How Important is Exercise?

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MelissaDickerson
MelissaDickerson Posts: 2
in Fitness and Exercise
I was so good at exercising the first 6 weeks of my weight loss challenge. I was pretty successful, but the last 2 weeks I have been so busy, whenever I have down time I just want to sleep. I have still been losing weight, so now I am wondering how important is it to put in that time to exercise. I know there are obvious benefits for my health, but if I am doing well at staying under my calorie goal and losing, do I need to stress about making the time to exercise?

Replies

  • sarah307
    sarah307 Posts: 1,363 Member
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    GOOGLE: benefits of exercise

    (I tend to get compassionate about this topic because I did a persuasive speech in my pubic speaking class to persuade people to exercise)

    **If you are having a hard time fitting in exercise - 10 minutes works. 20 minutes works. ...5 minutes works. It all adds up. Park your vehicle in the farthest parking space when you go to the grocery store and then you'll have to carry all your groceries to your car! Take the stairs instead of the elevator...

    good luck!!

    EDIT:
    I also wanted to add that it's okay to take a few days off exercise. Your body needs to rest. But exercise IS important for overall health.
  • anubis609
    anubis609 Posts: 3,966 Member
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    If your only goal is to simply just lose weight, ignoring all the "obvious benefits" of muscular fitness and overall well-being for health, then no, exercise won't matter. You'll lose weight just being on a deficit. Don't expect to be able to perform like an athlete though, should you ever decide that you want to get into an active lifestyle. That still requires the physical training that anyone would need to do to build up strength, stamina, and endurance.
  • Frankie3333
    Frankie3333 Posts: 53 Member
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    Working out is really important. You may see results for a few weeks without exercise but eventually your body will get used to it. You have said you have been very busy lately. Are you running around a lot? Maybe doing more walking than usual. Also, are you eating less because you are so busy?

    I know that during busy times it is so difficult to find time. Even if you can squeeze in a 20 minute walk every day, after 5 days that is 100 minutes! After a few weeks, my guess is that time will go up.

    Keep up the good work!
  • Pandorian
    Pandorian Posts: 2,055 MFP Moderator
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    Most of my loss has been food changes / portion control when I have the poorer choices.
    It hasn't been nearly as fast as the friends I have on here who are doing exercise as well as dietary changes, and exercise is certainly on the books to be added again to see if I can get the loss staying consistent.
    MFP's caloric goal for you is based on your chosen rate of loss so you should be able to lose weight without lifting a finger in exercise as long as you're logging your calorie intake accurately.
  • dd_salas
    dd_salas Posts: 57 Member
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    keep in mind that, when you work out, you'll also have more energy to do all of your day to day stuff. So you won't want to just pass out on down time. I didn't believe in this til I made my gym time a priority, and then saw my energy levels going up. Took a few weeks, tho.
  • lersie
    lersie Posts: 46 Member
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    I too have slouched for the last week and have been so extremely busy haven't even had a chance to fit in any time. However I've lost almost 3 lbs this week. I plan on getting back on it this week though because I want to be able to do a 10K walk by the end of summer (bad knees so I can't do a run). But you get the point I'm sure. Just remember though that if you want to get toned you will have to work some muscle or you will have flab everywhere (that's where I am headed at the moment until I get my butt in gear and start working out at the gym again).
  • xraychick77
    xraychick77 Posts: 1,775 Member
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    well..diet alone can not sustain weight loss. eventually you'll plateau like we all do. and the only way to break out of it is to change something up..usually means increase/decrease in calories and/or an increase in workout intensity or adding a different type of workout.

    plus we all know the health benefits from exercise..heart health, diabetes etc etc.
  • UpToAnyCool
    UpToAnyCool Posts: 1,673
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    do I need to stress about making the time to exercise?

    There are a lot of benefits to exercise of course:
    http://www.fat2fitradio.com/2010/04/fat-2-fit-95-why-exercise/

    But if I knew what I know now, I would have been working out before (when I was your age) !

    I am on this site now at age 40 because I never took the time to exercise.
    I was not a couch potato any more than your average person, and even with the minimum walking 1-3 miles a day as part of my commute or going to different sites for work, five years ago I started to notice an alarming change in my waistline and then the scale started going up.

    The reason a lot of people see a change in their bodies when they are middle-aged is that you can lose up to 1/2 # of muscle per year. I was never overweight, but I was also never FIT, which means that I didn't have a lot of muscle mass to begin with. So during the past 5 years I started to gain weight.

    From what I understand, the loss of muscle mass has two unfavorable results:
    - your weight might literally be the same, but the fat is fluffier, puffier and jigglier... you could be the same weight number-wise but all of sudden have crazy muffintop...
    - it takes much fewer calories to feed your fat than muscle - in other words your metabolism will slow down as you lose muscle mass.

    Had I understood this sooner I would have for sure been exercising sooner! I guess the good news is that it's never too late!

    Anyways :flowerforyou: Good luck w/ everything - I know everyone has to do this their own way, just thought I'd put in my 2 cents.

    - - - - - - -

    ^ I am not a healthcare professional, trainer, amazing success story etc., so I heartily invite anyone to clarify
    or correct this if needed.

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