Why do people say losing weight is mainly about diet
jaz050465
Posts: 3,508 Member
MFP gives me 1200 cals. If i set activity level to sedentary. I'm 5ft 7, 151 pounds and female and am happy to lose a pound a week.
I've just got a fitbit. Yesterday I did two dog walks, went to the shops and did JM body revolution. This gave me an extra 1000 calories which is HUGE. I ate about half which then put me at a much mire manageable 1700 calories to eat, but still this 500 calories deficit would allow me to in theory lose an extra pound a week.
Am I confused somewhere?
I've just got a fitbit. Yesterday I did two dog walks, went to the shops and did JM body revolution. This gave me an extra 1000 calories which is HUGE. I ate about half which then put me at a much mire manageable 1700 calories to eat, but still this 500 calories deficit would allow me to in theory lose an extra pound a week.
Am I confused somewhere?
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Replies
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I think MFP calculates the calorie reduction of 500 calories per day for that 1 lb/week . So say you need 2000 calories to maintain and it lets you eat 1500 calories...you are supposed to lose a pound/week.
If you burn 250 calories with exercise...you can eat 1750 and still have your 500 calorie reduction...see?
or you could go easy on yourself and say...reduce your food intake by 250 and exercise for 250 and just not eat what you exercised off. That way you don't have to eat 500 calories less.
It only gets harder when we try to pressure ourselves and say...Oh I will eat 500 calories less ( 1500 intake ) and exercise for 1 hour ( 500 calories ) and I will lose faster because your net is now 1500 - 500 = 1000 calories/day.
That being said, that 3500 calories = 1 lb doesn't always hold true. When I did WW I went from 160 t0 148 quickly without exercise. But when I switched to exercise and a low carb diet the weight I lost was probably 3 lbs but the inches and body fat reduction was pretty significant.
its exactly what they say...two women can be 130 lbs and yet look very different from each other depending on how they got to 130 lbs.0 -
What I'm trying to say is that doing not a ridiculous amount of exercise means I can now eat. More sustainable amount, plus lose double the amount so exercise for me makes a HUGE difference.0
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MFP gives me 1200 cals. If i set activity level to sedentary. I'm 5ft 7, 151 pounds and female and am happy to lose a pound a week.
I've just got a fitbit. Yesterday I did two dog walks, went to the shops and did JM body revolution. This gave me an extra 1000 calories which is HUGE. I ate about half which then put me at a much mire manageable 1700 calories to eat, but still this 500 calories deficit would allow me to in theory lose an extra pound a week.
Am I confused somewhere?
The key words here are "in theory".
The body isn't a simple calorie/fat cash machine.
A calorie deficit does not necessarily mean that your body has to give up fat.
It can slow down metabolism, not do maintenance, lose muscle or do any number of things that is not liberating fat.
Even in the face of exercise the body does not have to give up fat at anywhere near 3500cals=1lb fat (which is grossly inaccurate anyway). The body has less nutrients AND it is being worked harder ... Hmmm, likely to want to hang onto some fat maybe?
Likewise, a calorie surplus does not necessarily mean that your body has to put fat on.
It can speed up metabolism, increase temperature, increase involuntary movement, gain muscle, etc.
And, here is the key thing about why diet is important ... what those calories consist of have a HUGE bearing on what the body is likely to do with them.
Yes, calories count at some point but I think we give the body too little credit for being able to remain healthy and lean in the face of a reasonably varied caloric intake.
I eat what I see as filling, nutrient dense, long-term health-promoting diet and looking good naked comes as a nice by-product.
And I don't do much exercise ... a bit of walking, some push ups ... eat right and you don't have to ...
I'll say again:
1) You don't HAVE to gain fat in a caloric surplus
2) You don't HAVE to lose fat in a caloric deficit (and never mind the 3500cals=1lb fat lost nonsense)0 -
Great info from DeadVim ^^
The basic of what he is talking about relates to nutrient density.
Typically:
Calorie surplus --> Gain mass
Calorie deficit --> Lose mass
But what does this mass consist of?
That's where other nutrients come in.
If you are eating a nutrient deficient diet consisting of starches, you may lose mass if you are in a calorie deficit. However, you may be losing mass from your bones (bone density de-mineralization), or you may be losing mass from your valuable muscle tone (which is valuable lean mass).
On the other hand, if you are consuming a balanced diet that meets nutrient requirements while creating a calorie deficit, then the chances are more likely that you will burn body-fat as opposed to lean mass.
Assuming you aren't doing endurance exercise (like marathons), most exercise has a tendency to promote lean body mass -- this is good because it makes you feel better and helps with metabolism.
Now, ask ANY personal trainer, and they will tell you that the best exercise in the world can NOT possibly make up for a horrible diet. And that's the FACT that answers your question.0 -
You lose weight in the kitchen, not in the gym.0
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Remember, MFP sets a mimimum of 1200 calories regardless, so if the real figure it 'wants' to calculate is actually 950 say, it'll still show 1200.
I'm not sure how this works with exercise.
But yes, so far with me now that I've got a fairly accurate way to calculate calories burnt (motoactv watch), it seems to work doing a load of exercise to allow me to eat an extra 1000 calories a day or whatever.
I'm certainly looking forward to reaching my goal, whereupon after a gentle reintroduction, I can bump myself up 1250 calories (to start gaining some muscle); doubling my calorie base line.0 -
exercise makes a big difference, but i suppose if you have a horrible diet to begin with then just changing that would make a big difference as well0
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1. That 1000 calories sounds pretty high to me. This morning I walked 40 minutes to the gym, exercised for an hour and walked 40 minutes home. Total 600 calories burned.
2. AND (for both me and you) you need to realise that even if you'd done nothing but lie completely still for all that time you still would have been burning calories. To log 1000 exercise calories you need to burn an extra 1000 calories.
Everyone is different and you need to work out what works for you but I know for me to lose weight it's all about the food. Exercise is important for a myriad of reasons but it doesn't compensate for poor eating. That's why you can train for a marathon (and successfully run it) and still be chubby.0 -
What I'm trying to say is that doing not a ridiculous amount of exercise means I can now eat. More sustainable amount, plus lose double the amount so exercise for me makes a HUGE difference.
Or you could realize that you really aren't sedentary, eat a reasonable amount, plus your exercise calories back.
I'm only 2 inches taller then you and when I was losing, I was eating between 1500-1800 calories a day... before exercise calories.
Now that I'm set to TDEE, I can eat up to 2100 a day and lose.0 -
Im noy saying i I can eat rubbish and exercise if off, I'm saying that exercise allows me to eat a normal healthy diet. I feel living in 1200 calories for me is not sustainable, I just feel deprived and binge but if I do my two 40 minute walks and a Furness DVD, I'm hoping to be able to put it up to 1700 cals and still lose about 1-1.5 pounds a week.
1000 over sedentary seems high to me too bug that's what Fitbit said. I take in board that MFP may have in fact had to put it up to 1200 as that is their minimum.0 -
Ive just put my stats into a TDEE clalculayir and it comes up as 1674. Bearing in mind MFP has taken off 500 for a pound a week eight loss, the 1200 figures seems reasonable. Again this is for no exercise. I also calculated it for exercising daily and it went up by 1000 calories- again similar to my fitbit question. So surely if I am exercising, it's got to have a big effect in my fat loss to.
I hear this 80% diet and 20% exercise figure banded about a lot but don't know where it comes from.
I'm not training to justify eating crap, just not live on cottage cheese and lettuce leaves.0 -
it's mainly about diet because exercise can't make up for putting a bunch of crap in your body.
especially if it's processed or refined crap where you don't get proper nutrients AND picture this say this is what you consumed in one day
Breakfast:
How about a doughnut AND a latte we will throw that in the calorie count as 200 for a small doughnut and maybe 160+ for the latte
current tally 360
Snack -
Doritos lets chomp down 250 calories
current tally 610 damn and it's not even lunch time but I want to stop at mcdonalds and eat a bare minimum of 1000 calories
so 1610
and some more crap throughout the rest of the day lets just end the tally at about 2900 calories.
Could you imagine how long and hard you would have to work off ALL those additional calories to just break even? and then since you just ate crap all day you wont have the energy to do so anyways.
and that's just the calories0 -
What works for me is I eat my BMR only. 2100 cals. If I am running pure low carb I can add 500 calories and still easily lose. I have been slacking this last few weeks but still managed to lose 5 lb by just sticking to my calorie limits even with only hitting the gym twice last week.0
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I invite you to read Gary Taubes, Why We Get Fat and What To Do About It. In it, he explains how losing weight has nothing to do with calories in/calories out. It has everything to do with the quality and type of the calories you're eating and how they affect insulin in your body.0
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So if my TDEE is 1700 and I burn 1000 in activity. What should I be eating. As I say, I'm not eating crap. For instance after exercise is like a glass of milk and a banana but at 1200 cals, it's difficult to fit in luxe ties like that. Also, as a vegetarian, on low calories I can't really eat nuts, advicacos and cheese on very low calories. I'm NIT talking about eating donuts for breakfast.0
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Diet is more important than exercise. Because if you eat really unhealthy no amount of exercise is going to save you from getting or staying fat. There's plenty of people that eat 3000-4000 calories a day, without being very aware that they're eating that much. Heavy exercise for an hour of 2 might give them another 1000 calories they can eat, but they will still be over.
Once you've got your diet under control (ie. not eating more than you need) exercise will make a difference, but if you don't have your diet right you can become fatter even while exercising plenty.0 -
Reducing calories by 15-20% below TDEE is a good place to start. A larger deficit may be necessary in some cases, but the best approach would be to keep the calorie deficit through diet small while increasing activity level.
Example 1:
Your weight is 120 lbs.
Your TDEE is 2033 calories
Your calorie deficit to lose weight is 500 calories
Your optimal caloric intake for weight loss is 2033 - 500 = 1533 calories
Example 2:
Your calorie deficit to lose weight is 20% of TDEE (.20% X 2033 = 406 calories)
Your optimal caloric intake for weight loss = 1627 calories0 -
So if my TDEE is 1700 and I burn 1000 in activity. What should I be eating. As I say, I'm not eating crap. For instance after exercise is like a glass of milk and a banana but at 1200 cals, it's difficult to fit in luxe ties like that. Also, as a vegetarian, on low calories I can't really eat nuts, advicacos and cheese on very low calories. I'm NIT talking about eating donuts for breakfast.
Your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) includes your activity.
I'm not really sure what you're asking. You mean to say you've set MPF to give you 1200 calories a day? If you're exercising worth 1000 calories a day you could (and should) eat more than that 1200. Probably not 1000 extra since the calculations can be wildly off, but eat another 750 or so. That gives your 1950 calories for the day. Which is actually about the average recommended for a female. You can definitely add some nuts or cheese in there.
In fact, I eat 2000 calories a day, and eat cheese and nuts every single day.0 -
We’ve been trying to figure out an exact NUMBER of calories that everyone should be eating, without recognizing that everyone is slightly different. In truth, the calories aren’t the end game. Your body is. So the EXACT amount of Calories that are right for you is the EXACT amount that will allow you to maintain your ideal bodyweight no matter what some calculator or chart says.
In other words, an online calculator might tell you that you need to eat 2,500 calories
per day to maintain your ideal bodyweight. But the only way to know for sure if this is
the right amount for you is to test it out. If you gain weight or can’t lose weight eating
that much, then you know you need to eat less to lose weight no matter how many
calculators and text books say otherwise.
This doesn’t mean your metabolism is broken, it just means the estimate of your needs
was just a bit off.
-John Barban
It is silly to get hung up on a calorie number like 1200 calories. This number is relative to your BMR. If you are a bigger person this is a low number, if you are small like me this is a large number, barely below my RMR.
If you have a lot of body fat reserves you would be surprised at how little you can eat (unless you have emotional eating issues or disorders). The leaner you get the less your body has to draw from and then you have to taper up your calories. There is no such thing as starvation mode for woman over 12% body fat or men over 6% body fat. I pretty much proved that for myself by staying strong and building muscle and doing what I did. I'm the leanest, most muscular, and most fit that I have ever been in my life at almost 52 years old.
Separating out the the two things worked for me:
1) Eat less to lose fat.
2) Exercise to gain or maintain lean body mass.
Ignore exercise calories because it's insignificant when you don't have to worry about starvation mode anymore and it's highly over rated. Of course you burn energy, but not nearly what any of the devices say you do.
If you are not doing a weight training routine you need to start one and do it the rest of your life to ward off osteoporosis.
The full story of my struggle with this here and why I know this is true --> http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/740340-i-lost-60-lbs-at-age-51-anyone-can-any-workout0 -
Losing weight and keeping it off is mostly about how much and what you eat. However losing weight and keeping it off is also about increasing activity as you can and what goes on in your head so you can sustain new healthier habits.0
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So if my TDEE is 1700 and I burn 1000 in activity. What should I be eating. As I say, I'm not eating crap. For instance after exercise is like a glass of milk and a banana but at 1200 cals, it's difficult to fit in luxe ties like that. Also, as a vegetarian, on low calories I can't really eat nuts, advicacos and cheese on very low calories. I'm NIT talking about eating donuts for breakfast.
If Im not mistaken...TDEE has already taken into consideration your activity level...So what you wanna find out is what your RMR/BMR numbers are and make sure you dont go below those numbers....Thats what your body needs for proper functioning0 -
What works for me is I eat my BMR only. 2100 cals. If I am running pure low carb I can add 500 calories and still easily lose. I have been slacking this last few weeks but still managed to lose 5 lb by just sticking to my calorie limits even with only hitting the gym twice last week.
This is what works for me plus/minus 50 cals on any given day....and I stopped logging my exercise cals...I was told if im eating my BMR and working out...eating back my exercise cals was defeating the purpose!!! Granted I spread my cals (50/25/25) Carbs/fat/pro...staying within 5% over/under of each0 -
You can't out train a bad diet.0
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After 2 weeks wearing your fitbit youll know what to eat.
Protip: In 2 weeks hop on the fitbit website and check cals burned by week.
For instance mine says that last week I burned 17,500 cals appx.
The week before I burned 17,200.
So its safe to say that if I do the same things week after week that i'll burn about 2400-2500 a day.
To lose a pound a week you cut about 20% off that number for a goal of 2k a day without eating back cals.
Just know that using the sedentary setting and working out 3-5x a week is setting yourself up for failure.
Sedentary sits around.....0 -
Losing weight is mainly about diet because you could do an insane amount of exercise and still be gaining weight, if you ate more calories than you use. Look at Sumo wrestlers (where they want to be heavy but also have strength). The aren't sedentary. They train. They eat a lot.
From Jillian Michaels (on Extreme Shed & Shred): "Two slices of pizza can wipe out Level 1 and Level 2 … you've got to eat right." (And it's true, the calories in 2 slices of typical pizza are about what I burn doing the whole 75 minutes, or more).0 -
So if my TDEE is 1700 and I burn 1000 in activity. What should I be eating. As I say, I'm not eating crap. For instance after exercise is like a glass of milk and a banana but at 1200 cals, it's difficult to fit in luxe ties like that. Also, as a vegetarian, on low calories I can't really eat nuts, advicacos and cheese on very low calories. I'm NIT talking about eating donuts for breakfast.
If Im not mistaken...TDEE has already taken into consideration your activity level...So what you wanna find out is what your RMR/BMR numbers are and make sure you dont go below those numbers....Thats what your body needs for proper functioning
Sorry. I know I've done this an odd way. When I calculated my TDEE I said I was sedentary - I also did the in MFP as I wanted to then see the fitbit adjustment. More motivating for me to increase my steps.
It seems I'd be better just using the step number as motivation though and ignoring a lot of the extra calories it gives me. That's what a lot of people are saying ( I think).0 -
People say that because it's true. If you exercise and burn calories then you can eat more, but it has the same effect on your weight loss as not exercising and not eating those extra calories.
Exercise does not equal weight loss. It has everything to do with how much you eat. You can work out 2 hours a day, but if you're eating more calories than you burn you're going to gain weight.0 -
This is one of those things that people can go around and around and around on, because there are various ways of looking at this.
In theory, if someone is maintaining her weight on 2500 calories per day (as an example), if she continued to eat those same 2500 calories but added daily exercise that burned 500 calories, she would lose about a pound per week. So it IS possible in my opinion to lose weight via exercise w/o changing diet... in theory.
In real life, there are various problems that crop up with those approach.
First off, exercising stimulates appetite in most people.
Furthermore, people tend to overestimate their calories burned and underestimate their intake.
This leads to people sometimes eating as much as or even more than they burned, so no weight loss.
Second issue is that many people are not starting from maintenance but actually gaining. There are people are eating 3000 calories a day, or more, when they would need only 2500 to maintain. So if they tried to exercise off enough calories to create a deficit, they'd have to burn an extra 1000 or more every day, on top of whatever activity they'd been doing previously, and refrain from increasing their intake. Hard to do.
In your case, I would be careful about your calories burned estimates. Some calculators include your resting metabolic rate along with the extra calories burned from activity. This is not a problem if you are only logging actual exercise sessions of 30-60 minutes, as this represents only 50 or so calories per hour for most people. But if you're logging many hours of everyday, activity, that can lead to a miscalculation of 200 or more calories per day.0 -
Thanks SOOOO much for the replies but some people aren't understanding what I'm saying. I've used MFP and fit bit to calculate my figures. I've set MFP to sedentary and then using Fitbit to add on any calories for any extra i do!
I repeat, I AM NOT saying I can eat crap and exercise it away. I am saying that without exercising, if I wanted to lose a pound a week I could only eat 1200 Cals which for me is mentally unsustainable. If I walk a lot and exercise, I know have lots of extra calories to allow me to eat a bit more ( but still healthy food). Therefore for me, exercise is essential.0
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