Anyone Losing Weight Mainly from Fitness?
fittnessing64
Posts: 62 Member
I know, I know, "weight is 80% diet". If you're just going to comment that, save time and don't bother 
But I was wondering if anyone isn't really dieting (or at least not restricting) and is seeing results through a new fitness routine or by increasing exercise?
But I was wondering if anyone isn't really dieting (or at least not restricting) and is seeing results through a new fitness routine or by increasing exercise?
12
Replies
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Weight loss is 100% calorie deficit.
If you want to create that deficit from exercise then that's fine, but then what happens when you can't exercise?18 -
I did manage what you wish to do a long time ago when I was in my early 20s. It was not my goal to lose weight, it was more of a side effect that kep me at something like 18 BMI and I think now a very low fat percentage for a woman. It involved a routine of something like 3-4 hours exercise per day, at least half of it aerobic, plus walking everywhere. I was at the time a post grad student, so usually I used a combinations of buses and lots of walking to get to uni, then walked really fast for an early lunch break half an hour to the cafeteria and another half to get back, had some more classes, a break of a couple of hours to spend two hours at the gym, a combination of intense dance classes and some weights, then would go back to assist in the lab until evening, and then usually joined a friend who was training for marathons (I was not into races, but would do part of his routine with him, so like an hour interval running). And then I had to use the combination of buses and walking to get back home.
It must have been more than 1000 calories burned per day on exercise alone, but (1) it took me some years to get to that level and (2) it was for fun, doing things I loved, I cannot imagine exercising for hours just to lose weight without dieting.
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@LKArgh Thanks for sharing that, it sounds like you were really active! Looks like I'd need to work on having a more active workout rather than on long workouts...1
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My weight tracks my exercise volume to a large degree throughout the year. I cycle a lot but far less in winter. That can mean a very large difference in monthly calorie burns - lowest month 10hrs (mostly indoors), highest month 42hrs. I tend to gain 5 - 7lbs in the cold/wet/dark months which I lose in Spring as my training volume picks up again.
It's still obviously a combination of diet and exercise but having a higher calorie allowance boosted by exercise makes it far easier for me to regulate my weight and much more enjoyable then restricting my food.
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Strength training does wonders for your physique. If you eat at maintenance calories and do 1 hr of weight lifting 4-5 dats a week you will see results, might not be on scale but inches on your body.7
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The thing is, one average sized dessert equals about an hour of walking or half an hour of harder cardio. It is very, very easy to exercise like crazy and still overeat.
I lost 125 lbs, from morbidly obese to normal weight, without ever reducing my calories lower than 1600 daily, and on most days I ate 2000 or more. I aimed for at least 400 calories of exercise daily. That's a lot of work, but it did have great results. I even managed to continue eating in a deficit after a leg injury which restricted my activity, by focusing on what I could still do.
But 400 calories equals the extra part of one slightly too large steak that you didn't weigh, you just eyeballed it. Or half a dessert eating out. Or a few too many fries off your husband's plate because you deserve them for working out every day. For consistent results it really is best to log consistently, so your eating doesn't increase as your exercise does and wipe out your exercise deficit.3 -
Are you looking for confirmation of the choice you already made? Why not just try it? If it works, great. In the likely event it does not, don't look for something to blame. Come back and learn to do it correctly in a manner you can live with for the rest of your life.
Whatever your choice I wish you the best of luck.11 -
Well, I have noticed that the times in my life when I have put on weight have been when my activity level has dropped (getting a sedentary job, or after injury), so adding activity has become an important part of my weight loss.
Being quite short and having a desk job, my recommended intake to lose weight is 1200cal, which doesn't really thrill me - I find it quite useful to supplement that a bit by adding in some exercise.3 -
I lost 57 lbs in 52 weeks from power walking every day.
Most people will tell you different, and bring up the whole CICO (calories in calories out) thing. Then they'll go on to tell you that diet is the only thing that will work...
weight loss starts in the kitchen
you can't out run a bad diet
exercise counts for nothing in weight loss
bla... bla... bla
They don't want to hear about the CO (calories out) part of the equation.
It is soooooooooooooooooo much easier not to over eat if you exercise every day, and is exactly why diets fail over 95% of the time.
JMO22 -
I spent three hours riding a bike in the sun today. That's three hours I wasn't tempted to snack. It's also fulfilling on a level that makes it easier to say no when people bring doughnuts into work and leave a box in the kitchen for everyone.2
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I'm hiking about 15-20 miles per week in the mountains. Most of my hikes burn over 1,000 calories each. I'm not physically tracking my calories and am losing weight. But I also know that I am not overeating most days (I've tracked my calories for years so I have a good grasp on how many calories I eat each day).1
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I unintentionally did that in high school...but gained it all back when I couldn't keep up with the exercise volume.
Way better to create a deficit with calories, it's more sustainable, but to each their own I guess.4 -
fittnessing64 wrote: »
But I was wondering if anyone isn't really dieting (or at least not restricting) and is seeing results through a new fitness routine or by increasing exercise?
I have done, and kept it off for a couple decades.
But it requires a lot of work.
More recently I do a combination of exercise and not overeating.
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It's a combination of food and exercise for me. I've lost on just exercise years ago, but I was running about 15 hours a week. After some health issues I'm getting back into running and my weight is going down, so I get to eat more (I'm already on the low side of BMI)
I also make very mindful food choices. I've tracked calories for years but it's a rough estimate now. I don't weigh food and rarely even measure (*gasp*), and it works for me. When my exercise decreases I know I also need to decrease my calorie intake.
So yes, fitness alone will help lose the weight. If you want to keep it off you need to look at diet, also. This is a lifetime commitment. There will be times in the future when your activity level will decrease because of, well, life. Things happen. In order to have a lifetime of weight loss success you'll need a contingency plan for when life gets in the way.5 -
TavistockToad wrote: »Weight loss is 100% calorie deficit.
If you want to create that deficit from exercise then that's fine, but then what happens when you can't exercise?
OP:
The answer to your question is yes.
The bolded text is what you need to consider. You need to have control of three parameters: How many calories you need, how many you eat and how many you burn. If you know all three and create a deficit with exercise alone that's great. On days you don't exercise you have to know where you are calorie-wise. I probably shouldn't bother - but - you have to be in control of your diet even if you want to lose weight by exercise alone.5 -
Thanks for the insights everyone!
For those wondering, I'd prefer to focus on fitness because I'm already not overeating. I guess technically I am eating too much for my current fitness level to achieve my goals, but I'm 5'4", early 20s and eat about 1500 and 2000 calories daily. I know I could lose weight by dieting but I was wondering if I could also just through fitness. Your answers are really helping me learn what I should aim for!4 -
fittnessing64 wrote: »Thanks for the insights everyone!
For those wondering, I'd prefer to focus on fitness because I'm already not overeating. I guess technically I am eating too much for my current fitness level to achieve my goals, but I'm 5'4", early 20s and eat about 1500 and 2000 calories daily. I know I could lose weight by dieting but I was wondering if I could also just through fitness. Your answers are really helping me learn what I should aim for!
You can't just do it by fitness alone. You need to exercise yes. But you also need to watch what you eat to some degree.
Exercise is not a free ticket to over eating. But it is pretty easy not to over eat if you exercise daily.0 -
fittnessing64 wrote: »Thanks for the insights everyone!
For those wondering, I'd prefer to focus on fitness because I'm already not overeating. I guess technically I am eating too much for my current fitness level to achieve my goals, but I'm 5'4", early 20s and eat about 1500 and 2000 calories daily. I know I could lose weight by dieting but I was wondering if I could also just through fitness. Your answers are really helping me learn what I should aim for!
The problem is the more you work out the more you want (need) to eat. At some point your body forces you to eat (or you get sick, weak, tired, exhausted, etc).
I ran 20 miles yesterday and had 2000+ extra calories. Normally I replace these over a couple days but yesterday it took me an afternoon. I'm not training for anything so I figured a nice, big *kitten* Stromboli would be great. And it was - all 1400 calories of it.
My advice is to watch your diet and work out. Eat to get stronger, faster, better at whatever it is you want to do. Combine this with working out and you have a winning combination.7 -
OldAssDude wrote: »fittnessing64 wrote: »Thanks for the insights everyone!
Exercise is not a free ticket to over eating. But it is pretty easy not to over eat if you exercise daily.
Exercise will redefine what over eating is for you.
When if first started on MFP i logged everything i ate and went to gym lifted weights and did some cardio. Then last year i took up cycling and since then I have to be conscious of eating more otherwise i lose weight.
How much you ride is definitely a huge part of the equation. I still lift a couple of times a week because its good for you but rarely log my meals.0 -
A lot of people here want to say it can't be done.
A friend of a friend just finished hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, and lost 40 pounds in the process. He ate entire jars of peanut butter in a sitting.3 -
NorthCascades wrote: »A lot of people here want to say it can't be done.
A friend of a friend just finished hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, and lost 40 pounds in the process. He ate entire jars of peanut butter in a sitting.
So...he still burned more calories than he consumed. This is still CICO. Jars of peanut butter, burgers, or salads and oatmeal, CICO is what makes one lose weight.
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NorthCascades wrote: »A lot of people here want to say it can't be done.
A friend of a friend just finished hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, and lost 40 pounds in the process. He ate entire jars of peanut butter in a sitting.
There's a bit of a difference between hiking a 2500 mile trail and spending an hour on a cardio machine in a gym. If your plan is to hike all day every day, then yeah, maybe you can out work a bad diet. Of course it would be tough to eat poorly and be able to hike that far so....3 -
shrinkingletters wrote: »NorthCascades wrote: »A lot of people here want to say it can't be done.
A friend of a friend just finished hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, and lost 40 pounds in the process. He ate entire jars of peanut butter in a sitting.
So...he still burned more calories than he consumed. This is still CICO. Jars of peanut butter, burgers, or salads and oatmeal, CICO is what makes one lose weight.
Yes, of course. He didn't lose weight with magic.1 -
NorthCascades wrote: »A lot of people here want to say it can't be done.
A friend of a friend just finished hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, and lost 40 pounds in the process. He ate entire jars of peanut butter in a sitting.
There's a bit of a difference between hiking a 2500 mile trail and spending an hour on a cardio machine in a gym. If your plan is to hike all day every day, then yeah, maybe you can out work a bad diet. Of course it would be tough to eat poorly and be able to hike that far so....
Who does everyone always assume there has to be a bad diet involved? The question is whether anyone can lose weight with exercise, why the assumption that this means a person has to be "eating poorly?"1 -
NorthCascades wrote: »NorthCascades wrote: »A lot of people here want to say it can't be done.
A friend of a friend just finished hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, and lost 40 pounds in the process. He ate entire jars of peanut butter in a sitting.
There's a bit of a difference between hiking a 2500 mile trail and spending an hour on a cardio machine in a gym. If your plan is to hike all day every day, then yeah, maybe you can out work a bad diet. Of course it would be tough to eat poorly and be able to hike that far so....
Who does everyone always assume there has to be a bad diet involved? The question is whether anyone can lose weight with exercise, why the assumption that this means a person has to be "eating poorly?"
Because if you're paying attention to your diet (counting or not), you're not "just exercising". Plus it is important to point out (as many have) that you don't burn as much as many think and there are more calories in common foods than many think.3 -
NorthCascades wrote: »NorthCascades wrote: »A lot of people here want to say it can't be done.
A friend of a friend just finished hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, and lost 40 pounds in the process. He ate entire jars of peanut butter in a sitting.
There's a bit of a difference between hiking a 2500 mile trail and spending an hour on a cardio machine in a gym. If your plan is to hike all day every day, then yeah, maybe you can out work a bad diet. Of course it would be tough to eat poorly and be able to hike that far so....
Who does everyone always assume there has to be a bad diet involved? The question is whether anyone can lose weight with exercise, why the assumption that this means a person has to be "eating poorly?"
Because if you're paying attention to your diet (counting or not), you're not "just exercising". Plus it is important to point out (as many have) that you don't burn as much as many think and there are more calories in common foods than many think.
Paying attention to your diet also doesn't mean that you'll lose weight though. CICO yeah, but there are plenty of ways to pay attention to ones diet that doesn't involve counting calories.0 -
I've lost weight twice before by increasing my cardio without increasing how much I ate. Both those times occurred when I was a uni student, first when I took up swimming, and then again when I took up running.
These days when I cut weight I increase my cardio, increase how much I walk, and restrict my calories, just because I don't have all the time in the world to be running and walking. But you can absolutely lose weight by increasing your exercise, as long as you burn enough to create a deficit.
Good luck OP!0 -
NorthCascades wrote: »NorthCascades wrote: »A lot of people here want to say it can't be done.
A friend of a friend just finished hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, and lost 40 pounds in the process. He ate entire jars of peanut butter in a sitting.
There's a bit of a difference between hiking a 2500 mile trail and spending an hour on a cardio machine in a gym. If your plan is to hike all day every day, then yeah, maybe you can out work a bad diet. Of course it would be tough to eat poorly and be able to hike that far so....
Who does everyone always assume there has to be a bad diet involved? The question is whether anyone can lose weight with exercise, why the assumption that this means a person has to be "eating poorly?"
Because if you're paying attention to your diet (counting or not), you're not "just exercising". Plus it is important to point out (as many have) that you don't burn as much as many think and there are more calories in common foods than many think.
But what's with the idea baked into all of this that everyone has a 'bad' diet?
You can lose weight on a bad diet. Somebody ate nothing but Twinkies for months, didn't exercise, stuck to his calories, lost weight. Terrible diet. Not that Twinkies are evil but a lack of variety sure is.
This comes up often enough that I feel like it's not just a matter of speech, people seem to feel anyone asking this question actually has a bad diet, you said "eat poorly" earlier too, not just eat too much. Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but it comes off wrong to me.4 -
NorthCascades wrote: »A lot of people here want to say it can't be done.
A friend of a friend just finished hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, and lost 40 pounds in the process. He ate entire jars of peanut butter in a sitting.
There's a bit of a difference between hiking a 2500 mile trail and spending an hour on a cardio machine in a gym. If your plan is to hike all day every day, then yeah, maybe you can out work a bad diet. Of course it would be tough to eat poorly and be able to hike that far so....
And there's a world of difference between someone who is spending an hour on a cardio machine and someone who exercises regularly and consistently and has a little bit of common sense about exercise calorie burns and calories in their food.
Why you seem to think this is about a person doing sporadic cardio exercise and eating a bad diet is really peculiar. Do you think a bad diet is compulsory if you do cardio exercise? Throwing out an example of how it might not work does not change the fact many have a lot of success in using exercise to help manage their weight.
I do a lot of long distance cycle events and guess what? The vast majority of those people participating are indeed slim and fit. The common correlation between people who exercise a lot and are a healthy weight should be pretty obvious, well obvious outside the MFP forums perhaps!
I certainly see some chubby riders and I'm sure you see chubby runners but overall the demographics are very different to the general population.2 -
I raise my TDEE enough with exercise to create a deficit with controlling my calories by careful food choice.
They go hand in hand. I can't just blithely eat "whatever" and exercise and lose weight.
I'm a petite older woman. I don't have the luxury of not managing my calories carefully.2
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