Lost weight by exercising a lot WHILE EATING A LOT (about 2,

purrtypaws

Oh, the title got cut off, and they won't let me edit it: supposed to finish with "(about 2,500 cals/day or more)?"

I love MFP, and if I had more time, I would continue counting my calories consumed, but I really don't have time since I'm supposed to be devoting all my time to study for an exam, and I'm REALLY behind (I actually shouldn't even be taking the time to make this thread, but I can't stop myself). I was spending a lot of time counting calories consumed (because I eat out pretty often, so trying to get that accurate takes time), and then I thought, "Instead of spending time I don't have to count calories consumed, I can spend that time exercising and burning calories." Plus, my self-control level is currently quite low, and so I am pretty bad at restricting calories consumed, so exercising a lot instead of restricting calories consumed seems right for me, ...so last week was the first week that I tried my new plan: don't count calories consumed, work out a lot, and see what happens. I did that, and I know I ate a lot of calories because I ate out a lot and didn't really restrict myself, but I did 7 hours of cardio and 2 hours of strength training during the week. (The previous week when I counted calories consumed, I averaged 2,565 calories per day, and I think I ate pretty similarly last week.) According to my body composition monitor, I lost 0.75 lbs. of fat and gained 0.1822 lbs. of skeletal muscle. I'm happy with that because I was just hoping for 0.5 lbs. of fat loss. I think with time, if I want to keep eating about the same amount, I'll have to increase my exercise time because my metabolism will probably decrease.

1) People who are now at a HEALTHY weight: were any of y'all able to reach and/or maintain your goal weight by exercising a lot WHILE EATING A LOT (like about an average of 2,500 calories per day or more)?????? ...Or does everyone eventually have to restrict their calorie intake a lot???? (I really don't want to and would rather exercise a lot, but I hope I never have to do more than 12 hours cardio per week.)

2) If any of you answered "yes" to the very first question, how many hours of cardio and how many hours of strength training do you do per week? For your cardio, what do you do (elliptical, zumba, jogging, etc.)? And for strength training, how many reps, sets, and sessions (days) per strength training exercise each week? (For example, last week, for my strength training, I did 8 to 12 reps and 3 sets per strength training exercise, and I only did one 2-hour session.)

I'll be so happy if there are actually some people who are able to eat a lot (about 2,500 calories per day) but still be a healthy weight through exercise!!!

Musikelektronik

I eat about 2,000-2,100 calories per day because I burn about 2,800 calories per day. So that deficit of about 800 calories/day works great for my goal of losing about 1.5 lbs. per week (give or take). I've been at it for only 17 days and I've lost 5 lbs. as of today on that plan.

In general, if you eat fewer calories than your body consumes each day, you will lose weight. Period. There's no mystery here.

In your case, if you're eating 2,500 calories and exercising "a lot" (whatever that may mean), then you could be doing just fine, assuming that you're burning at least 3,000 calories per day. You probably are, because I don't exercise at all, and I have a desk job, and I burn 2,800 a day, as I mentioned.

And that's not just a guess. I have a Bodymedia armband that I wear 22+ hours a day, and that's where I'm getting my information.

Here's the problem with the approach you're taking, though. If you have no idea how many calories your body burns each day, AND have no idea how many calories you eat each day, then everything you do is just guesswork. To me, that's not exactly a recipe for success.

If you're really serious about losing weight (or whatever your goal is), information is the key. Know how many calories you're taking in and how many you're burning each day through normal life-sustaining functions, your daily activities, and exercise.

Good luck!

purrtypaws

I eat about 2,000-2,100 calories per day because I burn about 2,800 calories per day. So that deficit of about 800 calories/day works great for my goal of losing about 1.5 lbs. per week (give or take). I've been at it for only 17 days and I've lost 5 lbs. as of today on that plan.

In general, if you eat fewer calories than your body consumes each day, you will lose weight. Period. There's no mystery here.

In your case, if you're eating 2,500 calories and exercising "a lot" (whatever that may mean), then you could be doing just fine, assuming that you're burning at least 3,000 calories per day. You probably are, because I don't exercise at all, and I have a desk job, and I burn 2,800 a day, as I mentioned.

And that's not just a guess. I have a Bodymedia armband that I wear 22+ hours a day, and that's where I'm getting my information.

Here's the problem with the approach you're taking, though. If you have no idea how many calories your body burns each day, AND have no idea how many calories you eat each day, then everything you do is just guesswork. To me, that's not exactly a recipe for success.

If you're really serious about losing weight (or whatever your goal is), information is the key. Know how many calories you're taking in and how many you're burning each day through normal life-sustaining functions, your daily activities, and exercise.

Good luck!

Thanks for your response and encouragement. The week prior to last week when I counted calories consumed, I ate an average of 2,565 calories per day. That week, I had gained 0.3 lbs. of fat according to my body composition monitor, so in order to have lost 0.5 lbs. of fat that week, I should have eaten 2,800 fewer calories or burned 2,800 more calories for the whole week (or 400 calories per day). (I calculated that because a lb. of fat is 3,500 calories, and 0.8 x 3,500 is 2,800.) That week, I burned 15,307 calories for the whole week (counting all kinds of burning, including BMR & exercise), so I should have instead burned 18,107 calories (15,307 + 2,800) in order to have lost 0.5 lbs. of fat. (I wear a Fitbit Ultra, so that's how I keep track of all my calories burned.) Last week when I wasn't counting calories consumed, I just aimed to burn at least 18,107 calories. I ended up burning 18,485 and lost 0.75 lbs. That week, I did about 7 hours cardio & 2 hours strength training, so my plan is to continue doing about that much exercise until it sinks to less than 0.5 lbs. fat loss per week (because metabolism usually decreases as body weight decreases), and when that happens, I'll increase my exercise. I know I don't eat exactly the same amount every week, but since I don't have time to track calories consumed, I'll just assume that I eat about the same amount each week.

What I want out of this thread is to hear some success stories (if any) from people who have reached a healthy weight and have done so by exercising a lot WHILE EATING A LOT, with "eating a lot" meaning about 2,500 or more calories for women and maybe about 2,800 or more calories for men. I know I'm going to have to keep increasing my exercising as my metabolism decreases, but I don't know how much I'm going to have to be exercising when I'm close to my goal; I'm hoping it's not too much more than I do now, since now I'm spending 9 hours a week exercising, which feels like a lot to me, but I'd rather increase exercising than decrease my eating because I love eating, so I'd like to hear about people who are at a healthy weight because their metabolisms are usually much lower than overweight people's, so their net calorie goals are much lower (you can see that MFP lowers your net calorie goal as you lose weight), so as people get really close to their healthy weight, it gets more difficult to lose weight, so if someone got to a healthy weight while eating a lot, that means they had to exercise a lot, and I'd like to hear about that because that would inspire me and make me feel more optimistic about what I'm trying to do (lose weight by exercising a lot while eating a lot).

Musikelektronik

If you're burning 15,000 calories per week, then that's about 2,186 per day. Therefore, in order to lose .5 lbs. per week, you need to eat 500 fewer calories than you're burning. That's about 1,686. If you'd like to lose 1.5 lbs. per week, then you should be eating about 1,436. If you're a man, that's pretty low. If you're a woman, it's probably an okay number.

Personally, I'm not sure how reliable it is to keep calculating your calorie burn on a weekly basis. If you've got an armband that'll tell you how many you're burning per day, why not take it day by day, trying to meet your calorie goals each day? And what do you mean, you don't have enough time to count calories? It's not that difficult. I spend maybe 10 minutes per day on it. You spent that much time just writing the post above.

But to go back to your original question, about eating "a lot" and losing weight, if you're burning only 2,186 per day but eating 2,500+ per day day, you're headed in the wrong direction. I'm not sure it's possible for you to ramp up your exercise enough so that you can get a 500-calorie-per-day deficit , which in turn would allow you to eat 2,500 or 2,800 calories. To do that, you'd have to burn an additional 1,000 calories per day on top of all the exercise you're doing already. I'm not sure that's humanly possible.

See what I mean?

canroadrunner

Go to groups and find the Eat More to Weigh Less group. Lots of success stories on there.

akiramezu

Lols, burning 2100 calories a day.
I train 4 hours a day and don't even burn off 1000. And I'm an elite athlete, what are you doing that's so amazing that I'm not?

canroadrunner

Lols, burning 2100 calories a day.
I train 4 hours a day and don't even burn off 1000. And I'm an elite athlete, what are you doing that's so amazing that I'm not?

I think she's talking overall TDEE

emmamcblain

Lols, burning 2100 calories a day.
I train 4 hours a day and don't even burn off 1000. And I'm an elite athlete, what are you doing that's so amazing that I'm not?

Well actually, I've burnt 1,700 calories in a three hour workout, so an extra 400 doesn't seem impossible. No need for bad attitude...

akiramezu

I wasn't giving attitude. I genuinely want to know
sorry if it sounded sarcastic

graelwyn

At my current weight, and doing around 90-120 minutes cycling a day, I can eat over 2000 calories a day and remain the same weight. And I was staying at 140Ibs (I am 5'9.5) eating pretty much what I wanted, as long as I did some exercise.

ChristinaOlliver

I used to be slim and ate a lot, but made up for it by exercising a lot too - jogging, gym, dance etc. This worked fine for me, but it is a slippery slope. It's really easy to fall out of the routine of exercise but continue to eat the same amount. This happened to me and I'm now paying for it as I'm trying to lose the 2 stone I ended up putting on. I know it's not what you want to hear but it is so much better to train yourself to eat healthily AND exercise than to only do one. You don't have to count calories but just try to make healthier choices, like when you eat out go for the lighter/healthier options on the menu.

Hope I've helped!

Musikelektronik

At my current weight, and doing around 90-120 minutes cycling a day, I can eat over 2000 calories a day and remain the same weight. And I was staying at 140Ibs (I am 5'9.5) eating pretty much what I wanted, as long as I did some exercise.

This kind of proves what I was saying earlier. Let's face it 1.5-2 hours a day of cycling is A LOT! Yet, you're still burning only enough calories to eat 2,000 per day.

The OP, on the other hand, wants to eat 2,500+ per day. Imagine how much exercise he/she would have to do to make that realistic! Four hours a day of cycling? Five hours? This is the same person who says that he/she doesn't have enough time to count calories!

juicemoogan

Lols, burning 2100 calories a day.
I train 4 hours a day and don't even burn off 1000. And I'm an elite athlete, what are you doing that's so amazing that I'm not?

I burn 1000 Calories doing 2 hours of high intensity Salsa Dancing or 1.25 hours of long distance running.

4 hours of training not equaling at least 1000 calories seems a bit strange,

mfpcopine

1) People who are now at a HEALTHY weight: were any of y'all able to reach and/or maintain your goal weight by exercising a lot WHILE EATING A LOT (like about an average of 2,500 calories per day or more)?????? ...Or does everyone eventually have to restrict their calorie intake a lot???? (I really don't want to and would rather exercise a lot, but I hope I never have to do more than 12 hours cardio per week.)

I've never been overweight, but I've certainly had the fantasy of treating the world like an all-day smorgasboard while working it off with exercise. I've never done it:

1) I've never had the time;

2) I don't love exercise.

Even if one could do this, it would be dangerous to pig out while relying on extraordinary amounts of exercise to create a calorie deficit. What if you don't have time? What if you get injured and can't resume your previous level of exercise and get really fat during your recovery? What happens when you get old and can't exercise with the same intensity? No, it's best to eat normally and exercise reasonably.

Musikelektronik

I've never been overweight, but I've certainly had the fantasy of treating the world like an all-day smorgasboard while working it off with exercise. I've never done it:

1) I've never had the time;

2) I don't love exercise.

Even if one could do this, it would be dangerous to pig out while relying on extraordinary amounts of exercise to create a calorie deficit. What if you don't have time? What if you get injured and can't resume your previous level of exercise and get really fat during your recovery? What happens when you get old and can't exercise with the same intensity? No, it's best to eat normally and exercise reasonably.

Well said.

defyallodds

well, i'm 5'2" and around 128 and can maintain eating around 2,300 cals/day while running about 40 miles per week in a sedentary job...so...I want to lose weight, but yeah, I just know that that's my maintenance...i too have trouble restricting calories and would rather exercise more so I can eat more, although sometimes exercising so much just takes a lot of time!

defyallodds

what kind of exercise? if you do cardio for 4 hours you can burn a lot more than doing strength training or easier cardio. running burns a ton of calories per hour. it also depends on the intensity...

LJCannon

I eat out A LOT (almost Daily) but I do watch what I eat, and order things Grilled or Broiled, with Sauces or Gravy 'on the side'.
I exercise an Average of 90 - 120 minutes a Day, a combination of Cardio & Strength Training.

mes1119

I've been trying to eat better but I keep having slip ups from stress/school/situations etc. I have been exercising a good 4-5 times a week (cardio and resistance training for my muscles ) and making sure I make better choices MOST of the time. Some days I'm eating well over 2000 calories (ESPECIALLY WEEKENDS) and I'm still losing about a pound a week. I only have about 10 pounds to lose so this is perfect for me. It is refreshing to know that I am not the only one that doesn't have to starve themselves to lose weight.

Maybe I'm just lucky. I have been active all of my life which I think aids in my muscle tone and metabolism. It wasn't until the past few months that some weight crept up on me (school, fast food, stopped exercising). I lost that very easily when I added exercise and made better food choices.

Mompanda4

Bump

petreebird

The OP, on the other hand, wants to eat 2,500+ per day. Imagine how much exercise he/she would have to do to make that realistic! Four hours a day of cycling? Five hours? This is the same person who says that he/she doesn't have enough time to count calories!

The OP states that she did 7 hours of cardio and 2 hours of strength training during the week, and averaged about 2500 calories a day.

abbygm

I would agree with the consensus in this thread. It is a slippery slope to rely on high cardiac output in the form of exercise to maintain your eating patterns. I am a marathon runner and run 50-60 miles weekly (usually 10 to 12 hours/week of intense exercise -- running 8-20 miles at 8mph daily). I also lift weights, swim and bike 2-3 times weekly. I do this because I love it. I count my calories on fitness pal to maintain my weight and to do this I eat about 2000-2500 calories/day. However, weeks that I cut back on my exercise, I have to cut my calories back as well. The more exercise that you do and the more fit you become the more conservative your body will become-- meaning you burn fewer calories and so you then need to exercise more to eat the amount you want. If you are exercising just to eat more, it probably is not the most ideal way to lose weight. if you are doing it because you love it - then go for it and realize that you will have to adjust your intake as you become more fit.

karinemary

I am 5'4 female and eat alot even though my limit on FP is 1200 cals! I'm exercising about an hour cardio 3 x a week
Can i lose weight on this? And the thing about spending fewer cals than I eat, does that mean if my limit is 1200, I should look to burn 1300 or so?

XXXMinnieXXX

It's impossible to out train a bad diet for long. You will have to look at the food soon. You can still eat a lit by eating the right things. My body had proved to me many a time that this is not just calories in vs calories out.

If it works for you and your happy with it carry on, but I'm pretty soon your going to need to look closer at this very soon. 2500 calories is a lot to be burning off and making a deficit on top of that.

Good luck.

Proyecto_AN

I eat alot, and burn alot. I usualy get into ketosis after my intensive interval cardio training (4+ hours) + strenght training and calisthenics. This means you don't need to be an elite athlete to burn 2100 cals or more; you just need to have a 100 lbs excess weight and alot of lean body mass.

allknowingtomato

I think it's weird that you justify not tracking by saying "i don't have time, i don't even have time for this post, i need to be studying" but you're willing to add hours to your gym time to be able to eat whatever you want.

I think you should call a spade a spade. It sounds (to me) like you want to eat crap because you've got an exam coming up (hello, stress eating!) and you are wanting permission/validatin from the community that this is fine.

if you don't have time to track your calories, where are the hours for the gym coming from? where is the time to type out these long posts?

You obviously do what you want an i hope it works for you (and i have heard of people eating heartily and working out aggressively and maintaining an acceptable weight), but don't say you're following this plan due to time constraints. your plan is not saving you any time (and when you're REALLY screwed and down to the wire, i bet you keep eating crap and drop the workout regime).

IMO, you're looking for a reason to make choices you know you shouldn't be making. eating poorly and in restaurants constantly is, for many, a bad habit that works against weight loss. it's up to you whether you want to practice a bad habit and tell yourself its for the best.

good luck on your test!

purrtypaws

Wow, this thread got revived after almost a year! I apologize for not responding to most of the posts; I don't know what happened; I think I thought not many people would respond and just forgot about this thread. Now I've read all the posts, and they are very helpful or interesting, so thank you, everyone.

I think it's weird that you justify not tracking by saying "i don't have time, i don't even have time for this post, i need to be studying" but you're willing to add hours to your gym time to be able to eat whatever you want.

I think you should call a spade a spade. It sounds (to me) like you want to eat crap because you've got an exam coming up (hello, stress eating!) and you are wanting permission/validatin from the community that this is fine.

if you don't have time to track your calories, where are the hours for the gym coming from? where is the time to type out these long posts?

You obviously do what you want an i hope it works for you (and i have heard of people eating heartily and working out aggressively and maintaining an acceptable weight), but don't say you're following this plan due to time constraints. your plan is not saving you any time (and when you're REALLY screwed and down to the wire, i bet you keep eating crap and drop the workout regime).

IMO, you're looking for a reason to make choices you know you shouldn't be making. eating poorly and in restaurants constantly is, for many, a bad habit that works against weight loss. it's up to you whether you want to practice a bad habit and tell yourself its for the best.

good luck on your test!

I think you and everyone else are right. I sometimes have a problem with stress eating and binge eating, and I LOVE eating yummy food, so I wanted to figure out a way to feel like I'm not restraining myself much eating-wise while still losing weight slowly, but when I made this thread, I was thinking, "Well, I've been spending about an hour a day counting calories (because I ate a lot of food for which the calorie information wasn't easy to find or figure out), so it would probably be healthier and more productive to spend that hour working out instead," ...but what ended up happening is that I got so stressed out with my studies that I gave up all exercise too; then I wasn't counting calories or exercising for several periods of time over the past year, and so I gained a little weight.

On February 28th, 2013, I decided to start trying to lose weight again and start using MFP and my Fitbit Ultra. The past 4.5 weeks have been great! What I do now is mentally set my goal to just losing 0.5 lbs. per week (250 calorie deficit per day), but on MFP and Fitbit, I set the goals at losing a whole pound per week (500 calorie deficit per day). Then, I can still have days where I eat a lot more than I burn, but those days balance out with the days that I have a 500-calorie deficit, and then I still end up losing half a pound or more per week on average. On average, I have lost 0.7 lbs. per week, so I am happy. For the first 4 weeks, there were 3 days (not each week, but for all 4 weeks) when I didn't log at all because those days I ate a lot of food at restaurants, and it was just too difficult to estimate the calories I ate, and I knew I ate more than I burned, so I just thought of it as like a "cheat" day and didn't log it (one day, for example, included a buffet at Mr. Gatti's, and I ate a lot --whatever I wanted), and there were some days I did log when I ate 2400 to 2700 calories, but, like I said, those days balanced out with the days I had a calorie deficit. For the days when I did keep track of the calories consumed (every day for the past 4.5 weeks, except for 3 days), I ate an average of 1,890 calories. I only averaged about 1.5 hours of cardio and about 2.5 hours of strength training per week, but now my focus is on calorie counting than exercising because I know there will be some weeks when I'll exercise more or less, and I will just adapt my calorie intake according to what MFP or Fitbit tells me. Now my focus is on trying to follow a 500-calorie deficit plan on most days but allowing myself to indulge and overeat on some days so that I don't feel too deprived --then I'll still lose half a pound or more per week and be happy. I feel like this is the best plan for me that I can stick to forever :-)

I am 5'4 female and eat alot even though my limit on FP is 1200 cals! I'm exercising about an hour cardio 3 x a week
Can i lose weight on this? And the thing about spending fewer cals than I eat, does that mean if my limit is 1200, I should look to burn 1300 or so?

Unless you have a health problem, I think a person will always lose fat if he/she is burning more calories than they consume. I don't think anyone's total daily calorie burn can be less then 1,200, even on days when they don't do ANY exercise (unless they have a medical problem), so yes, you should be able to lose weight eating 1200 calories per day while exercising 3 hours per week --I think you should be able to lose weight eating 1200 calories per day even if you didn't do any exercise, (but you should do at least 2.5 hours of cardio per week for heart health). I recommend that you get a Fitbit and link it to your MyFitnessPal account (I really want the new one called Fitbit Flex or whatever; I have the Fitbit Ultra) --that will tell you how much you burn every day, and it will even keep track of the extra calories you burn while grocery shopping or anywhere. I am 5'3" and 161-163 lbs., and even on days when I don't do any exercise, the minimum I've burnt on a day is 1,838 calories, but most days, it's more because even if I run only one errand or just some chores, it can add a couple hundred calories to that, so if you weigh less than me and happen to burn about 1700 calories per day without exericse, then your calorie deficit would be 500 if you ate 1200, which would equate to 1 pound of fat loss per week (and again, that's WITHOUT exercise).

Camille0502

I have never been able to lose weight by exercise alone. Now, exercise AND watching what I eat? Yes! That is the combination that works for me because I can still eat a pretty good amount, not feel like I'm starving all the time and lose weight.

I've tried to lose weight by just exercising and ended up not losing anything!

purrtypaws

I have never been able to lose weight by exercise alone. Now, exercise AND watching what I eat? Yes! That is the combination that works for me because I can still eat a pretty good amount, not feel like I'm starving all the time and lose weight.

I've tried to lose weight by just exercising and ended up not losing anything!

Yeah, you're right. Now I know to do both. I think before, whenever someone said, "watch what you eat," I was thinking that you have to feel like you're deprived and hungry most of the time, but I've been losing weight while counting calories and working out a moderate amount, and haven't felt too deprived (but it helps that I don't set my calorie-deficit goal so high and am just happy losing weight SLOWLY).

mfpcopine

Even when I exercised a lot, I never relied on it for weight loss or maintenance. I watched what I ate. I've never been overweight. Make no mistake, exercise is important for health, weight loss not so much, especially if you are planning on overeating.

waldo56

LOL @ 2500 calories being "a lot"

When cutting (which I'm about to do in a couple weeks), I set MFP to net 2200 calories, which gives me 1.0 lb/wk loss. Add in my ~800 calorie average per day exercise, and I eat 3K+ almost every day.

For that exercise
- I do something every day
- Walk 2 miles on my lunch breaks M-F
- Run 2x a week, a shorter faster run (~5k), and a longer slower run (~5m)
- Strengh train 4x a week, about 1.5 hours each
- Do 1-1.5 hours of yoga once a week