EXERCISING DOESN'T MEAN YOU CAN EAT UNHEALTHY!!

I agree... exercising does not mean you can eat unhealthy. I mean you can and you can still lose weight or maintain if you have same amount of cal intake and it's appropriate but think what it does to your body! if you read on all the nutritious values on good food and eating right. Now look at eating crap.. what are you depriving from your body and how does your body keep stamina and in great shape Depleted! sure we can all not drink water and drink other things juice and tonic all day long.. but read about what water does for you. It's about Health not about skinny!!!!!!!!!!! of course, I think most of us aim for both but some end up consumed on getting skinny kick and then some even end up not healthy! so if you gonna go for one thing go for health and skinny will come along with it. I don't eat perfect first 2 monthes I think I did awesome! but lately not so good... but I still whether good or bad not think so much on skinny how I think how my body is not oiled up and working at it's max. I also notice some foods are not as good tasting after I've trained myself to hold back and learn about food and the body.. or maybe my taste buds are changing more. Some foods have tons of salt and sugar when I was eating that ALL THE TIME I never really noticed HOW MUCH. Guys healthy is the new skinny.

Oh, I guess I'll regain my 100 lbs and try your way.

eating 'healthy' is subjective

Welcome, and I absolutely love your energy!

I see where you are coming from, and what you are saying is sensible, but most of it is simply not true. First of all, weight loss is about calories in/calories out. Eat less calories than you burn and you will lose weight every single time. You can eat whatever you want as long as you stay under your calorie goal. That's simply science.

Four years ago I decided to train for and run a marathon. I had been in excellent shape at that point, running 6 miles daily with regular boxing and weight training workouts. I also was very VERY strict with what I was putting in my mouth, only allowing myself unhealthy items 5-10% of the time. I weighed 131 pounds when I started training for the marathon. 5 months later on the day of the race, I weighed 170 pounds. I had GAINED 40 pounds in 5 months from eating whatever I wanted. I dumbly thought that 'wow, I am running 40+ miles a week, I must be burning a ton of calories so yay pizza!!'

That's the hard way of learning. I'll bet now you know that if you run that marathon and want to eat pizza, you need to know (1) what your calorie allowance is to maintain your weight, or to lose it if that is your goal, (2) an accurate account of how many calories you burned in that run, (3) exactly how many calories that yummy pizza had, (4) exactly how many calories you have eaten by the time you get to that pizza. That's what I and numerous other successful weight loss people do- we track our calories and exercise so that we can eat what we want. It's okay to work those treats in as long as they fit into your calorie goal.

I'm also a bit confused about the part of putting on 40 pounds in 5 months while training for a marathon, especially since you said you are so healthy. No offense intended, but couldn't you feel yourself gaining weight and realize that something was wrong with your plan? That perhaps you were eating way more calories than you were burning?

To put this into perspective, someone that is around 150 pounds burns about roughly 300-350 calories in 30 minutes of running (10 min/mile). In a large slice of cheese pizza there is about the same amount of calories. It takes me maybe 5-10 minutes to eat a slice of pizza. Right there takes away your exercise deficit. It is SO EASY to overeat when we regularly workout because a) we think we burn more calories during our workouts than we actually do and b) we are hungrier when we are more active! at least I am

Oh, gosh those calories burned is a generalization and overestimation. I'm 139 pounds now, but when I was 150 I did not burn that many calories running in a half hour. I calculate all my cardio burns via a heart rate monitor, which is not 100% accurate but close enough to where I get the results I want.

Just remember that abs are built in the kitchen exercise is only 20% of weight loss... it is actually monitoring what we put in our bellys that we will see the best results, and especially not negative results! Regular exercise is not an excuse for poor eating (what I have done my whole life). Is this something you all struggle with? Let's conquer the hunger with nutritious foods and see amazing results from our hard-earned workouts!!

Abs are indeed built in the kitchen, but exercise is zero percent of weight loss. While exercise has its benefits, it is 100% not necessary to weight loss. Many people hate to exercise and lose weight successfully. I, however, LOVE running and weight lifting and do both, as well as incorporate other exercise into my fitness routine. Exercise makes me feel so good, so strong, but I I could have lost weight without it.