exercising without diet for weight loss

kdiamond

The saying goes you can't out exercise a bad diet

^^^ This

Why do it half-@ssed? If u want to lose weight for good you need to establish healthy habits all around.

That being said, maybe if u wanted to indulge 1 day a week u could exercise all out that one day (more so than the rest of the week) to enable yourself to eat a little more and probably even it all out. But not daily.

Why do it half-@ssed?

Because some people are not ready to change everything, so if you can at least change one thing that is better than nothing.

Many of us here are ready to take on the food and exercise portions of a healthy lifestyle, but not everyone is. There is constantly too much judgmental behavior here when someone else doesn't do things the way that worked them.

My opinion is not judgmental...ask any professional they will say you need to establish healthy habits for longevity of weight loss.

Exercising until you burn 1000 calories a day is extreme behavior and nobody, except maybe professional atheletes, would be able to tolerate it for long periods of time. That's setting you up for failure.

OP asked if it would work, just stating my opinion that it won't.

Edited for spelling.

JustJennie1

The saying goes you can't out exercise a bad diet

^^^ This

Why do it half-@ssed? If u want to lose weight for good you need to establish healthy habits all around.

That being said, maybe if u wanted to indulge 1 day a week u could exercise all out that one day (more so than the rest of the week) to enable yourself to eat a little more and probably even it all out. But not daily.

Why do it half-@ssed?

Because some people are not ready to change everything, so if you can at least change one thing that is better than nothing.

Many of us here are ready to take on the food and exercise portions of a healthy lifestyle, but not everyone is. There is constantly too much judgmental behavior here when someone else doesn't do things the way that worked them.

My opinion is not judgmental...ask any professional they will say you need to establish healthy habits for longevity of weight lisd.

Exercising until you burn 1000 calories a day is extreme behavior and anybody will not be able to tolerate it for long periods of time. That's setting you up for failure.

OP asked if it would work, just stating my opinion that it won't.

If they are truly counting their calories and creating a deficit with their exercise then it will work. A person needs to create a 500 calorie deficit either by exercise alone, diet alone or both.

jlemoore

True Story- A few years ago, I trained for a 1/2 marathon to help me lose weight. I was running 20 hours/week. I lost exactly NOTHING!!! Because I did not change my diet.

Oh and I ate very well. Lots of fruits and veggies, very little fatty foods. But I did not count calories and worry about the overall calorie count.

And to those who say that I gained muscle and that it weigh more than fat. I wore the same size pants as when I started.

(And by the way- a pound of muscles is the same as a pound of fat- they both WEIGH a POUND!!! Mucles i more dense. Thus it a pound of muscle takes up less space than a pound of fat.)

geebusuk

If you haven't seen the 'documentary' fat head; have a watch (err, I haven't yet) - he gets in much better shape by just eating McDonalds I believe.

I eat what a lot of people would consider 'garbage' a lot of the time, yet I'm leaner and fitter than I've ever been.

At various points last year I was often eating 2500-3000 calories a day and still losing as I was still at a 500-1000 deficit.
Heck, on my Birthday I hit 5000 calories (nice pub dinner, chocolate and crisps in the day etc) and still weighed less the morning after thanks to burning 6000 calories that day.

However, of course you do need to account for the fact that on a calorie deficit your body has some 'tricks' to keep energy - at a lower weight on a deficit I tend to be noticeably colder at night. If you're not careful, you can be more lethargic too.

Oh and yes - thanks to McDonalds burgers being pretty teeny, the calories really aren't that bad.
I'm not that bothered by the chips, so happy to stick to the burger and my own can of Coke Zero if I do go there.

kdiamond

The saying goes you can't out exercise a bad diet

^^^ This

Why do it half-@ssed? If u want to lose weight for good you need to establish healthy habits all around.

That being said, maybe if u wanted to indulge 1 day a week u could exercise all out that one day (more so than the rest of the week) to enable yourself to eat a little more and probably even it all out. But not daily.

Why do it half-@ssed?

Because some people are not ready to change everything, so if you can at least change one thing that is better than nothing.

Many of us here are ready to take on the food and exercise portions of a healthy lifestyle, but not everyone is. There is constantly too much judgmental behavior here when someone else doesn't do things the way that worked them.

My opinion is not judgmental...ask any professional they will say you need to establish healthy habits for longevity of weight lisd.

Exercising until you burn 1000 calories a day is extreme behavior and anybody will not be able to tolerate it for long periods of time. That's setting you up for failure.

OP asked if it would work, just stating my opinion that it won't.

If they are truly counting their calories and creating a deficit with their exercise then it will work. A person needs to create a 500 calorie deficit either by exercise alone, diet alone or both.

Yes of course in theory it would work. My point was it just isn't sustainable in the long run...really even in the short run.

sandiki

If your metabolism is already in high gear..I say yes. It will take time to acclimate, if not. And consistancy in your activity level.

peilover010202

have you tried to burn 1000cals a day? Holy crap! That's a pretty high bar to set. I can spend an hour doing circuit training each day and burn around 400cals, 45min of spnning is about 400-500cals.

I guess it's possible. Just much more time intensive.

dorianaldyn

When I was younger I was able to lose weight through exercise alone, but I also had a generally healthy diet free of soda & junk food.

Now that I'm a lot closer to 40, what I eat is the biggest factor when it comes to my weight. I like what they say on here - Weight loss happens in the kitchen; fitness happens at the gym.

EmilyOfTheSun

When I first started working out, I didn't give two sh*ts about what I ate. I did still lose weight....but as soon as I started taking food into account too, I started losing more frequently and more consistently.

SARgirl

I did this the year before I started MFP and I lost 10 pounds but then was maintaining. It wasn't until I actually paid attention to how much I was actually eating that I lost the rest of the weight. I did not remove any foods from my "diet" I just learned portion control.

Me48Plus2

The prob just dieting and not exercising, is you'll have to continually eat less and less to get a weight loss. Boost the metabolism through exercise to burn more.

AnvilHead

The big point I made earlier was that the OP would lose weight, but should make sure tracking calories and exercise is a big part of it! Tracking is the real eye opener!

The fly in the ointment is that many people tend to underestimate their calorie intake and overestimate their caloric expenditure. Missing by a little bit here and a little bit there adds up very quickly. What some people think is a 1,000 calorie burn may, in reality, be closer to a 500 calorie burn. There goes your deficit.

jlemoore

Love this article. It explains why you can't just exercise a bad diet.

http://blackgirlsguidetoweightloss.com/work-it-out/why-you-cant-just-burn-those-cookies-off/

bcattoes

True Story- A few years ago, I trained for a 1/2 marathon to help me lose weight. I was running 20 hours/week. I lost exactly NOTHING!!! Because I did not change my diet.

Oh and I ate very well. Lots of fruits and veggies, very little fatty foods. But I did not count calories and worry about the overall calorie count.

And to those who say that I gained muscle and that it weigh more than fat. I wore the same size pants as when I started.

So, either the running was not more exercise that you were doing before you started training, or you were actively gaining weight before you started, right?

bcattoes

The big point I made earlier was that the OP would lose weight, but should make sure tracking calories and exercise is a big part of it! Tracking is the real eye opener!

It wasn't for me. I lost most of my weight before joining MFP or tracking anything. Just through exercise. When I joined and started tracking, my diet was right where MFP said it should be.

geebusuk

Love this article. It explains why you can't just exercise a bad diet.

Irksome - though it was going to be an article not a video.

And it doesn't explain anything of the sort.

Of course it's quicker to eat calories rather than exercise them off.
Doesn't mean it can't be done if you do it right.

Lets say I was going to have a 500 calorie meal anyway, instead of 1000 calories for pizza.
So that leaves me 500 calories to burn. Me, I actually quite LIKE that I'm forced to go out and cycle off 400 calories, then do an extended dog walk to do the last 100. That means that I get BOTH the food I like AND the exercise that will make my body fitter.

Oh and for the record - around 3800 of calories consumed in 40 minutes of pizza eating by me .
But, had cycled for around 3 hours that day and done 3 hours of rock climbing.

Remo_Williams

drgndancer mentioned this earlier, but it is really the key to the whole thing and IMO everything else on here is either a big distraction or doesn't fully explain why:

If you add exercise and truly don't change your diet or your base level of activity during the day, you can lose weight. However, you must still track what you eat and what you do because of your body's auto-regulation. Two things start to happen on a subconcious level:

1. Your appetite will subtly increase and you won't notice that you are eating those extra calories every day unless you are tracking it - exercise will "work up an appetite" as the old saying goes.

2. Your base level of movement may decrease subtly, maybe you sit for longer periods rather than walking around, or you fidget less, etc. Your body starts to conserve energy - exercise will make you tired, go to bed earlier, etc. (Yes you can get a hormonal energy boost like with a runner's high, etc. but this is a short term release. Also over the long term getting "in shape" in general can result in your body getting more efficient and you feel like you have more energy due to a lowered BMR from carrying less weight around, having a lower resting heart rate, etc., but these are both separate from the discussion here.)

The same thing as #2 happens to many people who cut calories but do not add in any exercise, they simply move less during the day without realizing it and their weight loss stalls and they don't know why.

This is why tools like MFP are so important. They allow us to really track what's going on and not let our bodies "trick" our minds.

I hope this helps.

cwolfman13

Tracking what you eat is WAY easier than just piling on the exercise. Not only that, but building good eating habits will help you stay healthy when you reach your goal. Watching what you eat doesn't mean having to diet or eating bad food, it just means making smarter decisions when you do eat.

This...not to mention, if you're actually burning 1,000 calories at the gym, you're probably over working your body. If you're not very fit, you're most definitely overworking your body...if you are very fit, it's going to be a real struggle to burn that many calories working out.

Pretty much everyone I know who's tried to exercise away their diet has ultimately failed. Diet (noun) for weight control, exercise for fitness and strength.

ekiana123

Actually. I have had no choice but to diet without exercise. I tore my ACL in my left knee and still managed to lose 11 pounds so far. I think it would be easier to lose weight with some exercise. I think it would help drive away hunger pangs. Now have to have knee surgery and wonder when I can start exercising :P

meshashesha2012

The saying goes you can't out exercise a bad diet

this.

i worked out.. hard workouts... all while becoming 80 pounds overweight.