Losing Weight is 80% Diet- BS

jennpaulson

Almost all of the weight I have lost so far has been due to changing my eating habits, healthier choices, logging everything I eat and the biggest part of it was portion control for me. I haven't really cut anything out of my diet, but I am now aware of what a serving size is. My family finds the measuring cups on the table at dinner funny but it's working for me and I'm sticking with it.
I'm exercising now to strengthen and tone, not really lose weight.

pcastagner

I can eat 1200 calories and GAIN weight if I am not exercising..even though I am well below my BMR at 1200 calories.
(ie I could NOT lose weight on nutrisystem)

Surely this is why you could be gaining? a little too low!

I Think for me, about 70-30 towards food I lost all my weight with food choices, now adding in some exercise dailyx

You wont gain weight from eating too little! ! If that were the case annorexic people and starving africans would be fat.
Its not good for you to eat too little, but it won't make you gain. I've lost a stone since January on 1200 and it never slowed down and I was never overweight to start with.
If someone is gaining eating 1200cals a day, more than likely they are underestimating their calories or over estimating exercise calories.

Ive gained on too little And i logged obsessively too x I wont go into more detail as i dont like posting on forums usually

If you gain FAT and not water weight on eating at 1200 you need to see a doctor. I'm not saying it's right for everyone, it's definitely not, but nobody should gain on eating less.

Yeah everyone is different, it must be remembered. but its other factors too, like making you eat MORE because of starving (more crap, easy food), and i didnt say anything about fat gain, just gained in general My metabolism was slowed right down to a point where food wasnt being processed properly, hence a gain.

Screw the doctor, if you gain mass by putting less energy into your body than it expends, you need to see a physicist. He or she will be most likely willing to share some of the Nobel prize money with you after explaining this new exception to the laws of thermodynamics.

Also, world hunger problem SOLVED! All they need to do is eat less! Who knew? We can now help out in disaster stricken regions by simply signing everyone up for MFP.

Seriously, I don't understand why it is so common for people to assume the problem must be an exception to basic natural laws, rather than, just maybe, a mistake somehow resulting in incorrect predictions.


To the OP, weight loss is 100% diet.

Falenea

hmmm

geebusuk

Screw the doctor, if you gain mass by putting less energy into your body than it expends, you need to see a physicist. He or she will be most likely willing to share some of the Nobel prize money with you after explaining this new exception to the laws of thermodynamics.

Indeed.

If you are putting weight on in the long term with 1200 calories, 'CICO' still applies.
Either you are eating more calories than you believe you are (and with some products containing a lot more than stated, not hard), or your body is expending less energy than you think it is.

mamadon

See my ticker below? This is around 90% from calorie deficit. I rarely exercise simply because I am lazy. I should for good health yes,and toning, but just for weight loss, I am doing ok without it.

jenilla1

For me, personally, it's 100% diet. Eating is for weight management, and exercise is for fitness, fun and stress-reduction. I have always been active - running, hiking, backpacking, strength training, etc. Doing those things didn't do a thing for my weight. Eating fewer calories is what did the job.

In fact, when training for my first marathon I remember being amazed when I gained weight over time. It's because I was NOT tracking my food, but I sure was over-eating it in response to my increased appetite from training. After I realized my mistake, I've been able to both lose and/or maintain weight while training simply by tracking my calories. It's different for everyone though, so do what works for you. :flowerforyou:

symonspatrick

95 to 100 percent diet for me. I gained 100 pounds with a lot of exercise and a high calorie diet. Now I have lost 152 pounds from my highest weight with lower calories and 15 to 30 minutes per day exercise.

Shr3dded

Weight loss is undoubtedly 80-100% diet. You just aren't trying hard enough.

bobf279

When i exercised without watching my diet I didn't gain or lose any weight at all so exercise didn't work. When I watched how much I ate (rather than what) the pounds started to melt away.

lynchyboyeeeee

http://www.muscleandstrength.com/articles/losing-body-fat-and-cutting-without-losing-muscle.html

read that article as it tells you a little bit about the body and metabolism etc and how it works for example if you eat too little then your body will go into starvation mode and try to store any fat from your food so it can survive thus maybe a little weight gain. I constantly read about eating 6 small meals a day as opposed to 3 normal meals as the best way to speed up metabolism is to eat little and often to stop your body starving. One example I read on this was if you think of your body as a fire and food as fuel. If you throw a massive log on a fire and leave it then it will smother it and eventually go out but if you throw on small bits of wood often then the fire will burn better, faster and hotter. I am no expert but this is my opinion

geebusuk

http://www.muscleandstrength.com/articles/losing-body-fat-and-cutting-without-losing-muscle.html

read that article as it tells you a little bit about the body and metabolism etc and how it works for example if you eat too little then your body will go into starvation mode and try to store any fat from your food so it can survive thus maybe a little weight gain. I constantly read about eating 6 small meals a day as opposed to 3 normal meals as the best way to speed up metabolism is to eat little and often to stop your body starving. One example I read on this was if you think of your body as a fire and food as fuel. If you throw a massive log on a fire and leave it then it will smother it and eventually go out but if you throw on small bits of wood often then the fire will burn better, faster and hotter. I am no expert but this is my opinion

I'm afraid your 'opinion' is based on outdated information.

Current thinking is that it doesn't matter how often you eat.

Your metabolism is raised by '1' for every small meal you have. But if you just have two big meals rather than six small ones, your metabolism will be raised by '3' for each of the said bigger meals, giving you a total metabolism raise of '6' with either method.

Rather than wood, think about it like petrol.

You could put a little on at a time and get a constant heat, or throw a load on and get a lot of heat quickly.

Some people might work better being warmed up lots quickly others just a little bit over a longer period. But the same amount of heat would be produced regardless.

ArchangelMJ

When I put a lot of focus on my food I don't seem to lose much, but when I put focus on exercise I start losing weight.

wffolkes

OP you may be eating to little and retaining water or not losing as you are not fueling your body sufficiently.

Its definitely 80% or more diet...

Knowledge is a usefool tool I found this site really helpfull

www.builtlean.com

ianandmand

I've been training hard for a while to lose weight. I don't have a bad diet, don't eat crappy foods and i don't mean cakes and stuff I mean white bread, pasta etc.... i didn't lose any weight....okay, minimal loses.

I started increasing my calories (with good nutritional foods) and my weight increased but whilst my muscles got bigger, so did my waistline.

I started to deficit and started to lose weight.... I have to say that for me, diet is the key.

I've moved on to an interval fasting diet, which I believe I could maintain due to my lifestyle. I'm hopping its not like every other fad ive tried, but we'll see.
If that comes up with any knock out results I'll share it.

Hoosier96

Mostly diet for me. If I don't eat right, I don't have the energy to work out, or to work out at the right level of intensity. It all comes around to the diet.

ronrstaats

Weight loss is 99% mental. If you aren't in the right frame of mind to do what it takes to lose weight (Diet plan and exercise) it will never happen.

5ftnFun

For me, it was diet mostly. As long as you are creating a deficit, you'll lose. Create that deficit from your diet or from exercise, or from a combination of both, it doesn't matter. Agree with some of the others that you may want to check your calories. They seem low.

momzeeee

I did no exercise while actively losing weight. I did this on purpose, because I had read that losing weight and exercising were two totally separate things, and that exercising could actually cause weight loss to stall. After losing 40lbs and transitioning into maintenance, then I started walking and strength training. So for me-weight loss was 100% about what I was eating.

lynchyboyeeeee

http://www.muscleandstrength.com/articles/losing-body-fat-and-cutting-without-losing-muscle.html

read that article as it tells you a little bit about the body and metabolism etc and how it works for example if you eat too little then your body will go into starvation mode and try to store any fat from your food so it can survive thus maybe a little weight gain. I constantly read about eating 6 small meals a day as opposed to 3 normal meals as the best way to speed up metabolism is to eat little and often to stop your body starving. One example I read on this was if you think of your body as a fire and food as fuel. If you throw a massive log on a fire and leave it then it will smother it and eventually go out but if you throw on small bits of wood often then the fire will burn better, faster and hotter. I am no expert but this is my opinion

I'm afraid your 'opinion' is based on outdated information.

Current thinking is that it doesn't matter how often you eat.

Your metabolism is raised by '1' for every small meal you have. But if you just have two big meals rather than six small ones, your metabolism will be raised by '3' for each of the said bigger meals, giving you a total metabolism raise of '6' with either method.

Rather than wood, think about it like petrol.

You could put a little on at a time and get a constant heat, or throw a load on and get a lot of heat quickly.

Some people might work better being warmed up lots quickly others just a little bit over a longer period. But the same amount of heat would be produced regardless.

Fair enough .... Like I said it was only my opinion as you stated and I am no expert like I stated but this has worked fine for me and I believe that 80% is the diet and 20% training as you cannot out train a poor diet

geebusuk

What you had said was considered 'fact' not too long ago.

I would disagree with "you cannot out train a poor diet".

I often eat what many people on here would consider a very bad diet.
Yet, I'm the strongest and fittest I've ever been probably.

Further, the highest calorie day I actually recorded was over 5000 calories. I burned over 6000 calories. The scales showed a weight loss for that period.

CICO - it's just that people usually do a little 'calories out' and a lot of 'calories in', expecting it to some how balance still.