Will exercise hinder my weight lose?

katijjaa
katijjaa Posts: 34 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I have lost 31 lbs (14.5 kg) gradually in almost 18 months eating clean healthy food and walking. Now I'm only slightly overweight and would ideally lose 11 lbs to reach my ideal weight. I'm very happy about my weight lose and my lifestyle have changed massively. I constantly cook and eat healthy and always walk.
Before starting to lose weight I've tried some of Beachbody home excercises and I even got a personal trainer, doing mostly weight exercises my body would toned and change slightly but I never lost weight even with eating healthy. I understand the concept about muscle vs. fat and how it is not reflected on the scale. But I've never seen a dramatic change like I do now with walking. I really want to get into exercising in order to increase my stamina and tone my body and get some abs but also I'm afraid that building muscles would stop the weight lose especially when it comes to losing inches. I still have thick thighs and I know with walking it will eventually get thinner so I'm afraid it won't go if I do lunges and squatting etc. I'm not sure if it is my previous negative experience. Do you know which exercises that would help tone the body but also shed the fat and increase the inches of my thighs and overall body? Would yoga help or Pilates? or some known home exercises from Beachbody or another? I would really appreciate your help and your experience.

Replies

  • crita50
    crita50 Posts: 28 Member
    I do Pilates and barre class. I don't lose weight from it though. It is great for tone and strength. I can see the difference, but it is not reflected on the scale.
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    stanmann571 wrote: »
    How are you tracking your dietary and activity calories?

    Ultimately that's the answer to your question. Maintain an appropriate deficit and the weight will keep coming off.

    This.^ Weight loss comes down to calorie deficit. As long as you aren't eating more calories (because of exercise changes) you won't gain any real weight.

    A new workout regimen can show up on the scale.....temporarily. Sore muscles hold water for repair. This is NOT fat gain. Fat gain takes calories above your maintenance.
  • FlyingMolly
    FlyingMolly Posts: 490 Member
    The good thing about exercise is that it builds muscle and burns calories; the bad thing is that it can make you hungrier. As long as you’re tracking your food and are realistic about calorie burn (I’ve heard MFP estimates tend to be high) it shouldn’t slow your weight loss at all, although you might have some extra water retention the day after a strength workout.

    I find I’m exercising less now than before I started losing weight, because a lot of that exercise was me trying to lose weight. Now that I finally have the dietary piece in place, I’m exercising to preserve muscle and sometimes to make room for more food.

    Note that I said “preserve”: you’re not going to gain much muscle while you’re eating in a deficit. Don’t even worry about it; do the squats. The food is what’s making you lose weight, and that’s not going to stop.
  • katijjaa
    katijjaa Posts: 34 Member
    crita50 wrote: »
    I do Pilates and barre class. I don't lose weight from it though. It is great for tone and strength. I can see the difference, but it is not reflected on the scale.

    Thank you dear! did you increase any increase in inches or clothing size doing Pilates?
  • katijjaa
    katijjaa Posts: 34 Member
    cfgreear wrote: »
    There are 3 things you are basically required to do to make significant fitness changes. Before I go into that I should mention that you can buy a bodyfat calculator on amazon for about $28 and most gyms have them behind the front desk as well for you to use.

    First thing you need is proper sleep. I don't mean you NEED to get 8 hours of sleep, just enough for your body to be well rested. Some people its 7, some people its 9. Rest enough for your body and don't forget that you wont lose weight if you deprive yourself of sleep all the time even due to a busy work schedule.

    Second thing you need is a proper diet, i'm not saying any specific diet or plan that you see advertised. Most of the steps you need can be found on this site even with their food diary. What I mean is to just make better choices. Like if you need a snack grab an apple and dip it in peanut butter. Watch your macro levels that this site tells you that you can have per day. Drink a lot of water, and I do mean a LOT of water. Try to get in around 1 gallon a day and you will see a big difference in everything after a couple weeks. And DO NOT starve yourself. Sometimes you stop losing weight if you stop eating because your body adapts and thinks it wont get food again so it holds onto everything. Eat small meals often and your metabolism will catch up and work harder for you.

    Last thing you need is exercise. You do harder exercises and weights because it helps you build up muscle underneath the fat that does help your body require more calories to maintain and thus giving it more reason to burn more of the fat that is stored in your system. Remember, there is no such thing as spot reduction. Bodyfat is reduced as a whole, so its better to get a percent calculator than only going by the scale. While abs are built in the kitchen and not in the gym, the working out does help a great deal to push your body to require more energy to help you lose weight faster.

    Another thing to remember is to not get discouraged if you don't see a big difference in fat loss on your stomach or thighs areas or back, those are the last places to get smaller. Generally the limbs are the first to show obvious signs of loss, just keep going and in time it will show. I used to be a professional armwrestler in competitions so weight manipulation was a big part of my life. Oh and you were asking about good workout plans, check out a youtube channel called athlean-x, usually thats who i look to for any advice on fitness cause the guy is one of the smarter fitness people out there.

    Good luck!

    Thank you for the advice. I already follow all of it except for the exercising part where I only rely on walking and hiking and I've lost most of the weight, but I really want to get into weight training or floor exercises.
  • katijjaa
    katijjaa Posts: 34 Member
    AnvilHead wrote: »
    You're not going to build muscle fast enough to offset fat loss, especially while in a calorie deficit and losing weight. Muscle gain is a laboriously slow process, even while in a caloric surplus and doing a weight lifting routine specifically focused on building muscle.

    The main effect which could possibly mask weight/fat loss is some water retention for a few weeks when beginning a workout program - the muscles retain water to assist with repair/recovery.

    Thank you so much for your reply. It really answered my question on point. I think because I always quit after few weeks and so I've never seen that fat loss. Cheers!
  • katijjaa
    katijjaa Posts: 34 Member
    FlyingMolly wrote: »
    The good thing about exercise is that it builds muscle and burns calories; the bad thing is that it can make you hungrier. As long as you’re tracking your food and are realistic about calorie burn (I’ve heard MFP estimates tend to be high) it shouldn’t slow your weight loss at all, although you might have some extra water retention the day after a strength workout.

    I find I’m exercising less now than before I started losing weight, because a lot of that exercise was me trying to lose weight. Now that I finally have the dietary piece in place, I’m exercising to preserve muscle and sometimes to make room for more food.

    Note that I said “preserve”: you’re not going to gain much muscle while you’re eating in a deficit. Don’t even worry about it; do the squats. The food is what’s making you lose weight, and that’s not going to stop.

    Thank you!
  • katijjaa
    katijjaa Posts: 34 Member
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    stanmann571 wrote: »
    How are you tracking your dietary and activity calories?

    Ultimately that's the answer to your question. Maintain an appropriate deficit and the weight will keep coming off.

    Exactly this...

    A lot of people will add more intensive exercise and then subconsciously eat more. If you weren't losing weight with your exercise, you were eating maintenance calories. The only caveat here would be that when you start new and more intensive exercise, you will hold onto more water to help repair tissues that have been broken down so it's not unusual in the least for the weight on the scale to bump up and basically you have a new baseline starting point.

    Thank you!
  • MichelleSilverleaf
    MichelleSilverleaf Posts: 2,027 Member
    katijjaa wrote: »
    stanmann571 wrote: »
    How are you tracking your dietary and activity calories?

    Ultimately that's the answer to your question. Maintain an appropriate deficit and the weight will keep coming off.

    Thank you for your reply. I'm not into tracking and I don't have a big appetite so I just eat healthy and move a lot.

    With only 11lbs to go you're going to have a real hard time of it without knowing how many calories you're consuming. Healthy food has calories too.
  • Enthusiast84
    Enthusiast84 Posts: 171 Member
    I've started strength training at home. Kids got me dumbells for mothers day so every other day I do 2 10 minute strength workouts on youtube in my front room. Not sure I'm building muscle but I definitely feel stronger and initially I was aching everywhere for a good week as I'm using muscles in my body that have dormant for goodness knows how long, but that's all gone now and I've even moved on to the next weight. I feel so good for doing it and I'm also still walking everyday.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,254 Member
    You're losing weight because you burn more calories in a day, on average, than you eat in a day, on average.

    More intense activity tends to be good for your health.

    Exercising more intensely can create changes.

    First of all it can increase water weight, creating a new normal baseline (especially if your muscles are hurting!)

    Depending on the person and activity it can increase or suppress hunger the day of exercise and on subsequent days in various combinations!

    Depending on the person and activity it can also either increase or decrease the total calories you burn in a day.


    Why is that? Because more often than not during the time of exercise you will burn more calories than otherwise. But the exercise does not last all day. It is entirely possible that doing the exercise will cannibalize calories you would have burned on activities you now won't engage in because you're tired or undefuelled. Or your exercise high may lead to a burst of energy and increase your other activities thus burning even more calories!

    We don't know and you don't track.

    So nobody knows what will happen!!!!

    A piece of advice from my perspective?

    The big benefits came from the first 30lbs you lost that brought you at/close to normal weight.

    The next 5, 10 or 15 may be very nice and may roll in while attaining other additional goals; but they are not as critical to your health

    And overall health is more than a weight number.

    Yes. Watch your weight trend and other than an initial bump monitor your progress, but don't you think it is silly to be thinking of sacrificing something known to be good for you (intense exercise) at the altar of faster progress towards a lower number on the scale?

    There is no time limit to when you should achieve weight loss and when you get to your number you don't get to stop managing your weight, activity and exercise.

    moving forward will increasingly require you to concentrate on more than just your weight....
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
    You need to determine that you are taking in less calories than you burn so if you don't log your food, its time to start and do it accurately, weigh your foods.

    Exercise can only help increase the calorie deficit so will lead to weight loss, but only if you are in deficit.

    New exercise can see the scales spike up temporarily as your body holds on to extra water for muscle repair, but its not a true gain.
  • jfan175
    jfan175 Posts: 812 Member
    Eat small meals often and your metabolism will catch up and work harder for you.

    This can get some people in trouble, as whatever minute metabolic benefit there may be doesn't offset the possibility of taking in excessive calories by trying to fit in 5-6 meals per day. Many people are successful with and prefer eating larger but fewer meals per day to maintain their caloric goals and feel satiated.

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