Strange Exercise and Diet Question

GeekDadCS

I have a strange question that may sound like bragging, but I'm genuinely baffled.

Cutting to the chase, when I work out I lose weight. Period. It's really that simple. I have basically been on a diet for a year and found as soon as I stopped exercising I started putting weight back on. Even when I stayed within daily calorie goals, I gained weight when I didn't work out. The opposite happens when I workout but go over my daily calorie goals. It showed me the key for me is activity rather than my diet regardless of what or how much I eat. It would explain why so many diets I've been on without exercising resulted in little weight loss that quickly came back.

Now to my question: what the hell is that about?? I mean, I've read the same as everyone else: less in, more out and you lose weight, but that doesn't seem to be the case for me. I gain weight easily without exercise and lose it easily with regardless of what I eat. Can anyone tell me what it is about my body or body type that makes this happen?

kshama2001

Presumably you are giving this enough time and are not seeing normal water weight fluctuations.

If so, you may be doing some combination of underestimating calories in as well as calories out. What percentage of your exercise calories were you eating back and what entry were you using to log them?

Another possibility is that working out led you to unconsciously raise your NEAT - you were more active outside exercise.

snowflake954

I would ask how you're documenting your dieting. Are you using a digital food scale? Weighing and measuring everything? If not, your data can be off.

GeekDadCS

Thank you both for responding. I can say that I religiously track what I do and eat. I weigh and measure everything I eat. I double check that everything I enter already has the correct information. I have considered that perhaps everything I use is underestimating how much I'm burning each day, but a self-proclaimed fitness nut friend of mine thinks my metabolism is particularly sensitive to both activity or a lack thereof (ramps up when I do it, slows down dramatically when I don't). I hope not because I hate exercise with a passion and the idea of having to do it or risk pissing off my metabolism does not put me in a good mood.

MsCzar

I've often noticed the same thing. No exercise = no weight loss. Last week, there were three consecutive days where my schedule got crazy and I ended up eating less than 1000 calories with no time to work out. I THOUGHT I'd hop on the scale and at least see a drop in the numbers. Nope.

I don't mind exercising and like the way it makes my body look and feel. As soon as I resumed my normal 1200-1300 calorie/30 daily minutes exercise, the numbers fell.

BTW- I exercise on a rebounder which feels completely effortless and is hella fun.

Hamiltonfamily2018

If I were giving you just my “street smarts answer”

I would say I can somewhat relate.

If I go into an active deficit and workout. Duh we lose weight right.

If I eat at “maintenance” more or less and depending on how much I workout then I can re-comp so my body looks leaner and still lose body fat. Aka see it on the scale

If I eat at a surplus which let’s assume doesn’t happen regularly then again you can still maintain, re-comp and even lose some body fat depending on workout because your building muscle.

If I stop working out. Then I lose definition fast, the weight will creep on after time due to loss in muscle mass.

Overall I stop caring as much about my diet unless I have the full lifestyle in act of health and fitness.

IDK just my thoughts. I’ve just been at this for many years and although I’ve been in the fitness industry I’m not a qualified PT.

janejellyroll

MFP (or any calorie calculator) is going on population-level estimates and your self-assessed activity level. It's possible that you're one of the rare people who burn fewer calories than average or it's also possible that you're over-estimating your activity level. Both of these could result in you not losing weight even when you're at your calorie goal (this is if we're assuming that your estimate of calories in is 100% accurate).

Either way, I wouldn't conclude that you NEED exercise to lose weight. It just indicates that you're one of those people who may require a bit more trial and error to determine what a deficit actually is for you.

Diatonic12

@malevolentmuse

"I hope not because I hate exercise with a passion and the idea of having to do it or risk pissing off my metabolism does not put me in a good mood."

Doing things you don't want to do all in the name of weight loss is the recipe for eating it all back. Rid yourself of everything you hate. It's not going to last and you know it. Find forms of exercise you enjoy and are willing to do for the rest of your life.

Build your ability to get fit and stay fit under real life conditions. None of this will stick if you hate it. Generally speaking, constant starts and stops, going on breaks, pressing the pause button results in short term success followed by more frustration.

Life has no pause button. There is no timeout for life. Life keeps going. We don't get to press pause for our jobs and family. You can't hit the reset button at work or you will get fired. Keep going because an All or Nothing Mindset gives you mostly nothing.

Don't press pause. Adjust your dials and find activities you actually like and enjoy. There's no such thing as the Finish Line.

Hamiltonfamily2018

^^^^^ that!

Didn’t realize you hate exercise, my bad for not reading through.

cwolfman13

malevolentmuse wrote: »

I have a strange question that may sound like bragging, but I'm genuinely baffled.

Cutting to the chase, when I work out I lose weight. Period. It's really that simple. I have basically been on a diet for a year and found as soon as I stopped exercising I started putting weight back on. Even when I stayed within daily calorie goals, I gained weight when I didn't work out. The opposite happens when I workout but go over my daily calorie goals. It showed me the key for me is activity rather than my diet regardless of what or how much I eat. It would explain why so many diets I've been on without exercising resulted in little weight loss that quickly came back.

Now to my question: what the hell is that about?? I mean, I've read the same as everyone else: less in, more out and you lose weight, but that doesn't seem to be the case for me. I gain weight easily without exercise and lose it easily with regardless of what I eat. Can anyone tell me what it is about my body or body type that makes this happen?

I have a certain level to which I naturally eat at regardless of whether I'm exercising or not...so when I don't exercise I typically gain weight...with regular exercise I typically lose weight until I find an equilibrium and maintain. I seriously doubt you can exercise and lose weight regardless of the number of calories you're eating...do an experiment and keep to your regular exercise and start eating 5K calories per day...bet you money you don't lose weight and you gain weight.

yirara

How long are you not exercising and still tracking your food?
I think I see something similar, but found two reasons: When I don't exercise I hold more onto water, thus there'll be at least a week of no weight loss, maybe even 2. And secondly I feel less hungry when I exercise. Thus I might eat a tiny bit more even if I think I track everything I know i don't.

Here's another odd thing: Yesterday I ate a bag of crisps for lunch instead of my usual bread with stuff. About 250 calories more. And for dinner I had sushi. Also 200 calories more than usual. I didn't poop, yet I was lighter the next morning. I have no idea why this happens, but I've been observing this for years. Which was also one of the reasons why I gained weight: Hey, there's magic food! I can have more of that and will lose weight. But obviously, between these odd drops I gained weight.

leejoyce31

cwolfman13 wrote: »

malevolentmuse wrote: »

I have a strange question that may sound like bragging, but I'm genuinely baffled.

Cutting to the chase, when I work out I lose weight. Period. It's really that simple. I have basically been on a diet for a year and found as soon as I stopped exercising I started putting weight back on. Even when I stayed within daily calorie goals, I gained weight when I didn't work out. The opposite happens when I workout but go over my daily calorie goals. It showed me the key for me is activity rather than my diet regardless of what or how much I eat. It would explain why so many diets I've been on without exercising resulted in little weight loss that quickly came back.

Now to my question: what the hell is that about?? I mean, I've read the same as everyone else: less in, more out and you lose weight, but that doesn't seem to be the case for me. I gain weight easily without exercise and lose it easily with regardless of what I eat. Can anyone tell me what it is about my body or body type that makes this happen?

I have a certain level to which I naturally eat at regardless of whether I'm exercising or not...so when I don't exercise I typically gain weight...with regular exercise I typically lose weight until I find an equilibrium and maintain. I seriously doubt you can exercise and lose weight regardless of the number of calories you're eating...do an experiment and keep to your regular exercise and start eating 5K calories per day...bet you money you don't lose weight and you gain weight.

Lol. I agree.

FitAgainBy55

My guess is these observations are based on day to day results vs data from long periods. You really need a sample set in terms of weeks, not days/hours, to conclude anything regarding fat loss.

Working out depletes water weight due to glycogen store depletion and of course sweat. As you replenish the water in your body without depleting it your weight can go up. Depending on when you weigh yourself and when you work out, these water weight differences can be quite large.

PAV8888

FitAgainBy55 wrote: »

My guess is these observations are based on day to day results vs data from long periods. You really need a sample set in terms of weeks, not days/hours, to conclude anything regarding fat loss.

Working out depletes water weight due to glycogen store depletion and of course sweat. As you replenish the water in your body without depleting it your weight can go up. Depending on when you weigh yourself and when you work out, these water weight differences can be quite large.

Bingo!

Fat level change is slow. "Water"(=all other reasons scale weight changes) is fast

Weight trend over weeks and months tells the tale, assuming logging of intake has remained consistent.