Weight loss without regular exercise?

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  • beca74
    beca74 Posts: 14 Member
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    ...
  • rachael1805
    rachael1805 Posts: 72 Member
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    ever try using the search feature?

    Ever try reading the original post where she says she already did that?

    Why are people so nit-picky on this site? Sheesh!

    just found 34 pages of threads dedicated to this topic.

    I did search 'No exercise' and got 50 pages of hits, but after reading 15 of them, I decided to ask the question...
  • teaparty75
    teaparty75 Posts: 170
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    I recommend people with large amounts of weight to lose to not start on an exercise program straight away. Exercise should be something you gradually ease into after you have the diet part under control.

    I think trying to tackle a diet change and adding in exercise might be too much to start out with. If you start by eating less and eating well, as the weight drops off it's a good idea to add in exercise.

    Exercise has a range of other benefits for health. As others have mentioned, when considering an exercise program it should be something you enjoy doing or you won't stick to it.
    i did the EXACT opposite - i figured i had 2 issues : bad diet and no exercise - so tackeling them one at a time seemed less over whelming in the beginning .....i started with commiting to regular exercise , once that became a habit i moved onto working on my diet ...i can honestly say that once i got my eating under control the weight started coming off quicker !
  • beca74
    beca74 Posts: 14 Member
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    ever try using the search feature?

    Ever try reading the original post where she says she already did that?

    Why are people so nit-picky on this site? Sheesh!

    just found 34 pages of threads dedicated to this topic.


    Ever try just being kind? She already said she's new. She already said she was nervous about posting the question in the first place because of aggressive, unnecessary comments like that. What does it cost you to be kind? What would it cost you to simply ignore a thread you think is redundant or uninteresting?

    im trying to help her find similar threads....wow you people are sensitive...

    Ok, I also apologise if you were being helpful and not sarcastic. Kind of sounded that way. Carry on, sir.
  • karlalband
    karlalband Posts: 196 Member
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    bump for later
  • fatfudgery
    fatfudgery Posts: 449 Member
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    I recommend people with large amounts of weight to lose to not start on an exercise program straight away.

    FWIW, as one of the people you're talking about, I disagree. Generally speaking, people with lots of weight to lose got there by eating A LOT of food calories. Abruptly reducing caloric intake is particularly hard for us, so exercise gives us a way to "earn back" some extra calories and help us stay at a caloric deficit. And that's to say nothing of the cardiovascular, mental and other health benefits of exercise.

    Not exercising is easy — but "easy" doesn't necessarily mean "better."
  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
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    If you want to be thin, all you have to do is not-eat.

    If you want to be healthy, you need to exercise.
  • red_road
    red_road Posts: 761 Member
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    I lost my weight so far with no exercise. I didn't have any injuries i just had depression. Controlling my diet and losing weight was the one thing that made me feel a little good about myself. The more i lose obviously the easier it is to "move my *kitten*" and i look for excuses to get in more activity like going up and down the stairs for one thing at a time, though i would not consider this "exercise", more just starting to move as much as a "normal" person. For me eating less is easier than eating more and trying to burn it off.For me personally It takes less effort to not put excess calories in my mouth than to do aerobics for two hours. As i lose more weight i do hope to naturally increase my general activity level.
  • DebbieLyn63
    DebbieLyn63 Posts: 2,650 Member
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    ever try using the search feature?

    Ever try reading the original post where she says she already did that?

    Why are people so nit-picky on this site? Sheesh!

    just found 34 pages of threads dedicated to this topic.


    Ever try just being kind? She already said she's new. She already said she was nervous about posting the question in the first place because of aggressive, unnecessary comments like that. What does it cost you to be kind? What would it cost you to simply ignore a thread you think is redundant or uninteresting?

    im trying to help her find similar threads....wow you people are sensitive...

    for the record, I was being sarcastic...
  • ArtemisRuns
    ArtemisRuns Posts: 251 Member
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    Exercise is done for reasons other than weight loss. Here are the benefits of exercise:

    1. Increased fitness (strength, flexibility, stability, endurance).

    2. Maintaining lean body mass (the portion of your body weight that DOESN'T come from fat) while losing fat.

    3. Increasing your calorie goals so that you can safely eat more while maintaining a calorie deficit

    4. Overall health for the heart and bones

    Honestly if all you care about is seeing the number on the scale go down then frankly (and I hope I'm not insulting anyone by saying this) you're doing it wrong. That is only a small part of the story. Yes, you can achieve that (a reduction of overall body mass, which includes both fat and muscle, as well as bone density if you're not careful) through a calorie deficit alone, but it's not recommended unless you are physically unable to do any form of exercise.

    http://www.yt2gif.com/view/346339
  • jayjay12345654321
    jayjay12345654321 Posts: 653 Member
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    I'm not going to lie. I hate exercising. I don't like to sweat. I abhor jogging. It's mundane and mind-numbingly monotonous. Then my doctor, who lost 150 lbs himself, told me something a lot of people on this forum already know, but I didn't. If you want to lose weight, adjust your intake of calories. Don't exercise to lose weight. Exercise to strengthen your heart, get tone, whatever, but don't use exercise for weight loss.

    It sounds reasonable. I mean, if you don't eat it, you don't have kill yourself burning it off. But what that statement really did for me was to detach diet from exercise. Two different things. Two different purposes. One has nothing to do with the other. And the result was I couldn't eat that extra helping of mashed potatoes and gravy and tell myself I'd work out an extra 30 min to make it up. First off, I probably wouldn't. I was just chasing my tail. Mentally, that is, because I've already established I wasn't getting up off that sofa. ;) Secondly, on a rare blue moon when I did manage to work out consistently for a few weeks in a row, I'd push myself to go another 10 min, 15 min, and now ... !!!! Now, I HAVE CALORIC CREDIT! I worked out an extra 15 minutes, I'll have biscuits and gravy for breakfast and pie for lunch!

    My brain is just that twisted. It turned a workout into a prepaid calorie debit card I couldn't wait to use. And when I overcharged my allotted calorie credits, I went into a deficit that I had to work out in sweat and tears, literally. When my doctor told me to segregate the two, done one, do the other, do both, don't do either, up to me, I actually started walking. Not to lose weight, just to be healthy. And now it doesn't suck quite as much. ;)

    By the way - ladies, thank you jumping on that possibly sarcastic comment so quickly.
  • dawn_h_d
    dawn_h_d Posts: 184 Member
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    I recommend people with large amounts of weight to lose to not start on an exercise program straight away. Exercise should be something you gradually ease into after you have the diet part under control.

    I think trying to tackle a diet change and adding in exercise might be too much to start out with. If you start by eating less and eating well, as the weight drops off it's a good idea to add in exercise.

    Exercise has a range of other benefits for health. As others have mentioned, when considering an exercise program it should be something you enjoy doing or you won't stick to it.
    i did the EXACT opposite - i figured i had 2 issues : bad diet and no exercise - so tackeling them one at a time seemed less over whelming in the beginning .....i started with commiting to regular exercise , once that became a habit i moved onto working on my diet ...i can honestly say that once i got my eating under control the weight started coming off quicker !

    That is bascially how I really started. I started by just "dancing like no one was watching" - turned on a music channel for 30+ minutes a few days a week. When I started feeling even better about getting sweaty, I found some exercise stuff on demand. My boyfriend mentioned that we have a Wii that was brand new and 2 years old, so I started going between all 3 things. Then I decided to see what my deficit really was, so that is what brought me to MFP. Now I started logging my food, and actually have been enjoying it.
  • manhn1
    manhn1 Posts: 137 Member
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    I would be more interested in seeing how people *maintain* their weight loss without any sort of regular exercise regime. While diet is key, I find that I am more inclined to eat on plan as long as I exercise.
  • rainbow198
    rainbow198 Posts: 2,245 Member
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    I would be more interested in seeing how people *maintain* their weight loss without any sort of regular exercise regime.

    I'm curious about this myself. I'd imagine it would just get tougher to keep the weight off especially as one ages.

    I lost around 20 lbs of weight before with no change in my dress size without exercise before. It took a long time and my body looked crappy (lost muscle, was weak and flabby).

    When I lost my first 20 without exercise it took me about 5 months. With the same calorie amounts and exercise (nothing strenuous) it took me about 2 and a half months to lose safely and I lost 2 dress sizes which was more important to me than the number on the scale.

    Yeah...I'll take exercise for 400 Alex.
  • honkytonks85
    honkytonks85 Posts: 669 Member
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    I recommend people with large amounts of weight to lose to not start on an exercise program straight away.

    FWIW, as one of the people you're talking about, I disagree. Generally speaking, people with lots of weight to lose got there by eating A LOT of food calories. Abruptly reducing caloric intake is particularly hard for us, so exercise gives us a way to "earn back" some extra calories and help us stay at a caloric deficit. And that's to say nothing of the cardiovascular, mental and other health benefits of exercise.

    Not exercising is easy — but "easy" doesn't necessarily mean "better."

    Well I am also one of those people (160lbs, not quite as much as you, but a large amount nonetheless) and I did not exercise at all for the first year or two where I initially lost the weight. I just cut back on what I ate and the weight came off.

    Here are my two issues with starting out hard on the exercise & diet program:

    1) Exercising when you are very heavy can be hard on the joints. Hence why I suggest that losing some weight first might be helpful. Exercise does not burn that many calories - so sometimes the trade off of risking injury and the incredible pain that exercise can bring when you are very heavy is not worth it. My back really hurt when I was heavier and even walking was hard. You can achieve much more by way of creating a deficit simply by eating a little less. When you are quite large, that deficit isn't hard to achieve because you already have a lot of calories to work with.

    2) The other issue is psychological. Setting out smaller goals to achieve makes losing weight seem more attainable. For example

    "This week I am going to try eating 200 calories less a day by not having a chocolate mocha for morning tea" is easier to swallow than:

    "This week I am going to eat 500 calories less and exercise for 60 minutes a day".

    Faced with larger goals people are probably going to be intimidated. Starting out slowly and working your way into it is sustainable.

    Then again I cannot speak for everyone, and obviously everyone has a lot of different experiences.
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
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    I would try to find an exercise I enjoyed more than the one you're doing. There are hundreds of ways to exercise. I personally like hiking and walking in beautiful or interesting areas and could do that all day. Exercise improves my whole quality of life.

    ^This!

    Maintenance is going to be a huge pain in the a** without some form of regular exercise. Try to find something you like. I just cringe when I read comments "oh 30 Day Shred is so fun" ....... blech

    When I started, I got a (mail) subscription to Netflix. They have hundreds of workout DVDs .... I could try before buying and found something I can do for life. For me it's Leslie Sansone Walk at Home.... for others it's 30 Day Shred .... keep looking.

    It can be a sport, hula hooping, hiking, roller blading, etc ..... just keep looking.