Losing weight by diet change only.
nisie3
Posts: 99 Member
Has anyone here had any success with losing weight only changing your diet and not exercising?
3
Replies
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Down 41lbs so far with diet only.10
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If by "changing your diet" you mean eating fewer calories and making sure you're in a calorie deficit, then yes, many people have done that. You don't have to exercise to create a calorie deficit; you only need to eat fewer calories than your body burns. However, simply making dietary changes without being in a calorie deficit will not cause weight loss.6
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-42 pounds, all done by sticking to my calorie allotment and no additional exercise other than what I was doing previously.6
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When I started my weight loss journey I lost the first thirty pounds with diet alone. I started to exercise because I wanted to improve my fitness - not to alter weight loss.8
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I'm down 20+ pounds by changing the way I eat. If anything, I've been less actively lately, what with the frigid weather and all.
Do wanna emphasize I've changed the way I eat, not what I eat. I still eat three square meals plus snacks, I enjoy chocolates and sweet treats, I have weekends out with my girlfriends where we pound burgers (veggie, in my case!), beers, and fries - I'm just cognizant of the number of calories I'm taking in. If I'm not indulging my cravings, I'm more prone to over-indulging them - it becomes a balancing act!11 -
Down 37 pounds with very little exercise, if you count walking the mall for 30 min during lunch. I don't even change out of my boots. If not, then no exercise, haha.6
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Has anyone here had any success with losing weight only changing your diet and not exercising?
Yes. 70lbs so far. But, see the quote below - I changed my diet by eating less calories, not radically changing the type of food I eat. I do try to choose slightly "healthier" things for some meals these days, but I by no means eat what a lot of people might call a "healthy diet"!If by "changing your diet" you mean eating fewer calories and making sure you're in a calorie deficit, then yes, many people have done that. You don't have to exercise to create a calorie deficit; you only need to eat fewer calories than your body burns. However, simply making dietary changes without being in a calorie deficit will not cause weight loss.
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Awesome! Thanks so much for letting me know. It seems like everyone is telling me I have to go to the gym daily for weight loss and I thought it was more about having a caloric deficit. Thanks again!7
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Losing weight is all about how much you eat. But you want to eat more than exercise haha. I work out 6 days a week so I can have extra bites of dessert.5
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Awesome! Thanks so much for letting me know. It seems like everyone is telling me I have to go to the gym daily for weight loss and I thought it was more about having a caloric deficit. Thanks again!
You can achieve a caloric deficit in one of 3 ways:- Eat less
- Move more
- Both
While I personally find I'm happier when I do both, you can definitely lose weight by calorie reduction alone.1 -
What happens when you start eating more calories? Are you staying at a caloric reduction for the rest of your days?
I find it laughable that people who say they have lost weight only through dieting are doing great. Studies prove that simply reducing your intake will eventually result in gaining it all back within 2 years once the dieting has ended, usually when a "goal weight" is achieved. People just stop "dieting" at some point. This is one of the biggest reasons why these diet businesses (WW, Nutrisystem, Jenny Craig etc.) make so much money (yo-yo dieters).. WW had $1.25 Billion in assets in 2017.
Sustained weight loss requires both healthy diet and exercise and should be a form of lifestyle change. It is proven to be the most effective way of maintaining a weight loss.26 -
What happens when you start eating more calories? Are you staying at a caloric reduction for the rest of your days?
I find it laughable that people who say they have lost weight only through dieting are doing great. Studies prove that simply reducing your intake will eventually result in gaining it all back within 2 years once the dieting has ended, usually when a "goal weight" is achieved. People just stop "dieting" at some point. This is one of the biggest reasons why these diet businesses (WW, Nutrisystem, Jenny Craig etc.) make so much money (yo-yo dieters).. WW had $1.25 Billion in assets in 2017.
Sustained weight loss requires both healthy diet and exercise and should be a form of lifestyle change. It is proven to be the most effective way of maintaining a weight loss.
I'm almost 6 years into successfully maintaining a 50ish pound loss and better health markers (no longer a pre-diabetic etc), and exercise has never been a factor in my weight management plan. I lost the weight with no exercise at all and in maintenance I still don't do intentional exercise, besides some walking when the weather is nice (and my walks burn less than 100 calories usually).
What's sustainable is going to be different for each person and is highly individual.13 -
I just had my annual physical and my doctor said when it comes to weight loss it's 80% food restriction and 20% exercise.9
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lauragreenbaum wrote: »I just had my annual physical and my doctor said when it comes to weight loss it's 80% food restriction and 20% exercise.
For me it was 100% food intake/creating the correct calorie deficit by adjusting how much I was eating. You can approach weight loss a few different ways, but at the end of the day it comes down to CICO.3 -
Of course it is possible - but that doesn't mean it's good.
If you try and lose weight only by reducing food intake, (aka starvation) your body will fight you every step of the way. You will find yourself moving less, maybe having an afternoon nap, you'll feel colder, you'll lose muscle mass and you'll definitely get very, very hungry.
If you maintain the same calorie deficit by eating more but expending more calories, you help stop your body from losing muscle and generally slowing you down - as an added bonus, you'll improve muscle tone which will actually make you look thinner. Furthermore, because you can eat more, you keep your stomach a bit busier and feel less hungry - it's much healthier and more sustainable in the long term.
Exercise does not necessarily mean going to the gym. It is any activity that gets you moving about. Find something you like doing - be it walking, rock climbing, ballroom dancing, formation pogosticking or extreme ironing. It really doesn't matter as long as it gets you off the couch.25 -
hypocacculus wrote: »Of course it is possible - but that doesn't mean it's good.
If you try and lose weight only by reducing food intake, (aka starvation) your body will fight you every step of the way. You will find yourself moving less, maybe having an afternoon nap, you'll feel colder, you'll lose muscle mass and you'll definitely get very, very hungry.
If you maintain the same calorie deficit by eating more but expending more calories, you help stop your body from losing muscle and generally slowing you down - as an added bonus, you'll improve muscle tone which will actually make you look thinner. Furthermore, because you can eat more, you keep your stomach a bit busier and feel less hungry - it's much healthier and more sustainable in the long term.
Exercise does not necessarily mean going to the gym. It is any activity that gets you moving about. Find something you like doing - be it walking, rock climbing, ballroom dancing, formation pogosticking or extreme ironing. It really doesn't matter as long as it gets you off the couch.
Nope, not my experience at all.
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Awesome! Thanks so much for letting me know. It seems like everyone is telling me I have to go to the gym daily for weight loss and I thought it was more about having a caloric deficit. Thanks again!
Weight loss and exercise are related, but not usually in the way most people think. I believe you control weight with a fork not with exercise. You can't outrun a bad diet - that's just truth. I have a cycling friend that rides ridiculous mileage and is probably 30 pounds overweight. My personal doctor competes in full Ironman events and will tell you he needs to drop 20 pounds. I run and cycle a lot. I use the Happy Scale app to monitor weight trends. When the scale moves up too far I alter the trend by eating less - not by exercising more. If the scale is dropping more than I want (I'm in maintenance) I eat more - not exercise less.
I exercise because as I lost weight I enjoyed being ABLE to exercise. Exercise decreases my stress - and I'm a stress eater, so it kept me from eating. If someone is telling you that you MUST go to the gym daily to lose weight stop listening to them. Are we recommending exercise to you? Certainly. You will preserve muscle mass, feel better, and probably like the changes in the mirror. Is it a perk that you can eat back exercise calories? Sure - but exercise makes some people feel more hungry.
Learn to control your food intake and you'll lose weight if you are in a calorie deficit.8 -
What happens when you start eating more calories? Are you staying at a caloric reduction for the rest of your days?
I find it laughable that people who say they have lost weight only through dieting are doing great. Studies prove that simply reducing your intake will eventually result in gaining it all back within 2 years once the dieting has ended, usually when a "goal weight" is achieved. People just stop "dieting" at some point. This is one of the biggest reasons why these diet businesses (WW, Nutrisystem, Jenny Craig etc.) make so much money (yo-yo dieters).. WW had $1.25 Billion in assets in 2017.
Sustained weight loss requires both healthy diet and exercise and should be a form of lifestyle change. It is proven to be the most effective way of maintaining a weight loss.
Because many people go "on a diet", seeing it as a temporary thing, then go back to eating the same way they used to once they reach their goal (or get bored of "dieting", whichever comes first).
Weight loss programs make money because they don't teach their followers how to maintain their losses. So they gain it back and guess what? Sign up for the program again (or a different one) so that they can spend more money just to do the same thing all over again.
You are right in that successfully-maintained weight loss requires a lifestyle change. That change does NOT have to be killing yourself at the gym or running marathons. The sustained "caloric reduction for the rest of your days" comes from the fact that a smaller body needs less calories to function. So yes, unless you greatly increase your exercise, you WILL need less calories for the rest of your life.
Of course exercise is healthy and great for your body - nobody here claimed otherwise. The OP asked if anyone had had success without exercise, and yes, we have.
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What happens when you start eating more calories? Are you staying at a caloric reduction for the rest of your days?
I find it laughable that people who say they have lost weight only through dieting are doing great. Studies prove that simply reducing your intake will eventually result in gaining it all back within 2 years once the dieting has ended, usually when a "goal weight" is achieved. People just stop "dieting" at some point. This is one of the biggest reasons why these diet businesses (WW, Nutrisystem, Jenny Craig etc.) make so much money (yo-yo dieters).. WW had $1.25 Billion in assets in 2017.
Sustained weight loss requires both healthy diet and exercise and should be a form of lifestyle change. It is proven to be the most effective way of maintaining a weight loss.
Most people don't maintain weight loss regardless of how they lost weight or whether or not they were exercising. It is possible to lose weight and to maintain weight without exercise. If someone eats more but only up to maintenance then they will maintain weight.
There are tons of people who go on a diet and start exercising and then get to goal and go back to the way things used to be and stop exercising and go back to old eating habits...that's why very few people keep the weight off and yo-yo.
I am personally a big believer in regular exercise and I do it namely for health and my overall well-being and because it allows me some wiggle room for things like beer and pizza. I have maintained going on 6 years and have had stints of up to 3 months where I haven't been able to exercise due to injury and I still managed to maintain my weight.9 -
What happens when you start eating more calories? Are you staying at a caloric reduction for the rest of your days?
I find it laughable that people who say they have lost weight only through dieting are doing great. Studies prove that simply reducing your intake will eventually result in gaining it all back within 2 years once the dieting has ended, usually when a "goal weight" is achieved. People just stop "dieting" at some point. This is one of the biggest reasons why these diet businesses (WW, Nutrisystem, Jenny Craig etc.) make so much money (yo-yo dieters).. WW had $1.25 Billion in assets in 2017.
Sustained weight loss requires both healthy diet and exercise and should be a form of lifestyle change. It is proven to be the most effective way of maintaining a weight loss.
So if someone couldn't exercise, you would tell them to give up, that weight loss is impossible for them?10
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