Hello!! Thoughts on the 70% nutrition, 30% gym mentality??

@mccindy72 makes a good point as others have. I think using exercise as a way to lose weight is a sure fire way to risk a 100%+ regain. Over time 100% of us will have/develop a time when we can not workout to burn off fat. That is the reason I think if one can not maintain without doing work outs that failure is just around the corner. At 64 I have seen these times myself and know the results. Now I walk a quart mile daily and it is important but if I stop it alone should not lead to a 50 pound gain over the next year.

@ESotrops welcome to MFP and you asked a valid question then it got a little deep. You are doing well and I see where you are coming from. The mix of diet and exercise is really left up to you. Clearly you know how to lose weight.

Young people can lose weight by just thinking about it. Old people can gain weight it seems by just thinking about losing weight. I do wish I knew what you know about diet today when I was your age but today's info was not at our grasp 40 years ago as it is today.

Basically one has to learn how to lose weight then how to maintain that lost weight. I think you will be fine. Remember do not read posting in web forums as your source of dieting info. Use web posting info a Google jumping off point. Work to find articles and other research on the pros and cons of every facet of what you are doing or plan to do when it comes to losing/maintaining weight.

I use my scales to weight my body daily. That tells me where I am gaining, maintaining or losing weight. As long as the scales are telling me what I want to hear I just keep trucking otherwise I do some counting and figure out why the scales are telling me something different than I expect.

Because I do very Low Carb High Fat and medium protein I have to track my grams of carbs to make sure they are <50 grams daily so I can stay in nutritional ketosis which is a good term to Google if you have a question about it. My son got me on Chrome browser so all I have to do is to highlight the word(s) tell it search them.

My scales tells me my body weight and estimates my % of body fat, hydration and BMI. The breath analyzer below lets me know if I have eaten more than or less than 50 grams of carbs that day. If I blow a .0000 I know I have eating more than 50 grams of carbs. If reads .02 I need to watch my carbs. If I blow a .05 or better I know in am in nutritional ketosis and am burning fat instead of mainly carbs. In 60 seconds I have done all the counting and weighting needed to determine if my I am on target with my eating.

ebay.com/itm/Advanced-Professional-Police-Digital-Breath-Alcohol-Tester-Breathalyser-Detector-/111694167503?hash=item1a017dbdcf

One has to buy a cheap one like this one that I have. It works by reading the acetone produced when you are burning ketones that are created when one is in nutritional ketosis. Two identical meters can give very different results but that is OK for a go/no go testing meter.

This is just my system I had come up with before I heard of MFP. It uses electronic devices that makes my geek streak happy and has medically valid input that I need to manage my pain which is why I eat this way. Others have different weighing and counting methods that perhaps works as well for them.

The tools and diets we all use to lose/maintain weight can be different as long as they move us towards living better and longer. In the end that is all that counts.

Yes we can preach, rave and call people names that do something different than we do but to do so is nonsense at all levels as you already know by now I am sure from reading MFP forums.

stevencloser wrote: »

In the end it doesn't matter how you create a calorie deficit, but most people will tell you it's easier eating less than burning more.

Yes, this is true for me at the moment.

nikkiab86 wrote: »

I've read some where, that women burn 14x their weight. So, 14x(weightlbs) =current calories, and to lose about a pound a week, you divide. (Current calories÷7days) and it will give the calories less each day. I read it isn't completely accurate but close. Men would be 15x(weightlbs).

Ex. 14x220lbs=3,080
3,080÷7=440
3,080-440=2,640(calorie deficit)

The example is me. I decided to eat one day I normally eat. And it was pretty close. 3,101

The best way to go depends on your natural activity level, life situation, appetite, taste etc. All of that is going to make a difference in terms of your adherence to the approach you choose.

When I could work out consistently, with intensity, I made a ballpark guess re TDEE (which turned out to be higher than calculators predicted), ate healthier (according to my definition), counted calories in to stay where I needed to be, and mostly relied on calories burned (out) for the loss. I enjoyed fitness more than I did the dieting aspect, really. I'd just push as hard as I could for 45-60 minutes, sweat my buns off, and felt confident I got rid of a good chunk of cals. And it worked, as in I lost the weight I wanted, so it wasn't far off.

Now that I can't work out as hard, I'm trying out the MFP/NEAT thing. I find it annoying, bc all of a sudden it matters whether the stationary bike at my gym is accurate or not, because atm I am limited to very modest intensity and can't do as much time as I'd prefer.

If you're not very active for whatever reasons, or if it's easier for you to reduce food intake than it is to get into working out, NEAT is probably the way to go for metrics, and obviously focusing on watching your cals in is the way forward for you.

If you like fitness/activity, can do it consistently, have a big appetite, and want a margin of error for your cals in, focusing on cals out and using the TDEE method might work better. (Obviously, you still have to watch your cals in, everyone does in one way or another, it's more the emphasis I'm talking about.)

*and by "activity", I mostly mean cardio, bc resistance training isn't going to give you the burns needed for loss. But, strength training is going to help you retain muscle, which gives you a nice shape and also increases the amount you burn at rest (to some degree). For health, it's obviously important to do both strength & cardio.

shell1005 wrote: »

bcalvanese wrote: »

Weight loss happens in the kitchen. Fitness happens in the gym... is just so totally wrong. I can't believe you people keep going around, and around, and around, and around with this wrong way of thinking.

The only thing that happens in the kitchen is "calories in".
The only thing that happens with exercise (not just the gym) is 'calories out".

It is a combination of both of these things that will determine a persons long term success rate, and to me they are both equally important until you get to a healthy weight and a good fitness level. once you do that, it's relatively easy to not gain weight, and you only need to exercise enough to maintain your fitness level.

I think the problem is that people are overcomplicating this to the point that they can't see the simple facts of it.

Really now? Then how come most people regain the weight they have lost. Relatively easy?? I think not.

You can see this whole thing anyway you want, but it doesn't make those who emphasize diet as the more important factor in weight management wrong. You do you, I'll do me.

Over 90% of people who lose weight by diet alone fail long term (gain the weight back).
Over 90% of people who lose weight through diet and exercise succeed long term (don't gain the weight back).

You do the math.

*hands head in shame* i have lost 25lbs in 2 months, i have not done 1 minute of what most people on here wpuld call excersize.

I don't want any food bad enough to have to run for it.

But that's me.

I will start weight lifting ..one day..today is not that day.

bcalvanese wrote: »

Over 90% of people who lose weight by diet alone fail long term (gain the weight back). Over 90% of people who lose weight through diet and exercise succeed long term (don't gain the weight back). You do the math.

You have a study where 90% of the participants succeeded in keeping their weight off long term?

bcalvanese wrote: »

PAV8888 wrote: »

bcalvanese wrote: »

Over 90% of people who lose weight by diet alone fail long term (gain the weight back). Over 90% of people who lose weight through diet and exercise succeed long term (don't gain the weight back). You do the math.

You have a study where 90% of the participants succeeded in keeping their weight off long term?

I found it on the internet somewhere. I think the study said only 6% of the people who just dieted gained the weight back long term, and over 90% who dieted and exercised maintained a healthy body weight long term. I'm sure you could find it with a google search. I will try to find it and post a link.

You can also look on the CDC website and see what they recommend for maintaining a healthy weight. It's no secret.

Admittedly, I've read something similar too. I cant remember where though... Could have even been on the forums here??