Diet or exercise?

Your pics must be very old because in those pics you're nowhere near over weight and shouldn't be concerned with losing weight.

I think if your eating the right foods for your 1,200-1,500 a day intake and walking 50 minutes 5 days a week you should be able to lose weight at a steady/healthy rate.

I'm the same as you! I walk 60-70 minutes every day while walking to/from school. I've been sticking to a fairly low calorie count of about 1100-1500 (mostly around 1200), but focusing mostly on cleaning up my diet (oatmeal with home-made applesauce or yoghurt in the mornings rather than sugary cereals, skim milk instead of full-fat, chicken breast instead of steak, etc). I've been doing MFP for about 2-3 months and in that time I've lost 3kg (6 lbs I think?) which is perfectly healthy It's slow, but it's steady and that's all I'm aiming for. The quicker it comes off the quicker it'll come back on!

Being in a caloric deficit will make you lose weight, regardless of if you exercise or not. Exercise just allows you to eat more and build muscle whilst still losing weight.

Walking is exercise. I walk everyday for exercise (I do a few workout dvds too) but my main cardio is walking.

"A smaller marshmallow is still a marshmallow"

Losing weight and losing fat are not the same thing.

Ooohh I loved that quote! Such an eyeopener for me ! Diet AND exercise it is!!

You can still lose weight in diet alone but if you do diet and exercise you can lose weight faster and your skin is fit or tight

seriously,,,
DO BOTH

"A smaller marshmallow is still a marshmallow"

Losing weight and losing fat are not the same thing.

Ooohh I loved that quote! Such an eyeopener for me ! Diet AND exercise it is!!

Excellent quote!! LOL

The answer to your question is yes. Many people resist working out for a variety of reasons and others don't consider some things as working out. The important thing for your health is to eat right and be fit. Getting fit takes moving. So find things that you like to do and you will get fit. The walking is awesome there are those who will tell you it isn't working out, but it is. So you walk almost an hour five days a week, now on your weekend find something fun to do like maybe ride a bike, or go for a really long hike, or go swimming ... dancing, hula hooping ... also branch out and try things you have never considered you may find that you open up a whole new world ... the wonderful side effect is that you will feel good.

I've read articles that say that diet is actually MORE effective for weight control than exercise alone. That said, a 50 minute brisk walk a day is exercise.

I'd look to your diet. Target 1-2 pounds per week and hang in there! Make sure that you weigh first thing in the morning when you weigh. Most folks say to weigh once per week or once every other week.

I've found that I have a huge tendency to underestimate the food that I'm eating. You might have to get pretty detailed about it with the kitchen scale and measuring cup and spoons.

I also made mistakes early on believing the "Calories Burned" on treadmills and such at home and the gym. They are almost always hugely optimistic even when they have you enter your vital stats.

My answer has been to be very detailed, and conservative, about my food intake and to take 80% of what the monitoring devices report for calories burned. It sounds like double negative cheating or something, but it works for me.

I noticed that your profile says you don't want your thighs to touch when you stand. For some people, this is nearly impossible. I am 5'3" and at my lowest (unhealthy) weight of 99 lbs, my thighs still touched. You have to have wide hips and a certain body shape.

I noticed that your profile says you don't want your thighs to touch when you stand. For some people, this is nearly impossible. I am 5'3" and at my lowest (unhealthy) weight of 99 lbs, my thighs still touched. You have to have wide hips and a certain body shape.

It's only a matter of time before they make spanx for thighs. Never understood this new obsession with "thigh gap"

Losing weight is done by creating a calorie deficit. You can do this with just diet alone or you can eat the way you have been but add in exercise. You don't NEED exercise to lose weight. You NEED exercise for health and preserving muscle mass along the way.

If you only want to lose 14lbs, set your weekly weight loss goal to 0.5lbs per week. Striving for a faster weight loss will not give you enough calories to fuel your body properly and it will increase the amount of your losses that come from muscle especially since you are not exercising. I would have your walking put in as part of your daily activity level or add it as exercise and eat those calories back. You want to net your daily goal.

It's best to add in some exercise though for health. Your heart and lungs, your muscles, etc. As someone else mentioned, you may not be able to get a thigh gap regardless of how much you diet or exercise. For some people it's just not genetically possible.

Yes, you can lose weight by diet alone because weight loss is caused by a calorie deficit.

Yes, walking is exercise. The problem with walking the same path (time, distance, degree of difficulty) is that your body gets used to it and becomes more efficient so it learns to use less calories to do it over time.

Being that you don't have much to lose and have been walking that amount for a while, it will be difficult but not impossible to lose weight on diet alone. Your weight loss will probably be very slow, like around 0.5 lbs a week. (Remember weight loss is not a linear process.) The problem you might find with this style of weight loss is that once you achieve your goal your body still might not look the way you want it too. You form and shape your body with exercise, primarily through strength training,

Whomever said,

"A smaller marshmellow is still a marshmellow" and "Losing weight and losing fat are not the same thing" is bang on the money! Great quotes!