Is it possible to lose weight without working out?

arilukaszewicz1

vickygalo wrote: »

Hello!

Newbie here I am keeping track of my calories and walk on the treadmill every night for an hour or so. I don’t have a chance to go to the gym just yet as I have a newborn. Is it possible to lose weight without working out? I see so many incredible stories in the Sucess Stories page, but many mention that they go to CrossFit or the gym, something I can’t do at the moment.
Thank you!!!

Yes, u go girl. I commend you for doing this with a newborn. Don’t give up!! I don’t know your situation, but I know newborns are stressful to care for. You can most definitely do it without exercising.
Don’t be afraid to reach out if u need help! Good luck and God bless

middlehaitch

You have a new born. You are doing some progressive lifting.

Think of all that movement you are doing- lifting, bending, stretching, walking, with a 7-10lbs babe in your arms.
In a couple of months that weight will be up, and by a year probably tripled.
There are baby and me workout routines on YouTube, you and your baby may really enjoy them.

Using or building your muscles can come in many forms, a barbell is probably the most efficient, but working with your baby could be much more fun.

Cheers, h.

vickyb92xxx

When I started my diet my little girl with 3 month old and I ate healthy and just took baby for walks in the pram

Danp

Recently discovered an 'at home' workout that is super simple and can be done anywhere.

It is a 5x5 circuit consisting of 4 exercises that can be as easy as you need them to be and you can progress to harder version...
1. Push
2. Pull
3. Squat
4. Hinge

Push is a pushing motion. Starting with something as easy as wall push-ups (doing push ups against a wall) and progress to knee push-ups then to full push-ups

Pull is a pulling motion. Starting with standing pulls like grabbing a railing leaning back and pulling back up, progressing to Australian pulls (hanging under a railing or table or something) and eventually to pull-ups

Squat is pretty self explanatory. You squat as deep as you can, eventually progressing to full deep squats then on to things like box squats and eventually pistol squats

Hinge is core exercises. Starting with bent leg raises and progressing from there moving the legs further out as you progress.

The program is a circuit so you do one exercise after another
5 push - 5 pull - 5 squat - 5 hinge - Rest for 1-2 mins
Then repeat 5 times and you're done. All up it takes about 18-20 mins all without leaving the house.

As you improve you can build in a number of ways beyond just progressing to harder versions of each movement.
- Add additional exercises (add in dips, bridges, etc)
- increase the number of reps to 8, 10 or beyond
- add some light weights

I found it when I was searching for a starting callisthenics program to do at the local park (no gym fees!!) and there's loads of youtube videos which show you how to do each of the push/pull/squat/hinge motions in a version to suit your fitness/ability levels.

Danp

Oh but to answer your question directly. Yes! I lost 40kg (88lb) last year with pretty much just diet and a little bit of cycling here and there. It's only now that I've lost a significant amount of weight that I'm starting to "work out" (hence the calisthenic program) to improve my strength and fitness.

I honestly don't think I could have started exercising at the weight I was. Trying would have been so frustrating and demoralising that it probably would have done more harm than good.

bluesheeponahill

Yes, I was so happy to hear when I could eat back the calories burned. Like others, I currently eat back 50% of it. I am currently doing MB12wBT, (just helping me kickstart fitness) which doesn’t advise eating back Exercise calories, I was miserable and starving. But the lovely posters here suggested I do, and since then I’ve stopped being hungry so much and still losing weight just under a kilo a week and I’m happy with that. I am half exercising. I might do about 2-3 days a week of exercise.

I do want to add, if you have a newborn and breastfeeding, you will find yourself pretty hungry after feeding the baby, they burn a lot of calories doing this! You may also find weight drops off slower or not at all feeding. It depends on the person. In Australia, the Australian Breastfeeding Association recommends you eat least 500 calories more a day to sustain breast feeding. So if you’re trying to lose weight on 1200 calories, add 500 and eat around 1700 a day. Of course, definitely check with your local
Health nurse or doctor to find the best calorie intake for you. good luck.

phill_143

Congratulations on the baby!

As others have said, how you create a calorie deficit is up to you - so it's not necessary at all to exercise to lose weight... but it can help you meet your goals - and also give a sense of achievement on those early days that can sometimes feel a bit draining.

Exercise doesn't just mean hitting the gym - and what you're already doing with the treadmill is great.

I also have a new-ish baby (4 months now) and some of the things I've found good for staying active are:

- Babywearing: babies love the soft fabric wraps - it's like a big hug! I used a wrap carrier from 5 days old and built up to doing quite long walks (10 mile hike with friends last weekend). The carriers are £20ish, so a great budget option, if prams are looking a bit pricey
- Mother and baby exercise classes: there are some great classes near me where the mums can do bootcamp or circuits or aerobics and the babies watch from a mat next to us. They have volunteer 'baby cuddlers' (two older ladies, whose grandchildren moved abroad) who help entertain the little ones
- Home weights

And don't forget that you should eat back extra calories if breastfeeding (can log as a negative calorie food)

COGypsy

I've lost about 60 pounds and have maintained that loss for about 3 years now. I deliberately did not include exercise for the first 40 pounds or so. I didn't want my losses and future maintenance to be dependent on an exercise regimen. I seem to have a talent for injuring myself (icing a pulled quad at this very moment, actually!) and so it's not out of the realm of possibility for me to periodically be out of commission or on limited workouts. After spending my 20's using workouts to manage my weight, I didn't want to end up stalling out or regaining if I couldn't exercise all the time. When I switched from Weight Watchers to MFP and learned more about eating back exercise calories, CICO, etc, I added exercise back into my routine and lost the last 20 pounds. I've started working on a last few vanity pounds and am using both diet and exercise, although now it's looking like it might just be diet for a week or two....

meganreid163

I lost 20 pounds without working out 1 day.. I just focused on my calories in and calories out.
I am working out now though to lose the next 20 pounds for no other reason then I would like to tone and build muscle.

amusedmonkey

I have not set foot in the gym since I was a teen. It hasn't affected my ability to lose weight.

rickiimarieee

Yep, my health isn’t the best so haven’t been able to work out. My immune system attacks my muscles. I lost 40 pounds and never worked out once. I go on long walks but nothing else!

rickiimarieee

40 pounds gone and didn’t work out at all.

bluesheeponahill

Yes. I don’t work out. I wish I did though, I feel really good doing so. But toddler demands otherwise. I try do long walks though.

TheRealSlim_Shelly

Yes mama, I’ve lost 20lbs so far just by reducing my calories. I started off with a combo of exercise and reducing calories but with my baby I wasn’t able to keep up with the exercise part just yet (other than whatever I burn just from being a mom on the go 🤪). So I stopped doing workouts after a couple weeks and focused just on my calories and found great success. Exercise is definitely important to me but I’m doing what I can while I figure out how to balance it all (and maybe work in some unconventional ways of fitting in exercises). You absolutely can lose weight in the kitchen tho! I’m 55 days in btw, and have about 6 more lbs to go to get to pre-pregnancy weight. I owe it all to calories in/calories out. You got this!