Beating a Dead Horse

MissKim

Here's my opinion

Our bodies are amazing!! You know that the more you eat the more your body wants to eat. That's why if you used to never eat breakfast b/c you aren't hungry in the mornings, but then all of a sudden you make yourself start eating breakfast, soon you'll be waking up to a growling stomach! The good thing about eating enough and eating often is that your body will use most of the food you eat for fuel. If you eat less food your body craves less food. but the bad thing about that is your body will store everything you put in it b/c it's not sure when it will get it's next meal! also, your metabolism is slower b/c your body is trying to use the least amount of energy as possible. Okay, with that said, who's to say the exact amount of calories your body needs?? No one really knows for sure. Everyones body is different! As long as you are eating the right things when you are hungry and stopping when you are full you will be fine. Learn how to fuel your body with healthy foods. Make sure your eating several small meals a day and don't kill yourself worrying about the calories. If you were to go on a fast your body would slowly start using stored fat as fuel (and other things) your metabolism would slow down but as soon as you come off the fast it would increase again. Your body changes with the changes of your eating habits. I'm not saying people should fast or anything, I'm just using that as an example. People who fast don't go into a "starvation mode" yes their metabolism slows down to match their calorie intake, but it can also reset itself when you start eating again. It is basically calories in/calories out!! Worrying about all these specifics can get our minds off of what's really important. Changing our unhealthy lifestyle and being healthy. You know what's healthy and not healthy! So just do what you know is right for your body! Everyone is different. The bigger you are the more of a calorie deficit you can have. (b/c your body will use stored fat mostly as fuel) but the smaller you get is when you need to have less of a deficit and lift weights. (so that your body will not use lean mass as fuel) Everyone is entitles to their own opinion. This is mine based on personal experience and research I've done.

As far as the Biggest Loser is concerned, they have alot of body fat so a big deficit isn't going to phase them. They also lift weights daily! as i said your body will use stored fat before it will muscle mass. but when you get to a lower body fat percentage lifting weights and eating enough calories becomes important!

MercuryBlue

WOW! Your reply was very mean to me.

I just want to hug you!

I liked your advice.

HeatherBurke

Ok, so I am going to be COMPLETELY vulnerable right now and make an emotional confession:

I am really asking the question because I want to start working out but it is soooo discouraging to stop losing the weight. When I was working out, I wasnt losing. And I felt great because my endorphines were running high! i had great amounts of energy and I was confident in myself. Until weigh in. and please dont tell me not to weigh in-I am incapable of not weighing in right now. For me, the inches are nice, BUT I NEED THE NUMBERS! Or I get discouraged. I am trying to find out how to work out and still drop for both aspects of benefits, you know? I really am scared to start working out, like anxiety scared. :frown:

That's how my body operates, too. Work out & no loss but don't work out & I see big losses. I'm also the same about the measuring, I need to see the number go down. :ohwell: I'm not scared to work out, I just don't see the point until I'm at a weight that I don't mind maintaining.

So you lost your weight without working out???

MissKim

I lost 50 lbs in 4 months before without working out. Losing weight is 90% diet. You can lose all your weight without ever breaking a sweat. The problem with this is the same reason that I gained that 50 pounds back in 3 months! Eating less will help you lose the weight, but you can't eat like that for the rest of your life to maintain that new weight! As soon as you return to your old eating habits you will gain the weight right back. Exercise and lifting weights transforms your body. The more muscle you have the more calories your body burns naturally and the higher your metabolism. That's why bodybuilders can eat thousands of calories in a day without gaining a pound. Their muscles burn it off before it can be stored. If you sincerly are trying to improve your health and change your lifestyle you should have no fear of exercise. 1lb of muscle is half the size of 1lb of fat. So ofcourse if your putting muscle on the scale won't budge much to begin with. But give it about a month of weight training, eating healthy, and doing cardio and the pounds will be melting off! and in the end when it's time to just maintain your weight, your new healthy lifestyle will be all you need!

MissKim

Ok, so I am going to be COMPLETELY vulnerable right now and make an emotional confession:

I am really asking the question because I want to start working out but it is soooo discouraging to stop losing the weight. When I was working out, I wasnt losing. And I felt great because my endorphines were running high! i had great amounts of energy and I was confident in myself. Until weigh in. and please dont tell me not to weigh in-I am incapable of not weighing in right now. For me, the inches are nice, BUT I NEED THE NUMBERS! Or I get discouraged. I am trying to find out how to work out and still drop for both aspects of benefits, you know? I really am scared to start working out, like anxiety scared. :frown:

That's how my body operates, too. Work out & no loss but don't work out & I see big losses. I'm also the same about the measuring, I need to see the number go down. :ohwell: I'm not scared to work out, I just don't see the point until I'm at a weight that I don't mind maintaining.

So you lost your weight without working out???

To reply to the person who wants to wait til goal weight to start working out: Just because you are skinny doesn't mean you are in shape. Being in shape means your body is functioning at an optimal level. Metabolism is high. You feel better on the inside, not just look better on the outside. Getting healthy shouldn't just be about looking better physically, exercise helps get you healthy on the inside. and both should be equally important. The "point" of exercise is to give you a strong heart, a strong mind, and a strong body. To be a healthier you! It also takes time to make exercising a habit, so if you wait til you've lost all your weight, it will still be just as hard to make a habit, so why not start sooner to help you lose the weight faster?

MelleyJ

Given the topic, I figured there would be a large response.
The truth in everything in life is, you have to do what works for you. I;ve learned this the past few weeks. I have taken advice from all sides and from experts. What works for some will not work for others.
My personal take, for what it's worth, is that "eating back" calories isn't a good way to look at exercise. To me, it's a justification to have a cookie, because you can work it off later. Or you can have a cookie because you worked out and you need the calories. Why not just eat the bare minimum and not workout? Then you don't have to eat more when you don't want the calories and you don't have to work hard either.
The benefits of exercise alone should be a factor in why we exercise. It's good for our hearts, our minds, & our bodies in general. Why do we have to associate calories with it? I don't even figure up how many calories I burn in a workout. What's the point? So I know how much I can eat afterwords? I personally eat above my RMR. I eat between 1400-1500 calories a day. I should eat more, but I started this doing the 1200kcal diet and I destroyed any metabolism I had, even with exercise. I now have an RMR of 1350, but given my BMI and my weight, I should have an RMR of 1500. Oops.. can't do much about it now. But I found that, when I exercise and I eat above my RMR, I am making a deficit. Forget the math. Forget what works for person x, because that didn't work for me. My body tells me what's best for me. I weigh myself every day. That's how I decided where my caloric intake, combined with my RMR (which I had tested professionally). Apparently I had a deficit since the scale was going down. I just stuck with that, because I was seeing results. I dont' care if my deficit is 500kcal or 300kcal. It's not a race to me. It's about changing my lifestyle. I will see the results in the end, and I will get to where I want to be when my body is ready. The difference between myself and somone on a 700kcal diet, hopefully, is that when I get there I will stay there. Because I am changing my lifestyle and I am weiging myself every day to keep myself acountable and to keep myself on track.
I hope that this helps you answer your question. The people on the biggest loser are a great inspiration because they are working hard to make a change. It works for them. But go back and look at the contestants on the show several years later. Were they able to exercise for 8 hours a day and maintain that rapid weight loss when they got home? I know I don't have that kind of time, so I dont' expect to see myself losing 8-10 lbs a week. But I do live a balanced life now, with exercise and by eating the foods I want. I just eat better portion sizes. I go out with my fiends and my husband and eat at restaurants. I am just more careful about what I choose and how much I eat.
My point.. find out what's right for you and what works for you. Listen to your body, because your body is different than mine or anyone elses. Good luck with your weight loss and I hope you make not just your goal in numbers, but that you also make the ultimate goal we all have here.. to change your lifestyle.

PJilly

My personal take, for what it's worth, is that "eating back" calories isn't a good way to look at exercise. To me, it's a justification to have a cookie, because you can work it off later. Or you can have a cookie because you worked out and you need the calories. Why not just eat the bare minimum and not workout? Then you don't have to eat more when you don't want the calories and you don't have to work hard either.
The benefits of exercise alone should be a factor in why we exercise. It's good for our hearts, our minds, & our bodies in general. Why do we have to associate calories with it?

I agree that the benefits of exercise should be why do it. However, I eat my exercise calories, not as justification to have a cookie but as fuel for my body so it can be strong for my exercise. We associate calories with exercise because calories = energy. At least, that's the way I look at it.