Curious!

ashleyandbrian3

How many of you all lost weight by exercising & not chaning your daily diet?

I'm 202lbs, mind you I've always been about 135-145, but a lot can change in a few years, lol. I started changing up my diet & working out Jan. 29, I was 210 so I've lost 8lbs. I'm just losing my eating habit motivation, the working out I LOVE! Any advice?

Shugahhfatt

well tell me...what is your daily diet? I agree with you btw...

mom23mangos

Not really. I used to think I could do it because I never struggled with weight when I was younger and just stayed active. Not anymore. If I increase cardio, I get hungrier and eat more calories. If I just strength train, I don't burn much and while I gain some muscle, I gain fat too. I have to be at least somewhat mindful of what I eat and at least follow the 80/20 rule.

Edit - but anything is better than nothing and if you want to give up watching your intake for the time being, but enjoy working out, KEEP WORKING OUT! It's great for your health and bones and hormones. When you are mentally ready to drop body fat, you'll be in a much better place to start.

Jen2133

Definitely had to change my diet!

ccsernica

I've done it. That was the first time I concentrated on weight loss, about 10 years ago. Did a lot of running, a lot of lifting, but paid no attention to my diet at all other than ensuring I got enough macros, and went from about 220 (my heaviest ever) to about 180 at my lowest. I didn't look too bad, but I could have looked better had I dieted as well.

Right now I'm about 170, which is a good weight for me. I couldn't have gotten here without dieting.

NewyRob

Exercised all my life. The only thing that affected weight in a significant way for me was CICO. If you think about it, an 8km run burns about 2000kj for me, less than the calories in a McDonalds burger. It's pretty easy to eat the back if you aren't measuring calories.

SanaAnum

My brother does all sorts of gym and cardio and strenght exercises. He is overweight and has never lost weight because he doesnot cares about diet. it has been 10 years to it.

fanncy0626

Weight lifting and the Kettlebell worked wonders for me!

amusedmonkey

Well, if you can burn 500 calories or so consistently (unless you're fine with slower weight loss rate) AND if working out doesn't ramp up your appetite I don't see a problem. If I were you I would still log the food. You don't have to change how you eat, but you need the record to see if you're creating the deficit you want or not. If you notice that your diet is consistently using up all the calories you're generating through activity, it's time for a new plan. Note that diet doesn't need to change too much if you were thin at some point, the types of food can stay the same but how much and how often can be tweaked to your liking.

BitofaState

Exercised regularly for years and basically stayed overweight.

Only times I've successfully dropped was with either CICO monitoring through food diaries and MFP or using a meal box scheme where the calories in the meal were regulated by others.

I'm sure some folks can self regulate, but it appears that I don't have that, so it requires a conscious effort, including regular monitoring of my weight, portion sizes and a focus on diet to both lose and maintain.

We're all different, with different responses to feelings of satiety, to the "permission" triggers that exercise gives. (I worked out, so I can have A, B C or D). If you don't reward yourself with food, if you are able to stop eating before the plate is empty, then maybe exercise alone is enough.

The thing is it is hard staying focused. It's not easy dropping our rewards, turning things down when others are eating. You have to decide what's more important for you and what efforts and sacrifices you're willing, and able, to make to get there.

ContraryMaryMary

I'd agree with others here. I have been a regular runner for 20 years and was a little overweight for the duration. It was only when I cut back on eating that I started to lose weight. Exercise is important for health, but it does make you hungry, and, if you don't know the calorie count of food, it's easy to "reward" the exercise with food that contain more energy than you've burned.

Inspirationalwaterjug

It’s. It changing changing your diet as much as it is changing how you approach food entirely. If you’re diet is unsustainable you’re more likely to jump back up. So it’s about educating yourself on what your body needs ,
Implement it, and doing it in stages. Give your body break through the process for 4-6 weeks to maintain that weight after a section.
So you wanna drop 60 pounds and you weight 220.
First block:20, second 20, third is 20.
Once you’re able to whole your new 200 pound body weight for a few weeks it’s easier to normalize out at that weight. Should life get in the way you’re more likely to return to each of those setting points than to go all the way back up your original weight when compared to trying to lose all your weight all at once.

TravisJHunt

Guess it depends on how much exercising you'll do compared to what you are eating.

LivingtheLeanDream

I suppose I did! Exercised with the aim of being able to eat more yet still lose at a slower pace. But as I got nearer to goal I had to adjust my calorie intake down a bit in order to shed the final 10 pounds.

25agirard

I've never been able to! I've been active and fit (though overweight) almost my entire adult life! I can run for an hour at a time, I play competitive soccer once a week, I do cardio and lifting workouts at home--I exercise 6 times a week! Yet--I have just watched my weight slowly creep up....it's been disheartening honestly. Since Jan 1 I've been CICO and very mindful of what I eat and portions...I'm down 8 lbs and have momentum....I would say to find a way of eating that isn't so restrictive that you feel like you can't live with it but that will help you reach your goals!

Angieve1

I always was active and it's only when I started counting my Calories that I started to shed the lbs. Then I noticed I didn't HAVE to workout to lose weight. I just feel so much better when I do .

HoneyBadger302

I've never been able to not care a whim about what I was eating, unless my activity was absolutely off the charts.

That being said, until I got the dreaded desk job, I didn't have to really watch or count calories - cut down on the fast food or soda or candy bars and I'd be good to go. Going from active jobs to sitting on my butt all day, however, was a complete game changer, and I didn't realize it until FAR too late.

Now, with my current exercise program, I don't feel like I'm "dieting" but I still have to count my calories (still have weight to lose) but I workout enough that I can fit some crazy things into my daily calorie allotment (as in, a large fast food meal without the soda can fit into my day and still have 2 smaller-than-normal meals). Once I finally reach my "goal" I will probably relax on the calorie counting, but I will probably have adjusted to the eating by then, too.

Without the added exercise, yes, I'm going to feel like I'm dieting, and will likely be miserable in that department.

elisa123gal

there are no real shortcuts and no one way for everyone. So, do what you think you can and see if it works. For me, i am losing more weight with my eating plan than ever with exercise. losing weight is what i eat..getting fit and tone takes exercise. i think people confuse exercise with weight loss...and mfp sort of perpetuates that notion.

a_candler

I first started exercising for a pe credit for my degree. I was slowly losing weight, but it wasn't until wk 3 wheb the instructor pointed us to myfitnesspal for the wks assignment that I put 2 and 2 together. Diet With exercise propelled me into my wright loss journey where i lost 50 lbs!

avocardiothyme

I find I lose weight when I change my diet and do exercise

remoore23

When I was eighteen, I took a year off before college and worked on goat and sheep dairy farms. I went from being quite sedentary to moving around a lot every day, milking sheep twice per day, cutting grass under the electric fence, etc. I was vegetarian at the time and I think I ate fairly healthily, but all throughout high school I was a chunky 120 lbs (I'm 5" tall). When I went back home for Christmas, I found I had lost 20 lbs. I was right around 100 lbs. People kept commenting on how I had lost all this weight and looked great, but because I had been fairly unaware of my weight throughout high school it didn't really affect me that much I'm 152 lbs now and would be thrilled if I somehow lost 20 lbs without realizing it. (Though I wouldn't actually like it to happen because probably it would mean I was horribly sick in some way and that would be bad). The moral of this story.... Yes, it is possible, but you have to exercise A LOT. Like changing your entire life style. It's like the Amish diet I heard about once: eat whatever you want and work in the fields for 16-18 hours per day.

CrashTestKing

I've heard one doctor/nutritionist after another say repeatedly that you can absolutely lose weight dieting without exercise, but the reverse is almost never true.

Rather than dropping the diet, try changing it up. Go online and look up tasty recipes that are relatively healthy, or experiment on your own by taking less-than-healthful recipes and seeing if you can create a healthy variation. If you're not good in the kitchen (I wasn't, I could barely do Kraft Mac & Cheese 2 years ago!), take a cooking class or something.

I'm 100% positive that if I weren't preparing so much of my own food from scratch, that I wouldn't have been this successful at losing weight (starting from 320, more than 80 pounds down now, and the first 70 was purely from eating better). And I couldn't prepare so much from scratch if I didn't force myself to learn my way around the kitchen.

It's great to hear that you like the exercise though. That's a hurdle I think most people with weigh-loss goals struggle with, and even the ones that get over it often never really "like" it.

ashleyandbrian3

Thanks to all of y'all! I'm going to stick with working out. Water, water, water & cooking healthier and eating at home instead of out, along with watching my calories!

yirara

It will be difficult, if not nearly impossible to outsport too many calories. Think about it: a normal bag of crisps with 150gr has about 700kcal. As a woman it's very difficult to burn so many calories doing sport. Unless you're a professional athlete your body doesn't like running running 10 miles every single day.