Over-Value Exercise in Weight Loss? And More Stuff.

NikiChicken

I have to completely agree on the exercise. I am an absolutely firm believer in that "you lose weight in the kitchen and you get fit in the gym." You can lose every last pound without working out once, however, your end result will look MUCH better if you exercise while you are losing weight. Exercise has so many valuable benefits, both mentally and physically, but if you don't control your food intake, you can exercise until the cows come home and won't lose an ounce. As someone once told me, you can't outrun your fork.

thedarkwombat

Yes, fitness and weight loss are different things. But sometimes exercise is ALL that's needed to create a calorie deficit.

While I totally agree with the OP, that for obese people exercise is less of a factor for weight loss. For those of us that are guilty of the slow creeping weight gain. Exercise may be everything.

My story as example: I lost almost 30 lbs by not eating any differently than I did when I gained those pounds. It took me over 6 years to gain those 30 lbs. All I needed to do was burn a few more calories each day to get rid of it.

When I get to my ideal weight, I am going to have to face the fact that to stay at that weight, fitness will have to become a permanent addition to my lifestyle.

FitCanuckChick

I went ahead and ran the numbers for you. For a man of your present size, you should be getting around 113g of protein each day, just to meet the RDA for protein. This 0.8g protein per kilogram of body weight is the amount of protein recommended by both the National Institute of Health and the World Health Organization as the amount of protein required to maintain health.

It looks like you are not getting anywhere near that amount and it may be contributing to your feelings of being hungry all day on some days.

113g of protein is insane. I would basically have to eat chicken and meats all day long.
I am only hungry on days when I eat breakfast. When I skip breakfast (WHICH MEANS EVEN LESS PROTEIN!I am not hungry all day. SO I don't get what you are selling me.

I have solved my hunger issues, and I am losing weight. Losing weight means I am not going to die prematurely anytime soon.

See the priorities here?

Two words. Beef jerky. That is the way I protein boost and it is a tasty treat (and only 80 cals per serving). I have been borderline anemic though and I always have worked with my doc to fight off the aweful iron pills

FitCanuckChick

I have to completely agree on the exercise. I am an absolutely firm believer in that "you lose weight in the kitchen and you get fit in the gym." You can lose every last pound without working out once, however, your end result will look MUCH better if you exercise while you are losing weight. Exercise has so many valuable benefits, both mentally and physically, but if you don't control your food intake, you can exercise until the cows come home and won't lose an ounce. As someone once told me, you can't outrun your fork.

You can't outrun your fork. Love that line!!! I can only outrun my fork when I am long run training. I think the 18km plus runs I could eat til I felt Ill and still not gain an ounce. .

meskew87

I just wanted to chime in on the whole skipping breakfast thing. I, too, get ravenous when I eat breakfast and find that I often spend the rest of the day hungry and miserable. I have vascilated between believing what I have always been told, that breakfast is the most important meal of the day and that I will never lose any weight without it, and also believing that breakfast isn't the golden rule and I'd be better of totally skipping it.

There is a lot of good evidence out there in support of the intermittent fasting theory, and for some people it really works. I know I am much happier having two big, satisfying meals a day than eating like a bird all day long and never feeling full. The more that I learn about health and nutrition though, the more I realize how little we truly understand about how the body works. All we can do is try our best each day for our health and do what works best for us. Congrats to everyone who has lost weight and gained health by whatever method they find most sustainable. We are all in a better place now than we were when we started!

NikiChicken

I have to completely agree on the exercise. I am an absolutely firm believer in that "you lose weight in the kitchen and you get fit in the gym." You can lose every last pound without working out once, however, your end result will look MUCH better if you exercise while you are losing weight. Exercise has so many valuable benefits, both mentally and physically, but if you don't control your food intake, you can exercise until the cows come home and won't lose an ounce. As someone once told me, you can't outrun your fork.

You can't outrun your fork. Love that line!!! I can only outrun my fork when I am long run training. I think the 18km plus runs I could eat til I felt Ill and still not gain an ounce. .

Maybe I should have said "Most of us can't outrun our fork."

NavyKnightAh13

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minizebu

113g of protein is insane. I would basically have to eat chicken and meats all day long.
I am only hungry on days when I eat breakfast. When I skip breakfast (WHICH MEANS EVEN LESS PROTEIN!I am not hungry all day. SO I don't get what you are selling me.

I am not trying to sell you on anything, other than getting adequate nutrition to meet the needs of a large man eating at a deficit. I am merely pointing out the protein amount that governments around the world suggest as appropriate for health.

113g of protein is hardly insane. There are plenty of folks who try to meet the 0.8g of protein per kilogram of body weight goal. I happen to meet or beat 1g of protein per pound of lean body mass, but i am less than half your size and I am certainly not suggesting that you, or everyone needs to do that.

Protein helps to moderate your blood sugar. A protein rich meal does not cause as much of a spike in blood sugar or insulin levels as a carbohydrate heavy meal will.

I don't eat chicken and meat all day long. I am able to reach 113g of protein easily, with dairy, legumes, nuts, and yes some lean meat and fish.

minizebu

I bet you also believe in the 8 glasses of water thing too? This is a borderline myth as well. All the food we eat has water in it. Take that, and have 3 to 4 glasses of water per day and you are good to go.

Nope. The whole 8 glasses thing is a pet peeve of mine. I believe that we get adequate hydration from the food we eat plus drinking to thirst. The only exception is if you exercise excessively or are in extreme heat and humidity. In those cases thirst does not always kick in quickly, so it is good to make sure you have an extra glass or two in those cases.

shaydon80

In my experience, diet is about 80% of the equation and exercise is 20%. During my peak weight loss I was more focused on what I ate and I was exercising 6 days a week, but mostly low impact like pilates (150-175 cals per day). I stopped tracking my food and started eating whatever I wanted for about a year and gained back 17 of the 102lbs I had lost. I was exercising like a fiend at least 5 days a week during that time (running, spinning, pilates), but I was still gaining weight.

Now I'm back to tracking and hoping to lose that 17lbs again and never forget the lessons that I've learned in the last year.

BrandyinCarolina

Just adding my 2 cents here. I have a LOT of weight to loose and yes its very overwhelming at times. You get a lot of advise from people on here, some will be helpful for YOU and some will not be. I do agree that what you eat and eating at a deficit is the most important... but for me, exercise is what keeps me going. I had this irrational fear of going to the gym, I was ashamed and embarrassed and just knew everyone was laughing at me. But ya know what, I got the hell over it and decided I was doing this for ME and to hell with everyone else. I started water aerobics and swimming and then Zumba and other aerobics classes as well and even though I still have a lot of weight to loose I feel great! I feel better than I have in such a long time! When I go workout and log my calorie burn (which I know MFP calculates really high so I account for that), in my mind Im like... there is NO way that I just worked THAT hard at the gym and am going to RUIN it with pizza or sweets or whatever. So, I guess to each their own. Some need to start out slower, some can jump right in, its just a mindset and being able to stick with it and not give up! That is the whole thing right there, we may slip, we may fall but just don't ever give up! Good luck to everyone out there on their journey!

Ang108

One more thing nikkylyn, I think some us don't care if we look look.and feel flubby (which we can fix later) as long as we are not dead.
You have very little weight to lose. Some of us have our life to lose...

I feel similarly. I have been told several times that I " need to lift heavy ", because otherwise I would never have the shape that I desired. The only problem ? I never said what shape I want to be in. I am shortly going to be 66 years old and have active Lupus and I ask myself why I want to " lift heavy " at the relatively early stage of my weight loss. Also at my age I don't need a body I can show off at the beach in a tanga bikini and I also don't need a six-pack...well, not even a four-pack.
What I need is to be lighter to lessen the load on my joints, increase general health and well being in a sustainable way. And since I have a pretty active life that I enjoy a lot apart from still working full time, I have no plans to spend most of my free time in the gym, even though I did years ago as a weight lifter.
Right now I do exactly what the OP mentioned, I concentrate on my diet and have so far in 5 month lost over one third of what I want to lose( appr.100 pounds). I walk five times a week and feel satisfied with that for the moment. Once I have lost 50% I will re-assess my exercise needs and might even join a gym again....but not now. And no one can tell me what I " need " to do.
I feel all too often new members go all out ( usually with what I think is false support from the general MFP population ) and burn out very fast, because they can't sustain all those changes in their lives. In just the short six month I have been here, I have seen too many people join, go all gung-ho and quit, which I think is not the optimal way to go.

torisiegel

I have spent countless hours researching and studying and really only recently came to the conclusion that exercise has very little to do with weight loss.

Yup! Even a trainer on The Biggest Loser agrees with you: http://www.hngn.com/articles/10384/20130819/healthy-diet-better-exercise-weight-loss-tip-biggest-loser-trainer.htm

I want to exercise because I like the energy and stamina it gives me. And, I like to eat a few "fun" things to keep myself going, but make sure I burn off those calories.

Fit_Mama84

They way I think of it is like this. Diet helps you lose weight, exercise keeps you from gaining weight. But for me, being active keeps me in the right mindset to make better diet choices and eating healthy makes me feel better during my workouts, so they go hand in hand. If you have success doing one at a time that's great, but for me both together works best.

ktrn0312

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NYCNika

I never had any success with my weight loss until I finally accepted exercise as a vital part of my lifestyle.

It makes you fit, keeps your metabolism up, it lowers your cholesterol, strengthens your bones, it makes you feel good about yourself, it shapes your body, it keeps you disciplined, and it allows me to eat close to 2,000 calories on a good exersize days and still lose. I can sustain that. I can't sustain eating 1,500 calories.

Yes, monitoring what you are eating is key, you can't out-exercise your diet, but together, diet and exercise are much better than diet alone.

Plus, if I am exercising 1,500 calories a week on average, that's 24lb a year that I'm not gaining, that I would have gained otherwise.

And yes, I do belive in the "afterburn" and increased metabolism from hard exercise -- because I weight my food and numbers just don't add up. I've been loosing weight much much faster than the math says I should lose, and not gaining on numerous cheat days I've had.

And yes, I was like you before. I just DID NOT LIKE IT, it was EASIER to just not eat something, than eat something and exercise. It seemed like too much work. And so I preferred to think that exercise is not as important as everyone says.

shannashannabobana

There is a lot of good evidence out there in support of the intermittent fasting theory, and for some people it really works. I know I am much happier having two big, satisfying meals a day than eating like a bird all day long and never feeling full.

Me too!!! I’m one of those constantly hungry if I eat breakfast, totally fine if I don’t.

I somewhat agree on exercise with the OP too, I think you cannot out run a bad diet (unless potentially if you are training for a marathon or something). I think exercise is good for you in a lot of ways, though. There is some evidence it helps with insulin resistance, which can be a problem with some people who are overweight. A hard workout occasionally makes me less hungry, but when I was doing half marathon training it made me really hungry.

It’s all in what you do. I think if people who are obese and discouraged were encouraged to do walking or biking at a reasonable pace maybe a few times a week mostly for health, instead of 2+ hrs a day for weight loss, they wouldn’t be so discouraged. You do not have to be a gym rat to lose weight. Working out, and in particular strength training, can absolutely make a difference in how you carry the pounds you have though!

KuraKaze

Do people really think exercise = weight loss? I always heard it as exercise = getting fit. Weight loss = eating less.

Combining the two is always a good idea. I was always told to watch what I eat, and maybe throw in exercise for fitness or to increase calorie burn, if I want to lose weight. I agree with the post above that some overweight people are encouraged to do some exercise to help with fitness (increase cardiac activity so they won't be so out of breath, and have better cardiac health so they won't get heart diseases as easily etc.) and it could also help with weight loss if they are eating the same amount of food but now is moving around more than before.

Weight loss has always been about net caloric deficit, isn't it? Doesn't matter if we exercise, as long as the net in is not more than the net out. Working out just means I can eat more without gaining.

Also, breakfast and metabolism is a thing that is shown through scientific research so it's not completely made up by breakfast/food industry companies. It is because your body slows down during sleep (since you are literally not eating for about 12 hours, from dinner until you wake up) and it needs to make that dinner last all night. Then in the morning, if no new food is given to your body, your body just stays in that slowed down metabolism. The boost from breakfast will help with telling your body it no longer needs to conserve energy and it can use as much energy as it wants for that day. Otherwise you'll be in starvation mode and slowed metabolism.

nicoleisme

I bet you also believe in the 8 glasses of water thing too? This is a borderline myth as well. All the food we eat has water in it. Take that, and have 3 to 4 glasses of water per day and you are good to go.

I agree the 8 water thing is pretty BS too Buut that said, 7-8 cups a day makes me feel better, I can feel the difference in my body when I don't drink enough water. But everyone is different!

BigMech

I started out at 490 and I exercised and watched what I ate the whole time I lost the weight. When I was that heavy, exercise consisted just of walking around my neighborhood for the first 5 months. Then my wife got me a gym membership and I have been going for over 3 years now. When I was losing my weight, I would do about 50% cardio exercises and 50% weight lifting at the gym.

Weight loss is about calories in and out, and while it's true that you can't out run a bad diet, you can use exercise to boost your calorie burn, which can give you a little more wiggle room in your diet. I believe that exercise keeps you metabolism up, and any extra muscle you put on just burns more calories. While I was losing my weight, I was eating between 2,200 and 2,400 calories while hitting the gym 5 days a week. Once I got rolling with this program I was able to lose between 2 and 2.5lbs a week for over a year, and it took me about 20 months to lose 260lbs total.

I always went to gym in the morning, and would not eat breakfast until afterwards. So I was eating breakfast around 9:30am, lunch around 12:00 and dinner around 6:30 and that was it for the day. No snacks, no desserts, no seconds at meals.

Hiker_Rob

I agree with you on a lot of points and oddly sem to be in a similar situation from reading your posts; I am 45, was 300lbs, have sleep apnea, high blood pressure etc.

On the food part, everyone must find what works for them, I hate eating breakfast so some days I do, some days I don't, at the same time, my health has not been better in at least a decade (whether I eat breakfast or not). On the most part the only changes I have made to my diet are: cutting back almost entirely on foods that are high in added sugar; lowering fatty food intake and almost entirely eliminating fast food but still having 'sit down' restaurant foods no more than one or twice a week. I have not eliminated any food that I like from my diet, I have only changed how much of it I eat.

For exercise I have to say it is undervalued, not just in weightloss. It does enable additional weight loss and also provides you with so very much more than that. I get exercise most days, I do not 'work out' though. My family and I go for long brisk walks almost every day and connect with each other and 3 to 4 times a week I go for a bike ride. I own my own business so the walks and rides allow me personal time to reflect and more importantly de-stress from my day. I very much agree that many people jump on the diet/exercise bandwagon and not too far down the road fall off of it because it really was not something that they could maintain. I do believe in slow and methodical increases in exercise until you reach a sustainable comfort level, it's the same with food changes, slow changes work much better than massive change and are much more sustainable.

Back to food / exercise / weight loss, here is my take. I like food, some foods are just awesome and taste delicious but obviously you can't eat everything, all the time (even if it's healthy) or the weight goes up! My added calorie burn (and cardio does burn calories, there is no disputing that) from exercising allows for me to be able to eat more foods that I like and still be able to loose weight.

My weightloss has not been as dramatic as some, but it has been a lifestyle change that I have been working on that has the added benefit of helping me loose weight, has lowered my blood pressure and hopefully one day may eliminate my sleep apnea (very, very hopeful) .