exercising without diet for weight loss

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chocowalnut
chocowalnut Posts: 23 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
If I focus mainly on exercise but don't change diet too much can I lose body fat? For example, if you eat 2500 calories a day and you need 2000 a day to maintain, and burn 1000 calories at the gym every day, wouldn't that still be a 500 deficit and you'd lose a pound a week? I want to work on diet too but I just want to know if I would be wasting my time exercising so much if it wouldn't do anything.
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  • evileen99
    evileen99 Posts: 1,564 Member
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    Losing weight is 80% diet.

    You can try it with just exercise, but without monitoring how much you're actually eating, it won't be easy to know if you've created a deficit or not.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    If I focus mainly on exercise but don't change diet too much can I lose body fat? For example, if you eat 2500 calories a day and you need 2000 a day to maintain, and burn 1000 calories at the gym every day, wouldn't that still be a 500 deficit and you'd lose a pound a week? I want to work on diet too but I just want to know if I would be wasting my time exercising so much if it wouldn't do anything.

    Yes, you are right, though it is much easier to cut 500 cals from your diet than it is to burn 1000 cals.
  • HIITMe
    HIITMe Posts: 921 Member
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    Losing weight is 80% diet.


    ^^^ this.
  • XjXannX
    XjXannX Posts: 44 Member
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    i don't see the point in exercising while eating like garbage.
  • cdpark617
    cdpark617 Posts: 316 Member
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    Losing weight is 80% diet.

    You can try it with just exercise, but without monitoring how much you're actually eating, it won't be easy to know if you've created a deficit or not.
    I disagree weight loss is 100% calorie deficit, however it comes.
  • nhradeuce
    nhradeuce Posts: 168 Member
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    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.
  • feistymoon
    feistymoon Posts: 152
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    Counteracting excessive binging through diet is actually categorized as an eating disorder. I'm not suggesting this is the case with you at all, I am just giving some insight into the importance of ensuring you strike a healthy balance between food consumption and exercise.

    Good luck with your weight loss and fitness goals xx
  • demorelli
    demorelli Posts: 508 Member
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    I tried that for a year. Not a single pound off.
  • kristijean
    kristijean Posts: 36 Member
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    The saying goes you can't out exercise a bad diet =)
  • cdpark617
    cdpark617 Posts: 316 Member
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    i don't see the point in exercising while eating like garbage.
    Well the point being, some people might want to eat like garbage and are willing to exercise in order to be able to do it.

    I do it all the time, I might do an hour of cardio to get 800 calories so I feel like I can have that garbage candy and popcorn at the movie theater.
  • Bobby__Clerici
    Bobby__Clerici Posts: 741 Member
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    Yes, exercise without diet.....:drinker: ...YOU should try it.
    And I sure hope that works out better for you than me.
    My results were close to nil...
    Maybe you'll be different.
    Good Luck!
  • rocket_ace
    rocket_ace Posts: 380 Member
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    I've tried it both ways and I find the only thing that consistently works is to do both - diet and exercise at the same time. why waste your time with other strategies if you know that this combo works 100%
  • cdpark617
    cdpark617 Posts: 316 Member
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    The saying goes you can't out exercise a bad diet =)
    Sounds like a bad saying to me. You most certainly can, the key is to track your calories.

    Just make sure your calories in are less than your calories out.
  • dwh77tx
    dwh77tx Posts: 513 Member
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    It won't work if you don't keep track of your diet. I worked out every day in college and ate way too much and drank alot. I was the heaviest I've ever been, even with "going to the gym" every day.
  • cdpark617
    cdpark617 Posts: 316 Member
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    You are correct as far as noting the calorie deficit, BUT 2 things:
    1. As others noted, diet is very important.
    2. If you think you might be wasting time exercising, then your mind is not yet in the right place.
    Both are needed as part of a healthy lifestyle.
    www.destinationfit4life.com
    The question wasn't about healthy lifestyle it was about losing fat.
  • LittleTrollCupcake
    LittleTrollCupcake Posts: 48
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    i don't see the point in exercising while eating like garbage.

    The point would be that exercising, eating like garbage or not, makes you physically fit. You could have the worst diet ever, and you should still exercise for health.

    That being said, exercising will only increase your appetite.
  • Bobby__Clerici
    Bobby__Clerici Posts: 741 Member
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    i don't see the point in exercising while eating like garbage.
    Well the point being, some people might want to eat like garbage and are willing to exercise in order to be able to do it.

    I do it all the time, I might do an hour of cardio to get 800 calories so I feel like I can have that garbage candy and popcorn at the movie theater.
    That I'd do with no problem, but if I ceased tracking and considered every day free day", Katie bar the door!
    Again, I am just too much of a hog for such a program.
    I can eat 10,000 calories in a day easy.
    I'd love to be able to do that and reach my goals.
  • 714rah714
    714rah714 Posts: 759 Member
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    Make sure your numbers are spot on, otherwise, you'll be gaining
  • motd2k
    motd2k Posts: 5
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    I'm not sure I entirely agree with the previous. Your weight loss comes ultimately from creating a calorie deficit, that could be by increased activity (whilst ensuring that you don't each more to compensate) or by reducing your calorie intake; ideally you'd perform a combination of the two.

    Do note that it'll be very difficult for you to get an accurate figure for the calorie burn from your gym workouts... often they are estimated from your heartrate (or worse still estimated on pace/time) and will thus be wildly inaccurate.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,669 Member
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    If I focus mainly on exercise but don't change diet too much can I lose body fat? For example, if you eat 2500 calories a day and you need 2000 a day to maintain, and burn 1000 calories at the gym every day, wouldn't that still be a 500 deficit and you'd lose a pound a week? I want to work on diet too but I just want to know if I would be wasting my time exercising so much if it wouldn't do anything.
    Well it would work IF you're in calorie deficit.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

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