Working out for Fitness and NOT weightloss?

Well, I use my numbers to show you what it means...I'm maintaining and have been for the past 7 months or so...I exercise pretty much exactly the same as I did when I was losing...I lift 3x weekly and generally get out on my bike for 30 - 90 minutes (depending on that days plan) 4x weekly.

When I figure out my TDEE to maintain I include an estimate of all of that exercise because I'm pretty consistent with it...my TDEE is roughly 2750 calories...that's pretty much what I eat, more or less, to maintain my current weight. When I was losing I simply cut from that number 20% to lose 1 Lb per week...thus using my diet for weight control...my calorie deficit was not predicated by my workouts...it was predicated by my diet and my exercise was done for fitness purposes.

Your fitness is actually far more important for maintaining your weight than it is for losing weight. Your body does amazing things with excess energy when you are getting regular exercise...when you're sedentary, your body doesn't really have anything to do with excess energy (occasional overindulgence of calories) other than store it as fat. I'm fairly active and pretty regularly go over my TDEE goal...often by a LOT...yet my body still manages to maintain because it's putting that occasional excess to use rather than having to store it.

Exercise is important to your overall health and well being. This is often an arbitrary concept for individuals who are otherwise healthy...they're already healthy and can't foresee how exercise would make them healthier or possibly prevent some unforeseen issue in the futre...for those of us who have health issues and/or at minimum, pre-cursors to health issues...and we start exercising and those issues disappear...well, the concept isn't so arbitrary anymore. Study after study after study after study indicates that exercise is one of the keys to "eternal youth" and longevity.

Regular exercise is preventative medicine at it's best...regular exercise helps protect you from devloping heart disease (because you're working out that muscle), stroke, and pre-cursors to such things. It also works to help prevent type 2 diabetes, resolve and or diminish insulin sensitivities, lowers LDL cholesterol and raises HDL cholesterol. Exercise has also shown to help prevent certain types of cancers. Regular exercise has shown to prevent osteoporosis, particularly in women.

Regular exercise improves cognitive function and also relieves symptoms of stress and anxiety and improves mood.

As I noted earlier, it is pretty much essential to maintaining a healthy weight and helps prevent weight gain.

Regular exercise improves heart and lung fitness and improves sleep performance.

The list really could go on and on.

Personally, for me...I have a lot of hereditary risk factors and had a lot of pre-cursor stuff popping up in my blood work. If it weren't for my regular exercise, I'd be on a statin right now. I likely will have to be at some point, but for now I've managed to improve my cholesterol numbers to the point of being in the normal range...my doc would like them slightly lower but I told him that I wasn't taking a statin until I was in the red and could no longer control my numbers with diet and exercise. So for me, that means a little exercise now alleviates the need for statin drugs at age 39...and kicks that can down the road to maybe my late 40s/early 50s. I see that as pretty much WINNING.

Bumping because a lot of MFPers don't seem to have any understanding of the value of exercise beyond burning calories...

I think a lot of times people say that because you can't out train a bad diet. I see a lot of people on this site who don't understand why they can't lose weight even though they're working out 10 hours a day...they never consider what they are eating.

Yup, how does the saying go?

Anyone can workout for an hour a day, it's the other 23 hours of deciding what goes in your body that is the tough part.

Something like that....

Thank you for the responses. My diary is open. I truly try to limit my diet to lose weight. On the days I work out--sure I do eat more, but I don't think that an hour on the treadmill means I can stuff my face for 23hrs and eat whatever I want. I understand how important watching what you eat can do. I didn't workout the entire month of November--and I still lost weight. Maybe I'm working out for all of the wrong reasons, but even so my body is getting the same benefit. I truly do feel better after I'm done. It also makes me put things into perspective. For example, I love donuts. I truly do! However---is one donut worth 30 minutes on a treadmill? Or even worse, are two donuts worthy of an hour on the treadmill? HECK NO!!!! So, yeah, I guess I don't have the right mentality towards fitness, but I'm not too far off based I hope. lol

keep at it...you're on you're well on your way...and eventually you have that ah-ha moment...generally doesn't happen right way. I didn't really have my ah-ha moment until this past summer...about a year into my good livin' regimen.

I am not new on here, but I still haven't figured out what people mean when they say working out is for fitness and not weightloss. Honestly, if I wasn't trying to lose weight I probably wouldn't be busting my butt at the gym 5x a week. The only reason I push myself at the gym is so I can eat more calories and have a little cushion room in case I might go over. On the days I don't work out I typically stay under my calorie goal. Am I doing something wrong? Is working out pointless?

If someone is training for a competition, or just to be better at a sport, their goals would be different to yours. For instance, I eat heartily before playing 3 hours of tennis. I wouldn't call it "busting my butt" though as I'm having far too much fun but by the end of the session I may be struggling to walk and ready to eat another meal. As I say, different goals.

Thank you for the responses. My diary is open. I truly try to limit my diet to lose weight. On the days I work out--sure I do eat more, but I don't think that an hour on the treadmill means I can stuff my face for 23hrs and eat whatever I want. I understand how important watching what you eat can do. I didn't workout the entire month of November--and I still lost weight. Maybe I'm working out for all of the wrong reasons, but even so my body is getting the same benefit. I truly do feel better after I'm done. It also makes me put things into perspective. For example, I love donuts. I truly do! However---is one donut worth 30 minutes on a treadmill? Or even worse, are two donuts worthy of an hour on the treadmill? HECK NO!!!! So, yeah, I guess I don't have the right mentality towards fitness, but I'm not too far off based I hope. lol

Sounds to me like you're doing just fine! I agree, for the most part, that comment is directed to those who don't understand that they need to find that caloric balance between eating right and exercising. But you seem to get it.

I felt the same way about exercise at first - my main motivation was so that I could eat more. And honestly, some days, that's still what keeps me going to the gym or at least gets me to push harder if I need to burn enough to make up for that birthday cake or know a pizza day is coming in a couple days. Mostly though I've found other things to motivate me like trying new programs, getting into running (and doing races), wanting to get stronger, etc. Ultimately though, I really don't think there's any right or wrong when it comes to exercising. As long as you're moving your body on a regular basis, that's what really counts.

ETA: Congrats on your fitness accomplishments!!!

Thank you for the responses. My diary is open. I truly try to limit my diet to lose weight. On the days I work out--sure I do eat more, but I don't think that an hour on the treadmill means I can stuff my face for 23hrs and eat whatever I want. I understand how important watching what you eat can do. I didn't workout the entire month of November--and I still lost weight. Maybe I'm working out for all of the wrong reasons, but even so my body is getting the same benefit. I truly do feel better after I'm done. It also makes me put things into perspective. For example, I love donuts. I truly do! However---is one donut worth 30 minutes on a treadmill? Or even worse, are two donuts worthy of an hour on the treadmill? HECK NO!!!! So, yeah, I guess I don't have the right mentality towards fitness, but I'm not too far off based I hope. lol

keep at it...you're on you're well on your way...and eventually you have that ah-ha moment...generally doesn't happen right way. I didn't really have my ah-ha moment until this past summer...about a year into my good livin' regimen.

I don't plan to stop watching what I eat or stopping exercise once I hit a number on the scale that makes me smile. I won't always be going for a deficit. Eventually it will be all health based and maintaining. I actually do have some goals. When I started this new lifestyle I was only able to walk 20 minutes. I thought that was LONG time. Now I workout 65 minutes on a treadmill. I flip flop between walking/running because I'm still a work in process. I'm loosely following the C25K program. Right now I can do 4.92miles in 60 minutes. I'm trying to work toward 5 miles. Then I will keep pushing myself. I eventually want to be a runner. I never have been, but I really WANT to reach that level. Five months ago I didn't think walking for 30 minutes was possible. I can't believe how far I have come!!!!!!

That's awesome...



I tried my hand at running (I guess I tried my feet) early on and it just wasn't my thing. I pushed myself through it and did a few 5Ks, etc (did enjoy the mud runs) but I've never been a good distance runner...was a sprinter growing up. I ultimately ended up busting up my feet and discovered my love of cycling so that's what i do for the most part...that and lift. cycling isn't "work" for me...I love getting out there and riding. I have a cross country bike so I can do well on the road as well as trails and sometimes I just get lost out here riding around and I'm like, "damn...my hour is almost up." I just started last week training for my first 1/2 Century ride coming this spring. Right now I'm doing about 60 miles per week, but that will increase as the weeks go by and my long rides on the weekends will be very long by spring....going to be fun.