Dieting without exercise

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gallonsofcoffee
gallonsofcoffee Posts: 2 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
What are your thoughts on doing MFP without exercising? I honestly don't have the time or energy because I am barely surviving working full time with a 2 year old and a 7 month old and breastfeeding/pumping. Is it that crucial to exercise?
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Replies

  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
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    You are good to go with diet alone. There is a group here of breastfeeding dieters. Find them. You want to be eating enough.
  • gallonsofcoffee
    gallonsofcoffee Posts: 2 Member
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    Tacklewasher wrote: »
    Exercise is not essential to losing weight, but there is more to health then just losing weight. Besides drinking a lot of coffee, what are your stats and goals etc.?


    BTW, I love the username so please don't take the above as a slight.

    I'm 5'7 and around 175 lbs. My ultimate goal is to lose as much of the "mommy tummy" as possible and get down to between 140-150. I eventually want to exercise again, but I just don't have it in me currently. I do have a goal to drink more water than coffee too
  • crzycatlady1
    crzycatlady1 Posts: 1,930 Member
    edited December 2016
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    Nope, exercise is not needed -you can lose the extra weight by eating at the correct calorie deficit for your weight goals (what I did).
  • Tacklewasher
    Tacklewasher Posts: 7,122 Member
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    gallonsofcoffee wrote: »
    Tacklewasher wrote: »
    Exercise is not essential to losing weight, but there is more to health then just losing weight. Besides drinking a lot of coffee, what are your stats and goals etc.?


    BTW, I love the username so please don't take the above as a slight.

    I'm 5'7 and around 175 lbs. My ultimate goal is to lose as much of the "mommy tummy" as possible and get down to between 140-150. I eventually want to exercise again, but I just don't have it in me currently. I do have a goal to drink more water than coffee too

    I've only cut down on coffee because it was affecting my sleep. But I take mine black with no sugar, so no calories to worry about. I've switched to more water, but be sure to enjoy your coffee. Other than that, put your info in to MFP, plan to lose .5 to 1 lb per week and just log as carefully as you can. A food scale is pretty important to knowing your calorie intake, so invest in one of those. You don't have a horrible amount to lose but it will take some time so be prepared for that. Read through the stickies in this forum (especially the sexypants one) for some good information. Don't worry about good or bad foods, just focus first on calories then on the main macro nutrients. And try to ignore all the BS about losing weight. While it is not easy to do, the concepts behind it are pretty simple. Eat less than you burn and don't sweat the small stuff.
  • red99ryder
    red99ryder Posts: 399 Member
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    I have been losing with out formal exercise as well ..

    Good luck
  • successgal1
    successgal1 Posts: 996 Member
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    I'm doing it myself with no planned exercise. After the holidays though I will work on core and upper body just for the purpose of shaping, I will have 8 weeks before vacation. Yesterday I grabbed my wheelbarrow and manure fork and picked up my neighbors horses paddock to burn calories in advance of a party last night. I prefer yard work to formal exercise. And my neighbor is very busy nursing her elderly mom and needs the help. The horse didn't care one way or the other. Lol.
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
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    I maintained a slim weight for the first 40 years of my life with no exercise, I did join the gym once and went a few times...
    I lost 24 of the 30lbs i needed to lose with a very, very sedentary lifestyle. Now the only exercise i do is walking, i walk a lot!
  • AmyFFX
    AmyFFX Posts: 2 Member
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    If you're dieting without exercise, you'll just become a smaller version of yourself.
    Exercise will help overall health and body fat %.
    Walking is a great start!
  • ds41980
    ds41980 Posts: 133 Member
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    I have lost 26 pounds so far no exercise. I do plan to in the future but for right now I have my hands full just getting the food part down.
  • SusanMFindlay
    SusanMFindlay Posts: 1,804 Member
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    You have a 7 month old and 2 year old. Even without formal exercise, I can't imagine you're not getting a decent amount of physical activity chasing kids, tidying up after kids, walking kids to the park, playing with kids, etc.

    Even if that weren't the case, you can lose weight by simply consuming fewer calories than you burn. But it's worth remembering that formal exercise isn't the only form of physical activity.
  • mlsh1969
    mlsh1969 Posts: 138 Member
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    queenliz99 wrote: »
    Nope, it's not crucial. Two little ones at home is plenty enough. Exercise is for health and well being, weight loss is created in the kitchen.

    This is so true.
  • GottaBurnEmAll
    GottaBurnEmAll Posts: 7,722 Member
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    queenliz99 wrote: »
    Nope, it's not crucial. Two little ones at home is plenty enough. Exercise is for health and well being, weight loss is created in the kitchen.

    This. I'm sure you're moving around plenty chasing after that two year old!

    I'm exhausted just thinking how sleep deprived you must be, OP!
  • TimothyFish
    TimothyFish Posts: 4,925 Member
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    It depends on what your goal is. If all you're trying to do is lose weight then exercise isn't required. If your goal is to be healthy and feel better then exercise is more important.
  • crzycatlady1
    crzycatlady1 Posts: 1,930 Member
    edited December 2016
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    TimothyFish wrote: »
    It depends on what your goal is. If all you're trying to do is lose weight then exercise isn't required. If your goal is to be healthy and feel better then exercise is more important.

    People keep saying thist and I'm genuinely confused-do you not think people can be healthy and feel good without exercise? That hasn't been my experience at all-I'm in great health and feel fine too, and I don't do any sort of structured exercise.

    Back when I first transitioned into maintenance I went through an exercise phase (started running, did some body weight strength training etc). Nothing magical happened and my blood work didn't change at all. It did make it more difficult to stay within my calorie goals though because I was hungrier after exercising. After several months I realized it wasn't really helping anything and I quit. I'm now almost 4 years into maintenance and have no problem hitting my weight and health goals without exercise. Sometimes I really do suspect I may be a special freak snowflake :p

    eta: the strength training did make my abs pop and my arms and back become more defined etc, but I didn't care one way or the other about the new look and my husband didn't like it so I quit doing it. Running was the thing that made me hungrier-I wasn't burning a lot because I was still a newbie but afterwards I felt like I had to eat allz the food lol.
  • GottaBurnEmAll
    GottaBurnEmAll Posts: 7,722 Member
    edited December 2016
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    crzycatlady1 wrote: »
    TimothyFish wrote: »
    It depends on what your goal is. If all you're trying to do is lose weight then exercise isn't required. If your goal is to be healthy and feel better then exercise is more important.

    People keep saying that and I'm genuinely confused-do you not think people can be healthy and feel good without exercise? That hasn't been my experience at all-I'm in great health and feel fine too, and I don't do any sort of structured exercise.

    Back when I first transitioned into maintenance I went through an exercise phase (started running, did some body weight strength training etc). Nothing magical happened and my blood work didn't change at all. It did make it more difficult to stay within my calorie goals though because I was hungrier after exercising. After several months I realized it wasn't really helping anything and I quit. I'm now almost 4 years into maintenance and have no problem hitting my weight and health goals without exercise. Sometimes I really do suspect I may be a special freak snowflake :p

    Exercise is good for a lot of things. It reduces your risk of cardiovascular disease, it improves the strength of your muscles and bones and these things become more important as you age. It reduces your risk of some cancers.

    There is a balance between exercise making you hungry and a healthy level of activity that provides benefit.

    This isn't to say that there aren't phases of life where purposeful exercise isn't in the cards for some people, but I'm of the belief, probably because I'm older, that meeting at least the recommended guidelines for activity is a good idea.

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