Who Is Trying To Lose Weight Just By Counting Calories Alone? And Why?

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  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
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    bcalvanese wrote: »
    bcalvanese wrote: »
    Just wondering how people are trying to lose weight without exercising.

    I can see if you have some type of issue where you absolutely cannot exercise, but anything other than that it just seems like laziness to me, and it would just seem like a life long battle of being hungry and thinking about food all the time.

    Is it worth a lifetime of struggle?

    You're still going to be a lump on a log, you're just going to be one that weighs less and feels crappy.

    I am not a fitness nut either. I just walk every day, and ride my bike. Since I have been doing this, I can pretty much eat the same way I always have by making it up with walking and bike riding, and I feel so much better for it.

    I am not trying to hurt anyone's feelings here, but I read these posts and just think to myself... why?

    Why don't you worry about your own journey first. What other people do shouldn't be any concern of yours.

    Because I am concerned, and I want to know why.

    Your words are not coming across as concern.
  • PaulaWallaDingDong
    PaulaWallaDingDong Posts: 4,641 Member
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    bcalvanese wrote: »
    were any of you even in the military?

    Nice try, but derailing your own thread doesn't work as well as derailing someone else's. Not happenin.

  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
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    bcalvanese wrote: »
    Well, aren't you amazing?! Congrats on being so perfect from Day One of your weight loss journey!

    Some of us mere mortals take things slowly, working on one thing (say, logging all we eat), and when that gets comfortable, adding another (weighing/measuring food) and when that feels good, adding another (exercise).

    But you know, I guess because some people don't do it the way you do it, they're doing it wrong.

    Damn right I'm amazing!

    And I'll tell you why...

    Because I'm a 57 year old man with COPD, minor heart issues, and blood clot issues, who has had major surgery for internal injuries from an auto accident when I was in my 30's, have had major surgery to have about a foot of my colon removed due to diverticulitis, and who couldn't even walk up 2 flights of stairs without getting winded 7 months ago.

    Now, I can walk 3 miles at a zone 2/3 cardio pace, and ride my bike 10 miles at a zone 3/4 cardio pace without any trouble.

    I think that is pretty freaking amazing.

    Do you think I was able to do that by dieting alone?

    No... I got my lazy butt up and started doing it, and yes... I am taking it slowly. my goal is 1 pound per week, and I have lost close to 35 pounds so far, and have absolutely no doubt that I will loose the other 40 pounds to reach my goal of 150 pounds within the next year. And by then I hope to be able to walk 5 miles or more, and ride my bike 20 miles or more.

    I never said anyone was doing anything wrong. I merely asked the question of why do some people not include exercise in their weight loss.

    Now you are talking about your own journey with some pretty intense medical issues, and the progress you describe is amazing. However, not everybody wants to exercise, and that's their business, not yours.

    As for me, I exercise because it makes me feel so good and I enjoy every minute of it. However, I don't question anybody else about why they don't exercise because it's really none of my business.
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
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    bcalvanese wrote: »
    loulamb7 wrote: »
    Ever hear the idiom "You can't out exercise a bad diet"? Ultimately weight loss or gain is determined by caloric intake. Exercise helps but it still comes back to calories. Reason you're losing is because walking is creating a caloric deficit.

    Exercise IMO is the most important thing a person can do to achieve and maintain a healthy weight. Good nutrition helps.

    I think you got it backwards.

    Nope. You have it backwards. Weight loss starts in the kitchen, fitness happens in the gym.
  • OldAssDude
    OldAssDude Posts: 1,436 Member
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    SLLRunner wrote: »
    bcalvanese wrote: »
    loulamb7 wrote: »
    Ever hear the idiom "You can't out exercise a bad diet"? Ultimately weight loss or gain is determined by caloric intake. Exercise helps but it still comes back to calories. Reason you're losing is because walking is creating a caloric deficit.

    Exercise IMO is the most important thing a person can do to achieve and maintain a healthy weight. Good nutrition helps.

    I think you got it backwards.

    Nope. You have it backwards. Weight loss starts in the kitchen, fitness happens in the gym.

    If a person maintains a good fitness level, then it would never get to the kitchen, so what came first, the chicken or the egg.
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
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    bcalvanese wrote: »
    bcalvanese wrote: »
    I never said anyone was doing anything wrong. I merely asked the question of why do some people not include exercise in their weight loss.

    No,no.... you never said they were doing anything wrong. You just called them lazy. That totally implies that you think they're doing something right. *eyeroll*

    And you weren't "merely asking a question". You were judging.


    I never called anyone lazy. If you actually read my post, I said "that just seems lazy to me", not "they seem lazy to me"

    Why are you twisting my words?

    Look, nobody is twisting your words. Come on now, your statement takes the back door in, for lack of a paper term, to saying people who don't exercise are lazy. That's called passive aggressive. ;)
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,573 Member
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    bcalvanese wrote: »
    SLLRunner wrote: »
    bcalvanese wrote: »
    loulamb7 wrote: »
    Ever hear the idiom "You can't out exercise a bad diet"? Ultimately weight loss or gain is determined by caloric intake. Exercise helps but it still comes back to calories. Reason you're losing is because walking is creating a caloric deficit.

    Exercise IMO is the most important thing a person can do to achieve and maintain a healthy weight. Good nutrition helps.

    I think you got it backwards.

    Nope. You have it backwards. Weight loss starts in the kitchen, fitness happens in the gym.

    If a person maintains a good fitness level, then it would never get to the kitchen, so what came first, the chicken or the egg.

    You can maintain a good "fitness level" (whatever that means to you), and still overeat and gain weight. It's extremely obvious.
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
    edited July 2015
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    bcalvanese wrote: »
    SLLRunner wrote: »
    bcalvanese wrote: »
    loulamb7 wrote: »
    Ever hear the idiom "You can't out exercise a bad diet"? Ultimately weight loss or gain is determined by caloric intake. Exercise helps but it still comes back to calories. Reason you're losing is because walking is creating a caloric deficit.

    Exercise IMO is the most important thing a person can do to achieve and maintain a healthy weight. Good nutrition helps.

    I think you got it backwards.

    Nope. You have it backwards. Weight loss starts in the kitchen, fitness happens in the gym.

    If a person maintains a good fitness level, then it would never get to the kitchen, so what came first, the chicken or the egg.

    Nope. You can exercise like crazy and eat too much and gain weight. I know, I gained 33 pounds while running and working out in the gym like crazy. I simply ate too much food.
  • MamaBirdBoss
    MamaBirdBoss Posts: 1,516 Member
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    Lots of people have negative associations with exercise.

    Many people have only ever exercised TO lose weight, and since they found it ineffective for that (which it is, without calorie-counting!), they learned to hate it.

    Some people are too heavy to do what you'd call "exercise" or too ill.

    Also, heavier people can lose a TON of weight without being hungry because their current TDEE is very high just due to their weight. :) It's only when they slide into some part of the overweight category that many start feeling any kind of actual HUNGER.
  • PrizePopple
    PrizePopple Posts: 3,133 Member
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    bcalvanese wrote: »
    bcalvanese wrote: »

    I never called anyone lazy. If you actually read my post, I said "that just seems lazy to me", not "they seem lazy to me"

    Why are you twisting my words?

    Give me a break. You're splitting hairs and you know it.

    Now go log your food, because it's lazy not to. Not calling you lazy, though.

    Yes it is lazy not to always log my food. I eat the same things a lot of the time and know in my head how many calories it is.

    And when I said "I am amazing", I only meant it as a strike back at you.

    I know I am not amazing. I'm just an old guy trying to lose some weight and get healthier. And I think diet "AND" exercise is the best way to accomplish that for anyone. Not just because it is what I am doing, but because it would work for anyone who can physically do it.

    And I see so many posts of people who have been struggling for months, and years, and decades, trying to do it with just calories. and it does seem like laziness to me. If a person is in good physical condition then weight control is not normally an issue. Once a person is over weight, the best thing is to use diet "AND" exercise to lose the weight and get back in shape. This gives a way better chance of maintaining a healthy weight and fitness level.

    I didn't really mean the laziness part as an insult, but more of a motivational thing.

    Oh good. More blanket statements about what you feel is best for all the peeples.

    Did you not catch the .. Worry about yourself and no one else?

    Seriously this is like talking to my children and kids at school ... You need to worry about you and not your neighbors.
    How is that not what you're doing?

    Oh so you're moving on to white knighting for the OP. That's cool.

    If you want to think that laughing at the absurdity of this conversation is white knighting, that's fine with me.

    Trying to call me out for telling the OP to worry about himself is more than "laughing at the absurdity of this conversation". I don't need hand slapping from you, thanks.
  • simbartes
    simbartes Posts: 64 Member
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    bcalvanese wrote: »
    Just wondering how people are trying to lose weight without exercising.

    I can see if you have some type of issue where you absolutely cannot exercise, but anything other than that it just seems like laziness to me, and it would just seem like a life long battle of being hungry and thinking about food all the time.

    Is it worth a lifetime of struggle?

    You're still going to be a lump on a log, you're just going to be one that weighs less and feels crappy.

    I am not a fitness nut either. I just walk every day, and ride my bike. Since I have been doing this, I can pretty much eat the same way I always have by making it up with walking and bike riding, and I feel so much better for it.

    I am not trying to hurt anyone's feelings here, but I read these posts and just think to myself... why?

    I am not able to exercise other than walking (which I do). This sounds absolutely awful but it's the honest truth. Once you get to a certain size then your joints and knees and back are physically incapable of taking more strain without becoming seriously hurt.

    Both my doctor and my nutritionist told me that
    1. I absolutely should not exercise until I get around the 200 pound mark (other than walking)
    2. Exercise increases your appetite
    3. Weight loss is 90% what you eat and 10% exercise.

    I think I will trust the two health care professionals whose care I am under before I will allow someone's judgement that I am just lazy to interfere with the way I chose to loose weight.

    I am on a low sugar moderate carbohydrate diet and frankly I don't miss the carbs or the sugar. It's working great for me so far. I've learnt a whole lot about appropriate portion control, what sugars do to your body, the well researched corrected ratio of carbs to fats to proteins. Best part is after the initial detox from a very high carb and sugar (mainly from fruits) diet I don't have any cravings and virtually no hungry.

    For the first time in years I feel more in control of my eating habits and I feel like I've found a way of eating which I can sustain.

    I plan to add exercise when these things happen
    A. I get to 200lb
    B. I plateau
    C. I feel like I need to.
    In the meantime I will go for walks with my dog. Further each day. And take the stairs at work. And park further from the front door of where I am going. These are things that I can do and are physically safe for me to do at my current weight.

    It's not actually laziness, it's quite insensitive of you to say that it is.
  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
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    Also, heavier people can lose a TON of weight without being hungry because their current TDEE is very high just due to their weight. :)

    Body fat adds very little to TDEE. The difference is that fat metabolization is rate-limited and proportional to the amount of stored fat, so obese individuals can mobilize a LOT more energy from stored fat than non-obese people.
  • OldAssDude
    OldAssDude Posts: 1,436 Member
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    Well I guess my running for forum president ain't happening.

    But I would like to say that most of you have been way harsher to me than I was on any of you.

    I still think it seems kind of lazy to not include increased activity (exercise) into a weight loss plan, and I don't think there is a doctor on earth that would disagree with that (unless the person had a medical reason).

    So just sit on your butts, count your calories,struggle more than you have to, and become the same out of shape person that you were before, but with less weight.

    I am going to lose my pound a week, and increase my fitness level enough to not have to really be concerned about my weight anymore, feel 1,000 percent better, and when I get really old, I won't need family members to wipe my butt, bathe me, and help me get from point A to point B because I sat on my lazy butt for all those years.

    And my question is still... Why?

  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
    edited July 2015
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    bcalvanese wrote: »
    I still think it seems kind of lazy to not include increased activity (exercise) into a weight loss plan...

    There we go again with the name calling. Sorry - "humility".

    So just sit on your butts...

    A lot of people on this thread are WAY more active than you.

    Seriously.


  • PrizePopple
    PrizePopple Posts: 3,133 Member
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    bcalvanese wrote: »
    Well I guess my running for forum president ain't happening.

    But I would like to say that most of you have been way harsher to me than I was on any of you.

    I still think it seems kind of lazy to not include increased activity (exercise) into a weight loss plan, and I don't think there is a doctor on earth that would disagree with that (unless the person had a medical reason).

    So just sit on your butts, count your calories,struggle more than you have to, and become the same out of shape person that you were before, but with less weight.

    I am going to lose my pound a week, and increase my fitness level enough to not have to really be concerned about my weight anymore, feel 1,000 percent better, and when I get really old, I won't need family members to wipe my butt, bathe me, and help me get from point A to point B because I sat on my lazy butt for all those years.

    And my question is still... Why?

    3c09d14adcdd6626599b630020298af374a0fd836295a829a62c17c45770fd64.jpg

    You really are a complete prat.
  • OldAssDude
    OldAssDude Posts: 1,436 Member
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    simbartes wrote: »
    bcalvanese wrote: »
    Just wondering how people are trying to lose weight without exercising.

    I can see if you have some type of issue where you absolutely cannot exercise, but anything other than that it just seems like laziness to me, and it would just seem like a life long battle of being hungry and thinking about food all the time.

    Is it worth a lifetime of struggle?

    You're still going to be a lump on a log, you're just going to be one that weighs less and feels crappy.

    I am not a fitness nut either. I just walk every day, and ride my bike. Since I have been doing this, I can pretty much eat the same way I always have by making it up with walking and bike riding, and I feel so much better for it.

    I am not trying to hurt anyone's feelings here, but I read these posts and just think to myself... why?

    I am not able to exercise other than walking (which I do). This sounds absolutely awful but it's the honest truth. Once you get to a certain size then your joints and knees and back are physically incapable of taking more strain without becoming seriously hurt.

    Both my doctor and my nutritionist told me that
    1. I absolutely should not exercise until I get around the 200 pound mark (other than walking)
    2. Exercise increases your appetite
    3. Weight loss is 90% what you eat and 10% exercise.

    I think I will trust the two health care professionals whose care I am under before I will allow someone's judgement that I am just lazy to interfere with the way I chose to loose weight.

    I am on a low sugar moderate carbohydrate diet and frankly I don't miss the carbs or the sugar. It's working great for me so far. I've learnt a whole lot about appropriate portion control, what sugars do to your body, the well researched corrected ratio of carbs to fats to proteins. Best part is after the initial detox from a very high carb and sugar (mainly from fruits) diet I don't have any cravings and virtually no hungry.

    For the first time in years I feel more in control of my eating habits and I feel like I've found a way of eating which I can sustain.

    I plan to add exercise when these things happen
    A. I get to 200lb
    B. I plateau
    C. I feel like I need to.
    In the meantime I will go for walks with my dog. Further each day. And take the stairs at work. And park further from the front door of where I am going. These are things that I can do and are physically safe for me to do at my current weight.

    It's not actually laziness, it's quite insensitive of you to say that it is.

    Did you ask your doctor(s) about working out in water?

    It would take most of the weight off of your joints, and you could get a great work out by using the resistance of the water.
  • slaite1
    slaite1 Posts: 1,307 Member
    edited July 2015
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    bcalvanese wrote: »
    Well I guess my running for forum president ain't happening.

    But I would like to say that most of you have been way harsher to me than I was on any of you.

    I still think it seems kind of lazy to not include increased activity (exercise) into a weight loss plan, and I don't think there is a doctor on earth that would disagree with that (unless the person had a medical reason).

    So just sit on your butts, count your calories,struggle more than you have to, and become the same out of shape person that you were before, but with less weight.

    I am going to lose my pound a week, and increase my fitness level enough to not have to really be concerned about my weight anymore, feel 1,000 percent better, and when I get really old, I won't need family members to wipe my butt, bathe me, and help me get from point A to point B because I sat on my lazy butt for all those years.

    And my question is still... Why?

    You're humiliating yourself with all of your humility

    Edited for stupid
  • Alatariel75
    Alatariel75 Posts: 17,959 Member
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    bcalvanese wrote: »
    Well I guess my running for forum president ain't happening.

    But I would like to say that most of you have been way harsher to me than I was on any of you.

    I still think it seems kind of lazy to not include increased activity (exercise) into a weight loss plan, and I don't think there is a doctor on earth that would disagree with that (unless the person had a medical reason).

    So just sit on your butts, count your calories,struggle more than you have to, and become the same out of shape person that you were before, but with less weight.

    I am going to lose my pound a week, and increase my fitness level enough to not have to really be concerned about my weight anymore, feel 1,000 percent better, and when I get really old, I won't need family members to wipe my butt, bathe me, and help me get from point A to point B because I sat on my lazy butt for all those years.

    And my question is still... Why?

    Funnily enough, the majority of people who called you out on this thread are very active, many far more than you. You don't need to be personally affected by rudeness to recognise it in others.
  • jafels
    jafels Posts: 3 Member
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    Oh my God, make it stop!! :s
  • hearthwood
    hearthwood Posts: 794 Member
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    No one has to exercise to lose weight. It is well known that weight loss is 97% due to how many calories you're consuming. And there are a lot of people that need to lose weight first, before beginning any exercise program.

    Yes exercise helps to burn those calories faster, and to basically get a person in shape. Toning, strength and cardio all do wonders for your health.
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