Exercising without Dieting....per se.............

momarch45
momarch45 Posts: 3
in Fitness and Exercise
I read a post a few days ago from a girl who wanted support/info on dieting without exercising......well how about the opposite?
Anyone out there been successful in exercising without dieting (per se) and successful? I did this several years ago....I lost 46 lbs in a year simply by eating less and exercising more. I really didnt even try to eat less I just noticed that once I got into the routine of exercising daily (I would either bike about 15 miles, walk about 45 mins or go to gym and do the elliptical for about 30 mins daily...one of those a day not all..lol) that I just wasnt as hungry and ate less. My biggest hardship was cutting down on the mt dews....i am addicted to that stuff!!

Now here it is several years later...I am 50 now...and after a few life hardships including a bit of depression I managed to put that 46 lbs back on. So I am trying it again. I set my goal for 1 lb a week for 52 weeks.

Would like to hear some stories of anyone else (especially the 50+ crowd) that has been successful at this.

Replies

  • Carol_L
    Carol_L Posts: 296 Member
    Define dieting.

    If you're going to be putting in the effort to exercise, the least you can do is make sure that you're getting the appropriate nutrition to support your goals. If you consider that to be dieting, then so be it.

    Personally, I've made a decision to limit my carb intake, focusing on getting them from veggies rather than grains and sugars, and eating higher protein. I don't consider this to be a diet, because it's sustainable for me. It's more a tweak of what I eat to support my lifting heavy object habit. I have a couple of meals where I eat pretty much whatever I feel like in a week, but generally stick to keeping my macros in balance.

    I don't consider this a diet, it's a lifestyle choice. : )
  • neverstray
    neverstray Posts: 3,845 Member
    No. It's 90% diet. You cannout out-exercise a bad diet.

    You can diet and not exercise though.
  • smalltank
    smalltank Posts: 8
    wont do much if you dont reduce carb/sugar intake
  • bsharrah
    bsharrah Posts: 129 Member
    No. It's 90% diet. You cannout out-exercise a bad diet.

    You can diet and not exercise though.

    Absolutely correct!
  • avir8
    avir8 Posts: 671 Member
    I guess just eat healthy, if you're not interested on cutting calories and doing any special food preparations, but it is more important to eat healthy than exercise although both are important. Exercise will give you more energy and will be a good jumping off point to start getting in shape
  • mfpcopine
    mfpcopine Posts: 3,093 Member
    No. It's 90% diet. You cannout out-exercise a bad diet.

    You can diet and not exercise though.

    This.
  • Maddi_InBetweenDays
    Maddi_InBetweenDays Posts: 177
    You cannout out-exercise a bad diet.


    ^^^This right here.
  • drapes73
    drapes73 Posts: 8
    No. It's 90% diet. You cannout out-exercise a bad diet.

    You can diet and not exercise though.

    Define a bad diet. Someone that regularly runs long distances will be eating significantly more calories than someone who doesn't train at all. Exercise will be the difference.
  • xoyasminxo
    xoyasminxo Posts: 132
    No. It's 90% diet. You cannout out-exercise a bad diet.

    You can diet and not exercise though.

    Absolutely correct!

    Thank you. Couldn't agree more. Just eat clean and smart.
  • abetterjune
    abetterjune Posts: 219
    My best friend has lost about 15 lbs now by adding exercise to her lifestyle. She already ate fairly clean (she's gf and df which helps, I think!), she just started exercising (weights, cardio, more bike rides, etc) for about an hour or two maybe 3 or 4 days a week. The only thing she changed about her diet was that she stopped "cleaning the kids plates" after meals or snacks. If you're a parent, you know what I'm talking about.

    Anyway, I was super skeptical when she began this, mostly because she's about 5'3" and I'd guesstimate eats around 2500 calories/ day and I thought... NO WAY will she lose any weight! The numbers just don't add up. BUT hey, 3 months later, she's down more than 1lb/ week on average.

    So. Depending where you're starting from with your nutrition intake, I do think it's possible.

    Edit to add: Before beginning to exercise, her weight was slowly, but steadily rising, as well! So not only did that stop... but then she started losing!
  • Andi_Mo
    Andi_Mo Posts: 243
    I agree with everyone else. I exercise ALOT but haven't met my goals because the eating is such a large part of it! But you have MFP to help you along the way! Good luck!
  • LadyIntrepid
    LadyIntrepid Posts: 399 Member
    Well... not to be contrary to most of the posters so far, but when I was younger, I could eat anything I wanted and exercise alone dropped any excess weight right off with no change in diet whatsoever. Guess it was the high metabolism of youth. But now that I'm older, it's both exercise and diet. Alas, exercise alone doesn't do it any more, though I sure wish it did! I think most people most of the time primarily "lose weight in the kitchen", but I think it depends on other factors -- like age and metabolism -- as well.
  • HypersonicFitNess
    HypersonicFitNess Posts: 1,219 Member
    Sorry; I agree with most though I say 99% is diet and it shouldn't be a "diet"; that implies a short term fix. This should be a long term life style change.

    I ate healthy but didn't really watch my calories and I exercised a TON, I ran a 3 miles 3x per week; I took martial arts classes 7-8 x per week and weight trained 3x per week plus practiced martial arts every day. Wanna know how many pounds I put on over the years? About 35....they just slipped on without me even noticing and one day I woke up and I was 38 and fat.

    Exercise without watching what you eat doesn't work; sorry. Calories in - Calories Out = ???
  • sgv0918
    sgv0918 Posts: 851 Member
    any binge can screw up even the best workout. I'd watch both
  • froeschli
    froeschli Posts: 1,292 Member
    I am kind of sort of trying to do this myself. I am giving it a 2 months trial, then it's either back to counting, or continue, depending on the results.
    But I have made some changes in my diet: no pop, less alcohol, a lot less sugar and carbs, more protein. And my main change - I quit (or am trying really hard to quit) eating past my hunger.
    I run about 20-25 kilometers a week and have started adding in some body weight strength exercises...
    I think it should work, since I am eating roughly the same, maybe even a bit less then when I stuck to 1500 calories a day. But the results remain to be seen (I've been doing this for a week now, lost inches but not pounds).
  • 70davis
    70davis Posts: 348 Member
    Bump
  • angmarie28
    angmarie28 Posts: 2,885 Member
    I did it a couple years ago, didnt change my diet at all, and did 30 day shred and zumba a little and dropped 16lbs
  • neverstray
    neverstray Posts: 3,845 Member
    No. It's 90% diet. You cannout out-exercise a bad diet.

    You can diet and not exercise though.

    Define a bad diet. Someone that regularly runs long distances will be eating significantly more calories than someone who doesn't train at all. Exercise will be the difference.

    This is silly, and I'm not going to play. She's not talking about running a marathon.
  • DavPul
    DavPul Posts: 61,406 Member
    No. It's 90% diet. You cannout out-exercise a bad diet.

    You can diet and not exercise though.

    Except that's not what the OP is saying. The OP isn't saying Eat All Of The Pizza and then exercise it off. Back before we got HRM obsessed and logging crazy, you would eat your normal maintenance amount or slightly less, and exercise without people yelling at you to eat back your exercise calories. In essence, your exercise was your deficit, except it had the benefit of improving your heart rate or making you look good with your shirt off at the beach as well.

    That's the method I used successfully for years and years. I had never heard of eating back calories before I joined MFP this year. But I was more a member of the exercise community that sometimes cared about dirt while MFP is set up more as a diet community that exercises. That's not a knock, as both obviously are very effective. Just a difference in philosophy, is all.
  • BinaryPulsar
    BinaryPulsar Posts: 8,927 Member
    I always kept fit by exercising and eating a healthy diet, but not dieting. I did not restrict my food, or count calories. I ate healthy foods the majority of the time (pretty high in fats because I ate a lot of nuts and oils). I never went hungry and I would eat at a fast food place now and then as well. I never thought about weight. I just focused on being active and being fit. I just started this calorie watching thing recently, and not for any particular reason, just another aspect of exploring more ways of being healthy and fit (and I think it will help me keep my fitness as I am getting older). But, my diet was exceptionally healthy. And I never had a lot of weight to lose. I have had two children, though (and didn't need to try too hard to lose the weight because I ate healthy and exercised a lot for the fun of it).
  • sophie_wr
    sophie_wr Posts: 194 Member
    I have done both....
    2011: exercising every day or almost (bike/swim/surf/scubadiving/yoga/dance, well kinda everything I could try (except running though !)). Did not change my eating habits (did not know a lot at this time). My body definitively went smaller (everybody told me so) but I did not loose any single pound (and maybe gained a few actually).
    2012: thanks to the nutrionist I'm here on MFP. And started to login everything (without making me hungry ! just better and probably a bit less food). Same routine exercise than the previous years, and dropped 20 pounds since the beginning of the year (I still have a lot left).
    So why not trying both ? We're not talking about intense diet though but being careful....
  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,343 Member
    Define a bad diet. Someone that regularly runs long distances will be eating significantly more calories than someone who doesn't train at all. Exercise will be the difference.
    "Bad diet" in this context = a caloric intake in excess of your TDEE. Somebody who regularly runs long distances will obviously have a much higher TDEE than somebody who does a 30-minute exercise video 3 times a week - but even that distance runner will gain weight if they routinely out-eat their TDEE.
  • MoreBean13
    MoreBean13 Posts: 8,701 Member
    Hmmm.....In theory I agree that you can't out exercise a bad diet...

    But....

    I actually eat more GROSS calories now than before I was losing weight, because of exercise. My maintenance TDEE without exercise is less than my 500 calorie deficit with exercise. But, I am one of the people that does probably exercise more than the average MFP user, though. So, it's kind of like losing weight based on exercise rather than restriction. Works for me!
  • momarch45
    momarch45 Posts: 3
    thats what I am trying to do....1 lb a week. Like I said in my original post I did do it before....but i reacted poorly some very negative life events and completely stopped exercising for several years. that was a huge problem!

    Yesterday I mowed our orchard with a push mower...now THAT was a workout :) It took 3 hours...bruises on my hands even tho I wore gloves..so today i bought a sponge grip for the mower. Was suprised to see the amount of calories this burned in MFP.

    C
  • ixap
    ixap Posts: 675 Member
    If you were previously maintaining your weight (not gaining still), you can continue to eat the same calories as before, add regular vigorous exercise, and lose weight.

    If you were previously still gaining weight, you will probably have to cut back on calories.

    If you add exercise and then start to eat more than before, because the exercise makes you hungry, or because you convince yourself that you "earned" it, you will likely not lose weight.
  • Theorey
    Theorey Posts: 19
    No. It's 90% diet. You cannout out-exercise a bad diet.

    You can diet and not exercise though.
    love this quote

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