Does exercise not work for some of us?

How are you measuring your calories? Are you weighing your food?

Aerobic will always work at what it's supposed to do, which is to build your cardiovascular endurance. It also burns calories. To lose weight you need a caloric deficit, which means that you eat fewer cals than you burn. This happens primarily in the kitchen. Read the sticky posts at the top of each forum for lots of good info and guidance on how to accomplish a caloric deficit.

90% of weight loss is in the kitchen. We are very similar in size, and I have my cals set to 1590/day to lose 1lb/week. While I like to think that my portion control is improving, I do know that if I didn't weigh my food 2 days a week, I would wipe out at least some of my weekly deficit. It could be that you're losing at a much lower rate simply because of those 2 days a week of "non-perfection." Have you tried tracking your weight on something like Trendweight to see the overall trend?

That being said, if you're exercising like mad and not seeing a loss, there are a couple of things that could be happening:
1. You're retaining some water as your muscles repair (apparently this is at the outset of a new program, so wouldn't necessarily apply if you've been working out like this for a while)
2. You're eating/drinking more than you think. If you don't have a food scale, get one. If you do have one, tighten up your logging - avoid generic entries, make sure you log every bite, weigh foods that come from a package (e.g. slices of bread, slices of deli meat, etc.)
3. Don't know how long you've been at this, but make sure you've given it enough time. Weight loss is not linear, as everyone here is keen to tell you.

Nobody has to exercise for weight loss but, as others have said, it creates a greater deficit. That being said, exercise certainly does not prevent people from losing weight. Depending on your deficit, one or two days off plan can absolutely cancel out your deficit. I have a few questions.

• What constitutes working out "like mad"?
• Eating "about" 1560 calories on a weekly average or daily?
• Do you weigh your food?
• Do you eat your exercise calories back?
• Do you log your cocktails?
• What happens on your one or two days "off plan" per week?

It's not that exercise doesn't "work" - it's that it really should be disassociated from weight loss.

Don't get me wrong - there are 1,000 reasons to exercise, including heart and lung health (like you mentioned), bone density maintenance, improving muscle tone and structure so that you look better, the wonderful endorphins one feels afterward, etc... However, even an awesome, butt-busting workout will only burn off a few hundred calories. When comparing the rate of burn to the fact that it's super, super easy to wipe out a workout deficit by eating just a little too much of the wrong thing, it just doesn't make it seem worth it.

(ETA: It's also very easy to overestimate the number of calories you burn in any given exercise. This might be something you want to look at if you eat back your exercise calories.)

There are a couple of very common sayings here on MFP. One is "You can't outrun a bad diet." Another one is, "Weight loss starts in the kitchen; health starts in the gym." If you're not seeing results and exercise is wearing you out, try tightening up your diet. Make sure you're weighing solids and measuring liquids to ensure your calorie count is accurate. Eating less calories than you burn is how you lose; in the context of weight loss, exercise just gives you a small calorie buffer in the event you want to eat a little more.

Additionally - you may want to count up those cocktails once just to make sure they're not throwing you off more than you think you are. I had a shot of Disaronno last night and it was 110 calories. Your standard Long Island Iced Tea can have 800 calories or more. Cocktails can be deceptively calorie-laden.

kpuzzuoli wrote: »

I meticulously log calories, use measuring spoons and cups. I am also a near-vegan - very little dairy and mostly vegetarian protein. I may be going upwards of 500 calories over my goal with the cocktails, but I really did believe the exercise would allow me those with the extra calories allocated. I have read a few discussions on here and it sounds like many think MFP overestimates exercise calories.

If you aren't using a scale, you may be eating much more than you think you are. A plant-based diet is pretty irrelevant for calorie intake -- all the weight I lost recently (40+ pounds) I gained as a vegan.

I would recommend getting a handle on what you're actually consuming by getting a food scale and logging your cocktails. This can help you see if you're either eating more than you think you are or wiping out your deficit on the weekends.

I'm not sure how much exercise you're doing, but it's really, really easy to eat enough to wipe out the calories burnt through exercise. I run about 35 miles a week and I still -- with eating plant-based foods -- went over my weekly calorie goal due to just two days of relaxed eating last week (these were not even days when I was eating whatever I wanted). If I was trying to lose weight, those two days would have been enough to wipe out any deficit I created on the other days of the week.

kpuzzuoli wrote: »

I will say, though, that I feel pretty confident that I am eating within the 1560 calorie range (except for cocktail days).

I think until you use your food scale and really start logging tightly, you won't really be sure you are eating withing the 1560 range, and could be eating way OVER that range on cocktail days. Give it a try! It's only a pain in the butt for the first week, then it gets to be like second nature. Its worth it!! xo