anyone just watching calories alone?

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storybookcreator
storybookcreator Posts: 32
in Health and Weight Loss
I've heard of several people (not on MFP) just limiting their caloric intake and not exercising and losing a lot of weight.

I'm wondering if anyone here is doing that too?

For those doing this, are you looking at the types of calories you are consuming or just the calories alone?

I've added some exercise to my daily routine and I'm sure their weight loss would be even faster if they were actually exercising...

Replies

  • lisay9
    lisay9 Posts: 18
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    I would struggle to do this myself, I need the extra 400 calories I get from an hour at the gym so I can have some decent food. Good on people that can do it on basic calories, but not me!
  • Yasmine91
    Yasmine91 Posts: 599 Member
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    Thing is, even though you are losing weight this way, it's not healthy. As you lose weight, your muscle will begin to decrease causing your metabolism to slow down. So we must excersise to build muscle in order for us to lose weight more efficiently and healthily.

    I think if you are quite large and can't really move around much, it's best to diet and then excersise when possible.

    For me excersise is a must, I lost weight before with no excersise and I was all soft and flabby and just felt plain aweful :P
  • Disciplined74
    Disciplined74 Posts: 298 Member
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    I did this for the last two months, Sep & Oct. But in November I started walking and just this week I've been going to the gym and increasing my walking, weights, elliptal, bike, etc.

    I was having success, great success with just watching calories. I lost more than 20 pounds in those two months. The problem, with the great success came great failure. I had some weeks, like after Halloween, that I gained 11 pounds. After saying good bye to the candy, the next week I lost more than that 11 pounds.

    So it can be done. I think they have to be the right kind of calories. Like my sugar binge wasn't a good thing. But more fruits and vegatable, healthy proteins, etc you will be fine.

    I choose to add exercise because (1) I like the way I feel. (2) I figure it will help me to loose weight more quickly (3) I need to tone, I don't want flabby skin. (4) I'm really an iron man stuck in a fat girls body. So I want to actually complete one. My goal is 2015.

    Find what works best for you and go with it. I think if your goal is health then you are going to have to eventually incorporate some exercise (I started out by getting a pedometer and tracking my steps for a week, and then the next week I tried to put in just a hundred more steps than I did the week before. I'm finally hitting the 10K steps on about 3 of the 7 days, so I still have a long way to go but I'm working on it). But if your goal is just weight lost then counting calories will work.

    Healthy or weight loss. There's a big difference.

    I wish you the best.
  • Boxingal87
    Boxingal87 Posts: 6
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    Hey there. Well, i do enjoy exercising alot. But since the begining of this month, all i have been doing is restricting calories (work has me 2 tired to exercise) This site recommends for my height and weight to eat a 1,400 cal. diet. However i follow the slimfast plan which cuts me down to a 1,200-1,250 cal plan. Breakfast i have 500cal. Lunch i have a slimfast shake and a kudos bar, and the same for dinner. What helped me out with the hunger was some fiber drinks which will increase your calorie intake. Or you can have a dr. prescribe you phentermine pills for 2 weeks, to control ur appetite(until your stomach naturally shrinks and you get used to eating less). Anyways, i've lost about 4lbs a week. Also the slimfast plan itself warns people who lose more then 2 lbs a week to adjust their calories untill they reach 1-2lb weight loss per week. Also, i take a multivitamin in the morning and if you can eat vegetable and fruits instead of junk food or fried food, that of course would be best.
  • Disciplined74
    Disciplined74 Posts: 298 Member
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    One more thing I've learned - if your body wants or needs more calories than you are giving it, it will eat the protein from your muscle. So it may be counter intuative to just try to survive on cutting calories alone.
  • nehtaeh
    nehtaeh Posts: 2,977 Member
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    In general I would rather add exercise and have the extra cals to work with.

    The last couple months have been very hard and stressful for me. It was all I could do just to stay up until my kids went to bed so I didn't get many workouts in. I simply tried to control my calories. I did try to choose better things. During that time I tried to stay away from fast food for one example. I was limiting calories and lost about 5-6 pounds in the two months.
  • melizerd
    melizerd Posts: 870 Member
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    When I started ALL I did was count calories, just calories not really nutrients, and lost the first 10 or 15lbs really easy. I have since added in exercise mostly so I A. lose weight faster, and B. feel better but I think many people can lose weight without doing anything but counting calories, especially if they have a lot of weight to lose.
  • DonnaMaas
    DonnaMaas Posts: 69
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    For now I am just watching my calories but I am hoping to start back to walking in January. Being consistent in my portions and keeping track of my food is what helps me alot.
  • givprayz
    givprayz Posts: 328
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    Calorie restriction only works for a short time. Your body has an amazing ability to run more and more efficiently, so over time, it adjusts to fewer calories and the weight loss stops, or even reverses. Only by keeping metabolism high, through exercise, will weight loss continue. There are some people who can lose a lot on calorie restriction alone, but they are few and far between. The rest of us not only need exercise, but we need to vary and increase our exercise over time to keep our bodies in high geer. I have lost 10 pounds on calorie restriction alone, then had to add a 1 mile walk, then 2 miles, now 3 miles, to keep the weight coming off at a good pace. And, as a few people said, without exercise you lose valuable muscle tissue and that is bad for how it looks, as well as the fact that muscle mass burns significantly more calories at rest than any other tissue type. The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn, even sleeping or sitting at the computer. Start small and build gradually. I hate "exercise", but I'm starting to really like walking my dog every morning. Go figure!
  • GunNut37086
    GunNut37086 Posts: 37 Member
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    I'm one of "those people" right now. I know it's not a long-term solution. I just need to get a jump start, b/c I need to lose a LOT. I am only doing "calories only" for the first 60 days. I plan to start walking for the next 30-60 days, then move up to real workouts when I have lost enough to do it safely.
  • Silvergamma
    Silvergamma Posts: 102 Member
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    I'm in a similar boat. I'm just starting out, and want to focus on figuring out my food issues first. I've had a lot of on-again-off-again diets, and have always failed. This time I'm really motivated and want to get through that 20 day habit making/breaking phase with calorie counting before I start adding another new habit (exercise). Also since I'm just starting I can't really report back on how well that's working in terms of actual weight lost, but I made it through one week documenting everyday, so I'm doing pretty well on that front.
  • firedragon064
    firedragon064 Posts: 1,090 Member
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    It's more important what you eat than whether you are exercise or not.
    And if you are exercise it's more important to do weight lifting than do cardio workout.
    1/2 hours on stairsmaster only burn off a piece of pizza.
    there is also the case when if you work out too long, you get more hungry and eat more.
    For cardio workout, I only do high intensity interval workout - 15 minutes for me and that's it. That will make my heart
    happy and keep my metabolism up for couple of hour. I concentrate my weight loss on my input calorie.
  • lauz45
    lauz45 Posts: 243
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    I'm too tired after work to exercise, although I could probably do some Wii exercise (if I can ever get my boyfriend off the xbox!). So I only count calories, and it's coming off...slowly. However I do have an active job, I do a lot of lifting, going up and down stairs, and carrying a heavy toolbox and equipment etc.

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