Is it possible to lose weight...

benefiting

without sacrificing the calories? If you are on a healthy diet and get regular exercise would that be enough? Generally people cut at least 250-500 calories out of their diet.

skylark94

You need a deficit to lose weight, but if you are exercising regularly and not sitting on your butt all day it is super easy to create a reasonable deficit.

I generally eat 1800-2300 calories per day. I get 30 minutes of vigorous exercise most days and I like to walk or hike.

honeysprinkles

A healthy diet and regular exercise will help you lose weight because it helps you cut calories. You can maintain your weight with a healthy diet and regular exercise too, so calories really are what matters. You don't necessarily have to count them, but you have to have a deficit to lose weight.

IZackV13

In short, no.

You must create some sort of caloric deficit as mentioned above to lose weight.

In fact, if you don't sacrifice/burn calories somewhere you will gain strength/muscle, thus actually increasing your total body weight.

csuhar

The main key is to have a defecit where you burn more than you consume.

It's possible to do this with exercise, alone, but I find it's easier to have a consistent defecit by carefully watching calorie intake. It has been my experience that it is often easier to say "I need to watch my intake, so I won't have that extra cookie, today" than to tack a workout onto what may be a very busy schedule.

DanaDark

As others have said, a deficit is key. So, you could technically eat more than you are now and lose weight if you exercise enough to create that deficit.

stealthq

Depends on how close you are to maintenance now. If you're currently eating at maintenance, and you burn 500 Cals per day in exercise that you weren't doing before and you don't change your eating habits then you'll lose a lb / wk (estimate).

That's not common, though. And then as you lose, your BMR drops and you need to increase your burn or drop your calories to compensate.

benefiting

Thanks guys, I'll look into it.

BusyRaeNOTBusty

If you burn say, 2000 calories a day without exercise. Then you eat 2000 calories a day. Then you exercise and burn an extra 300 calories you are creating a 300 calorie deficit and could therefore lose weight.