Can i lose weight without exercise?
umamageswary52
Posts: 68 Member
Can i lose weight just by maintaining my everday calorie ? And not by exercising? Can I still eat junkfood one in awhile? Do I have to watch my carb,fat,protein or I can eat whatever I want but just in the certain amount of calorie ?
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Replies
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Yes. I lost 5lbs in 3 weeks with no exercise. And I have 8lbs left. It can be done.
Eat what you want, within your calorie allotment, and you'll lose weight. Easy as that.8 -
I wouldn't recommend it, but yeah...you can lose weight without exercise. Losing weight is a matter of consuming fewer calories than your body requires to maintain the status quo. Regular exercise is very good for your overall health and wellbeing and has the added bonus of increasing your energy expenditure to some extent and thus you can eat more and still lose weight.
For example, without exercise, to lose 1 Lb per week I would have to eat 1900 calories because my maintenance calories w/o exercise is around 2400. With exercise I can eat around 2200-2300 calories to lose 1 Lb per week because regular exercise increases my maintenance to around 2700/2800 calories at the moment..5 -
You lose weight by eating at a calorie deficit. It's all about calories.
http://www.acaloriecounter.com/blog/why-am-i-not-losing-weight/3 -
Absolutely. Exercise is for health and fitness. Caloric intake is for weight.
I will point out that, in my case, exercise has helped me boost my daily calorie allowance, so I don't need to do as much juggling to eat what I want on 1380 calories/day. I have a couple hundred more to play with. Also, it's helped my mood and my 'time of month' has been less difficult. However, that doesn't change the answer to your question: you can DEFINITELY lose weight without exercise. And macros (carbs, fat, and protein) are important to for energy level, satiety, nutrition, etc. But for weight loss? Calories are king.6 -
umamageswary52 wrote: »Can i lose weight just by maintaining my everday calorie ? And not by exercising? Can I still eat junkfood one in awhile? Do I have to watch my carb,fat,protein or I can eat whatever I want but just in the certain amount of calorie ?
Yes - you can lose weight just by maintaining your everday calories, and not by exercising. MFP gave you a calorie goal before exercise.
Exercise during weight loss is great if you can manage it though. Strength training will help keep lean muscle loss lower.
Yes - you can still eat junk food once in awhile. All things in moderation. I'm learning how to manage treats.
No - you don't have to watch your carbs, fat, and protein (barring a medical condition). However, adequate protein can help maintain lean muscle. I do focus on meeting protein goals because I want fat loss.3 -
Yes.umamageswary52 wrote: »Can i lose weight just by maintaining my everday calories?
Yes.And not by exercising?
Yes.Can I still eat junkfood once in awhile?
No.Do I have to watch my carb,fat,proteinor I can eat whatever I want but just in the certain amount of calorie ?
Aha! Now you've got it! For weight loss, all you need do is consume fewer calories than you expend. It doesn't matter what foods, times of day, times per day, days per week, etc. you consume your food as long as over the long haul you consume fewer calories than you expend.
Exercise is good for us for a variety of reasons, among them that it burns calories (though not as many as you may think). Eating a healthy diet, however you may define that, is good for us. Sleeping 7-8 hours per night is good for us. Taking time to stop and smell the daisies is good for us. Lots of things are good for us but they do not, of themselves cause weight loss.
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umamageswary52 wrote: »Can i lose weight just by maintaining my everday calorie ? And not by exercising? Can I still eat junkfood one in awhile? Do I have to watch my carb,fat,protein or I can eat whatever I want but just in the certain amount of calorie ?
Yes...BUT it is impossible to know how difficult/easy it will be for you.
Exercise is good for you, even though it's impact on weight loss is usually minimal. Eating higher protein can help you feel fuller longer and be less hungry so that you can not over eat. Depending on "whatever you want" is, it could prove to be difficult to adhere to eating within your calorie limits. There can be a huge gap between theory and reality.2 -
umamageswary52 wrote: »Can i lose weight just by maintaining my everday calorie ? And not by exercising? Can I still eat junkfood one in awhile? Do I have to watch my carb,fat,protein or I can eat whatever I want but just in the certain amount of calorie ?
Ya you can definitely lose weight by just changing your diet. I am a very lazy person and I dislike exercise very much. I lost 40 pounds this way. Eat junkfood once in a while, but you should probably watch your carb, fat, protein intake. You want to make a lifestyle change to keep the weight off and it's so easy to overindulge with junk food.
Being aware of how many carbs, how much fat, and how much protein you're consuming will make choosing healthy food over junk food a breeze in the future.0 -
I would recommend exercise... I lost 90+ by just watching how I eat, but I'm also a pyscho when it comes to food lol2
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Yes.. if skinny fat is a look you desire
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My cousin has lost 130 pounds in the last year and a half, and she had two surgeries in that time. She wasn't able to exercise before the surgeries, and not for 8 weeks after the last one, and can only now start to do more than just walking. Yes, you can lose weight without exercise.3
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Yo! You can still lose weight/fat without exercise, as long as ur in a caloric deficit. Exercise helps speed things up and probably help in the aesthetics department once u lose the fat.0
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Yep, I lost the extra weight (50lbs) without doing exercise and just focusing on my calorie deficit. Improved all my health markers in the process to boot
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EricLFC1892 wrote: »Yes.. if skinny fat is a look you desire
Didn't happen with me and I lost 50lbs. No saggy skin or stretch marks either.6 -
Yes, you definitely can. I did. I lost about 50 pounds with very little exercise just by sticking to what MFP recommended. I gained back about 8 pounds a couple of months ago, and added regular exercise. The difference is that my skin is not as loose and saggy after I added the exercise. I have been doing the elliptical almost every day for a few weeks. For me, I don't think I would have lost the weight in the first place if I felt I had to exercise. I was too out of shape. Losing quite a few pounds through calorie counting alone motivated me to start regular exercise. It only took me about 8 months to lose over 50 pounds. Most of it came off in the first 5 months.0
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Yup. I am losing weight and not currently even walking very far because I have injured my foot. And as long as your junk food fits into your calories it doesn't matter. I had a big mac and fried last weekend and I'm still losing just fine 1
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umamageswary52 wrote: »Can i lose weight just by maintaining my everday calorie ? And not by exercising? Can I still eat junkfood one in awhile? Do I have to watch my carb,fat,protein or I can eat whatever I want but just in the certain amount of calorie ?
You can lose weight but I wouldn't recommend doing that...I think by not doing exercise you have a higher chance of having fat around your organs also known as visceral fat. Also you will look skinny fat which doesn't look nice. So even if you eat healthy and within your calories limit you won't be healthy. Exercise is a must! We're designed to move! If you really don't want to do exercise then just stay really active the whole day and walk. Do as many walks as possible.4 -
umamageswary52 wrote: »Can i lose weight just by maintaining my everday calorie ? And not by exercising? Can I still eat junkfood one in awhile? Do I have to watch my carb,fat,protein or I can eat whatever I want but just in the certain amount of calorie ?
You can lose weight but I wouldn't recommend doing that...I think by not doing exercise you have a higher chance of having fat around your organs also known as visceral fat. Also you will look skinny fat which doesn't look nice. So even if you eat healthy and within your calories limit you won't be healthy. Exercise is a must! We're designed to move! If you really don't want to do exercise then just stay really active the whole day and walk. Do as many walks as possible.
Do you have any studies to back up your claim that not exercising during weight loss produces visceral fat. Would love to take a look at them.
And like I posted above-I improved all my health markers, including normalizing a prediabetic glucose number, while doing absolutely no intentional exercise. I don't know how you're defining 'healthy' but all my health markers were excellent at the end of my weight loss phase. And I looked pretty great as well-no stretch marks, saggy skin etc.
As a sidenote I'm now several years into maintenance and still don't do intentional exercise, besides a bit of summer walking (4 miles this week, no miles last week etc), and all my health markers are still great-total cholesterol in the 160s, triglycerides in the 60s, fasting glucose number in the 80s etc. My current bmi is also a 19.9. I posted a pic that I took of myself yesterday, over in the 'wheat belly' thread. I think I look pretty decent for an almost 39 year old mom of 3 kids.
Op-I'm not saying that exercise is bad but if you decide to not include it now, that doesn't automatically mean you're going to look like a lumpy troll at the end of your weight loss phase
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If you are not going to exercise, maintaining a calorie deficit is one way to lose weight. I changed my way of eating also - keto / paleo (low sugar&carbs / high fat& protein). I lost weight / continue to lose and I am compliant about 75% of the time. I also keep my maintenance calories / weight loss calories the same - at least for now.2
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Yes.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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You sure could lose weight without exercise. A better question is should people have a sedentary lifestyle. And the answer to that is No.
You will have a better quality of life now and especially in the future if you are active.
Perhaps the idea of working out in a gym doesn't appeal to you. That's fine - there are lots of ways to be active that don't involve a gym membership.
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I lost 50 kg / 110 lbs without any excercise.
So sure you can. Was it a good idea? Most likely not.2 -
Yes, but you won't look "good" in terms of body tone and muscularity.7
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You can, but i don't think i could stay in a deficit without the extra calories exercise affords me.
I prelog my day every morning and 99.9% of the time i start off in the red, i exercise (walking) to get back in the green.1 -
Yup, you sure can, though it is likely not going to be as fast. Maintaining a calorie deficit without exercise calories is totally doable, but I personally like having the buffer zone which exercise provides.1
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As others have said, it's absolutely possible...at first.
Some important things to note:
You may (and likely will) lose muscle this way, and not just fat.
Your body has a set point (a weight it feels comfortable at) which is higher if you've been bigger for any period of time. At some point, your body increases cravings and tries relentlessly to get you back to the weight it feels comfortable at.
To reset your set point to a lower weight, you need to exercise. Meaning, to maintain your weight loss, you need to exercise. I lost 30 lbs while rarely exercising, but then I started cardio (lost 30 more lbs), and a year later, now I've started weight lifting.
You are setting yourself up for failure if you don't incorporate cardio and weight training at some point.5 -
dahlia_coenen wrote: »As others have said, it's absolutely possible...at first.
Some important things to note:
You may (and likely will) lose muscle this way, and not just fat.
Your body has a set point (a weight it feels comfortable at) which is higher if you've been bigger for any period of time. At some point, your body increases cravings and tries relentlessly to get you back to the weight it feels comfortable at.
To reset your set point to a lower weight, you need to exercise. Meaning, to maintain your weight loss, you need to exercise. I lost 30 lbs while rarely exercising, but then I started cardio (lost 30 more lbs), and a year later, now I've started weight lifting.
You are setting yourself up for failure if you don't incorporate cardio and weight training at some point.
This hasn't been my experience at all. I lost 50lbs without exercise and hit a weight that I haven't been at since my teens, (I was in my early 30s during my weight loss phase). I've now been successfully maintaining for over 4 years, and I still don't intentionally exercise, besides a bit of summer walking. My current bmi is 19.9.3 -
OliveGirl128 wrote: »dahlia_coenen wrote: »As others have said, it's absolutely possible...at first.
Some important things to note:
You may (and likely will) lose muscle this way, and not just fat.
Your body has a set point (a weight it feels comfortable at) which is higher if you've been bigger for any period of time. At some point, your body increases cravings and tries relentlessly to get you back to the weight it feels comfortable at.
To reset your set point to a lower weight, you need to exercise. Meaning, to maintain your weight loss, you need to exercise. I lost 30 lbs while rarely exercising, but then I started cardio (lost 30 more lbs), and a year later, now I've started weight lifting.
You are setting yourself up for failure if you don't incorporate cardio and weight training at some point.
This hasn't been my experience at all. I lost 50lbs without exercise and hit a weight that I haven't been at since my teens, (I was in my early 30s during my weight loss phase). I've now been successfully maintaining for over 4 years, and I still don't intentionally exercise, besides a bit of summer walking. My current bmi is 19.9.
Yeah but don't you maintain on 1200-1400 calories @OliveGirl128 ? Forgive if I'm mixing you up with someone else.
If so, that is losing weight calories for most people, and i for one couldn't live happily on so few calories for a few months, let a lone forever, which is where exercise comes in handy to get those extra calories.0 -
Christine_72 wrote: »OliveGirl128 wrote: »dahlia_coenen wrote: »As others have said, it's absolutely possible...at first.
Some important things to note:
You may (and likely will) lose muscle this way, and not just fat.
Your body has a set point (a weight it feels comfortable at) which is higher if you've been bigger for any period of time. At some point, your body increases cravings and tries relentlessly to get you back to the weight it feels comfortable at.
To reset your set point to a lower weight, you need to exercise. Meaning, to maintain your weight loss, you need to exercise. I lost 30 lbs while rarely exercising, but then I started cardio (lost 30 more lbs), and a year later, now I've started weight lifting.
You are setting yourself up for failure if you don't incorporate cardio and weight training at some point.
This hasn't been my experience at all. I lost 50lbs without exercise and hit a weight that I haven't been at since my teens, (I was in my early 30s during my weight loss phase). I've now been successfully maintaining for over 4 years, and I still don't intentionally exercise, besides a bit of summer walking. My current bmi is 19.9.
Yeah but don't you maintain on 1200-1400 calories @OliveGirl128 ? Forgive if I'm mixing you up with someone else.
If so, that is losing weight calories for most people, and i for one couldn't live happily on so few calories for a few months, let a lone forever, which is where exercise comes in handy to get those extra calories.
I was recently in a short cut, to get my maintenance range lower, so that's what you're remembering I adjust my maintenance range seasonally and get it to a lower point during the spring/summer, 120lbs-125lbs, to prepare for the fall/winter, when my schedule gets really chaotic and I don't focus as much on my weight. During those months I allow my maintenance range to get up to 130ish.
Back at maintenance now though, and my intake is around 1,600. I find this very doable for me and with the way I eat, I actually feel really good in the 1,300-1,400 range. I usually stay in that range during the week and then roll the extra calories into the weekend, to use towards eating out, alcohol etc. I've never factored exercise into my calorie intake and that's what works best for me.0 -
Yes, you absolutely can. Going to the gym and not counting calories got me nowhere. Counting calories, even when I skip the gym for an entire month straight, I get results. As for junk food... I'd say it depends. Your calorie goal will not be my calorie goal (most likely). When I started this program, my daily calorie goal for losing 2lb/week was over 2,000 calories a day. Yes, I ate a half a pizza and stayed under my goal. I can still do that, but it's harder and takes planning (and a thin crust ham and pepper pizza), but my goal is now only 1700. Now here's where exercise helps... want more yummy noms? Work off some calories.0
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