People who lost weight through exercise

hemlock2010

I've maintained a loss of about 46 pounds since 2012 by eating 1900 an average of calories/day and using the elliptical for 45 min 4x/week. Now I'd like to start losing again, but I can't reliably eat less than 1750, so I know I'm going to need to up my output through exercise also.

Here's my question. If you credit most of your weight loss to exercise rather than calorie reduction, how much do you exercise, how many calories do you burn, and what do you do?

Thanks!

chickwithpencil

My fitbit says I burn around 3,000 calories per day and I usually aim to eat at least 1,800-2,000 calories per day (roughly my bmr.) I exercise at least one hour per day walking/hiking/jogging up and down the road I live on with my dog playing Zombies, Run. Some days, I go on hour long bike rides or do archery for an hour. I'm fairly active as it is, though - I live in the country and there's always some sort of chore to do. I also live on the side of a mountain, so I'm forever walking up and down hills (even something like carrying groceries uphill or cutting grass becomes a bit of a workout.) That's about it. I've lost around 17 pounds total since the beginning of June doing this (ignore my ticker thingy - I can't seem to add in the weight I lost before joining MFP.)

VelveteenArabian

My fitbit says I burn around 3,000 calories per day and I usually aim to eat at least 1,800-2,000 calories per day (roughly my bmr.) I exercise at least one hour per day walking/hiking/jogging up and down the road I live on with my dog playing Zombies, Run. Some days, I go on hour long bike rides or do archery for an hour. I'm fairly active as it is, though - I live in the country and there's always some sort of chore to do. I also live on the side of a mountain, so I'm forever walking up and down hills (even something like carrying groceries uphill or cutting grass becomes a bit of a workout.) That's about it. I've lost around 17 pounds total since the beginning of June doing this (ignore my ticker thingy - I can't seem to add in the weight I lost before joining MFP.)

I think if you increase your starting weight you'll be able to fix your ticker.

Mhgretsch

I'd say I attribute my weight loss 50/50 to being mindful of what I put in my mouth and being more active. I've been pretty committed to working out about 1.5 hours per day (mostly cardio & stretching/ab work) at least 4x per week for the last several months, plus evening walks with my hubby & dogs...most of my cardio is running and I've been setting goals of improving my per mile running time. Started back in March-ish with about a 14 minute mile and just ran a 5K this past weekend at just under a 9.5 minute mile. I like having an NSV goal, and frankly I love the alone time that I get running while plugged in to the music on my iphone

chickwithpencil

I think if you increase your starting weight you'll be able to fix your ticker.

I've tried that twice. It shows the rest on my feed, but it doesn't show up on my ticker.

kissle6

I have worked out for years and recently had to take my workouts to the next level to lose my last 10 lbs. What I can tell you is that you should mix up your exercise regimen. It sounds like you only do Elliptical and so your body has become accustomed to it & therefor is not challenged by the workout like it was in the beginning.

Try doing HIIT training (hi intensity interval training) which is when you do a shorter workout but up the intensity. For ex: since you like Elliptical, you would do a 5 minute warm-up at regular intensity and then do 1 minute as hard as you can go (this is where you are out of breath enough that you can't hold a conversation) and then recover back down to the lower intensity. Go for another 2-3 minutes at regular intensity and then do 1 minute hi-intensity again. Continue doing this for a total of 20-30 minutes. Don''t forget to cool down for a few minutes when you're done and then stretch.

When you do HIIT training, you actually burn more calories for the next 48 hours!

P.S. Another great way to burn extra calories is to start weight lifting. The more muscle mass you have the more calories you burn even at rest. :-)

bwogilvie

Here's my question. If you credit most of your weight loss to exercise rather than calorie reduction, how much do you exercise, how many calories do you burn, and what do you do?

I think this is a false dichotomy.

In 2012, I bicycled around 2,500 miles, for an average of about 250 calories/day of exercise on the bike. That's not counting walks, hiking, and other activity, so probably 350-400 calories/day (I wasn't tracking those activities carefully). I ~gained~ 10 pounds that year.

In 2013, I bicycled around 3,500 miles, or on average around 350 calories/day. With other exercise (mostly walking), I was averaging about 500 calories a day in exercise energy expenditure. I lost 45 pounds.

Exercise by itself doesn't create a calorie deficit, because it makes you hungrier and inclined to eat more. It makes you feel stronger and more fit.

It's more productive to think of your body's total energy needs - Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR), Thermal Effect of Food (TEF), Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT), and Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (EAT). Your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) is the sum of all four. You need to have a deficit between TDEE and your calorie intake in order to lose, but it doesn't help to think of it as exercise ~vs.~ calorie reduction. Rather, you need a deficit that comes from eating under TDEE, but you can increase TDEE by exercising more.

By the way, it's a myth that your body becomes more efficient and burns fewer calories as it becomes accustomed to an exercise. There is a very small gain in efficiency. But mostly, exercise becomes easier because you become capable of doing more for the same perceived effort. If you put me and Lance Armstrong on identical bikes, and we were both biking at 20 mph, we would burn about the same amount of energy. But I would be at my limit, while it would be pretty easy for Lance (especially with the doping!). What separates me from a competitive cyclist is not that the competitive cyclist is more efficient than me, but that he or she has bigger muscles and can more effectively recruit those muscle cells for effort and get oxygen to them, and as a result he or she can go a lot faster than me for the same perceived effort.

hemlock2010

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hemlock2010

I think this is a false dichotomy.

It might be a false dichotomy from a logical perspective, but from the stand-point of physics, it still makes sense. If I want to reduce calories by 500 per day but I can only reduce calorie intake by 150 per day, then I have to increase calorie output by 350 per day. Regardless of whether the increased exercise makes me hungrier, I will still be eating 1750 calories per day, so the increased output should cause weight loss.

However, I'm willing to believe that it won't. There's a lot about weight gain and loss (or mostly not loss) that seems to defy the laws of physics and to be stacked against the would-be loser in a deeply unfair way. Still, MFP is full of people who exercise like crazy, eat a comfortable amount, and look amazing, so I'm optimistic that it can be done.

shai74

Weightloss is 80% what you put in your mouth. I do no exercise, other than incidental walking and a horseride on the weekend, and I'm losing about 1kg a week (eating 1700 cals a day). Exercise is important for strength and fitness, but not to lose weight.

_Waffle_

You can lose weight without doing one bit of exercise however if you do exercise it does make it easier on a day to day basis if that's you thing. Personally I eat to fuel my exercise needs. I look at it the opposite way that you do but it doesn't matter. The end result is the same.

My calorie demand is over 5000 some days. Typically it's around 3500 calories. That makes it easy to lose if you choose to not eat it all.

hemlock2010

Thanks!

I have worked out for years and recently had to take my workouts to the next level to lose my last 10 lbs. What I can tell you is that you should mix up your exercise regimen. It sounds like you only do Elliptical and so your body has become accustomed to it & therefor is not challenged by the workout like it was in the beginning.

Try doing HIIT training (hi intensity interval training) which is when you do a shorter workout but up the intensity. For ex: since you like Elliptical, you would do a 5 minute warm-up at regular intensity and then do 1 minute as hard as you can go (this is where you are out of breath enough that you can't hold a conversation) and then recover back down to the lower intensity. Go for another 2-3 minutes at regular intensity and then do 1 minute hi-intensity again. Continue doing this for a total of 20-30 minutes. Don''t forget to cool down for a few minutes when you're done and then stretch.

When you do HIIT training, you actually burn more calories for the next 48 hours!

P.S. Another great way to burn extra calories is to start weight lifting. The more muscle mass you have the more calories you burn even at rest. :-)

jimvic37

Hemlock I'll share my story and just maybe it could benefit you. I'm a 53 year old man who was never athletic when I was young. I've been married for 31 years raised my kids blah blah blah. I like many didn't take care of myself and just prior to turning 50 took a deep hard look at myself in the mirror and didn't like it one bit. I'm 5'11" was 230 pounds with a medium to smaller frame. I worked with a couple younger guys who had been doing CrossFit and had been after me to try it. Well I finally did and my life hasn't been the same since. I'm now right about 180 pounds and I've never been in better shape in my life. It wasn't an over the night fix but I did start noticing changes within a month or two.

Once I realized the number one thing that I had to do it was easy after that. I'll share that little secret with you. See all I have to do is SHOW UP each day and the work gets done. At CrossFit gyms you are surrounded by people who all have the same goal in mind and that is get fit. Now some aspire to be world class athlete's while others just want to be able to play with their grandkids. We have athlete's who are in high school and we even have a 73 year old woman who is amazing. You see at CrossFit we know that the needs of a world class athlete and the needs of the grandmother are the same it's just relative. If you can't find a facility near you let me know and if you are interested I will tell you where the nearest one is?

Chieflrg

I've maintained a loss of about 46 pounds since 2012 by eating 1900 an average of calories/day and using the elliptical for 45 min 4x/week. Now I'd like to start losing again, but I can't reliably eat less than 1750, so I know I'm going to need to up my output through exercise also.

Here's my question. If you credit most of your weight loss to exercise rather than calorie reduction, how much do you exercise, how many calories do you burn, and what do you do?

Thanks!

When I'm trying to lose weight it is 100% how much calories I put in my system.

If I exercise I eat more not the same amount as if I don't exercise. Currently I'm only hitting the gym with heavy weights 3-4x a week for 4-5 hours for a average 3 calories burned an minute.

TraumaMel

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999tigger

When I exercise I dont really eat any extra and nor does it make me hungrier. 350 is about 30-40 mins cardio?

gailmelanie

In summary, you will need to decrease intake a little, 100-200 cal/day, and increase exercise to increase muscle mass in order to increase calorie expenditure not only during exercise, but at rest and in all daily activities outside of dedicated exercise. Speed up your cardio and add some serious strength training. It takes less time if you can combine the two. That's part of the HIIT.

sodakat

This thread was an interesting read!

llUndecidedll

Well, I did lots of cardio. I walked on the treadmill at 2.5 mph with the incline set at 10 out of 15. I would also do a hill interval walking program or mountain climbing program, both on the treadmill, set at level 13 out of 20 going 2.5 mph.
Your pace will be quicker than mine and you can probably handle higher levels than what I did.

Doing about two hours of cardio on most days _while_ keeping up with my calories helped me to lose 40 lbs in about two months. I could have lost more if I had more will power.

I also did some lifting, but no specific program. I prettty much did everything on the floor. I started calisthenics as well.

I just kept my net calories where I would lose 2 lbs a week. I obviously lost more than 2 lbs a week, so I guess I burned more calores than I thought I did.


I went from being pretty much sedentary to active, though.

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sofaking6

I definitely exercise because I want to eat more. I do DVDs at home, nothing crazy, and I have found that for my body, doing circuit training type stuff with light dumbbells and body weight exercises helps me feel stronger pretty quickly so it has its own reward aside from just bumping up your available cals. I only get 1250/day so I try to burn between 2-300.

stephe1987

If you want to fix your ticker, go to...
My Home -> Check-In
Scroll down and click "Edit Previous Entries"
Then there is a "Starting Weight" and date. If you click on the "Change" button then you can change your start weight and date. My start weight is actually about a month before I joined MFP because that was when I cut out soda and when my weight first started dropping.

I haven't been exercising in a long time. I walk sometimes, but my best exercise for calorie burn and fitness is Zumba. Unfortunately, it's been too hot for the past several months (and I've been sick the past couple of weeks). I'm hoping the temperatures will drop in a few weeks and I can start again. I've lost some weight but my stomach is still big (apple shape) so I still have a bit more weight to lose before I reach my goal.

raysputin

Been there, done that - ran the equivalent of 2 1/2 marathons a week, pumped iron in the heavy room at the gym, cycled into the mountains every weekend for years and did not lose a single kilo. Took the supplements the "gurus" recommended. Ate the protein powders. Tried the slimming shakes. Now I do no deliberate exercise but I follow a low-carb, low-fat, low-calorie, high fibre eating regime. My weight is going down at nearly a kilo per week.

Whatever works for the individual.