maintaining this schedule, maybe adding in more yoga eventually.
I was living an extremely sedentary lifestyle before.

For those who will ask:
My diet right now isn’t horrible, I stay around 1200-1400 calories, but some days I have intense sweet cravings that I always give in to.

i don't have a perfect diet, i rarely log, but i love lifting weights. I'm about 175, and i don't care if i lose weight or not , but because of my 4 day a week heavy lifting program i'm a rock solid power house , i'm strong and i feel great. So yes you can absolutely have positive results from just exercise, it just depends on what results you want.

Ajirvin

Thank y’all so much for the info! I really appreciate it!