Obese- Focus or Diet w or w/out Exercise?

empressjasmin · May 2020

Hello!
So I’ve been a yo-yo dieter for sometime now. I’ve recently gotten to my highest weight ever (265lbs), thanks to quarantine, but also bad eating habits prior to lockdown.

My question has always been should I just focus on eating within my daily calorie limits or also make sure I’m exercising too?

While I know this may seem like a silly question, I wasn’t sure that if because of my weight I should be focusing on food intake more?

The types of exercise that I enjoy are walking and dance.

Thanks!

Lillymoo01 · May 2020

Many say that weight loss is 80% in the kitchen. This means that your primary focus should be working out how you can best eat within a deficit as you can not out-exercise a bad diet. Exercise is great but it is more to do with overall health and fitness rather than weight loss. Keep doing the exercises that you enjoy doing but it is a good idea to add a bit of resistance exercise into the mix to help you maintain muscle loss as you lose weight,

cmriverside · May 2020

Weight loss is about eating fewer calories than your body uses.

Exercise is good for you, and it helps with hunger levels, digestion, burning a few extra calories, and will increase your immunity, improve sleep, mitigate stress, and help with general overall health and longevity.

There are no downsides to exercise. Walking and dance are both great exercises to start!

With that said, the focus? Why not both? It's about calories, so stay within your calorie goal. When you exercise, enter that into the Exercise tab and eat a little more. Most people will say to start out by eating half your allotted exercise calories and see how you do since the exercise calories as given by the website appear to be too high for some people. I always ate all the exercise calories, so there is a bit of experimentation we all have to do.

After 4-6 weeks, adjust if needed.

empressjasmin · May 2020

Awesome! Thank you!

freda666 · May 2020

Of course it is 100% up to you, but for what it is worth I started at a bit more than where you are now and just focus on my food intake when it comes to counting my calories.

I go for walks and dig the garden, much more so now I have lost 5 stone, but I am still easily large enough to stand the extra deficit when I do without feeling the need to do the so called "eating back calories" thing and instead gratefully take that extra bit of weight loss the walk might win me.

Might well step it up when I have lost more weight, when it gets harder to maintain a deficit and have enough to eat, but at the moment I am eating well and getting all my nutrients. So I exercise simply for the overall health benefits and the good it does my heart.

empressjasmin · May 2020

freda78 wrote: »

Of course it is 100% up to you, but for what it is worth I started at a bit more than where you are now and just focus on my food intake when it comes to counting my calories.

I go for walks and dig the garden, much more so now I have lost 5 stone, but I am still easily large enough to stand the extra deficit when I do without feeling the need to do the so called "eating back calories" thing and instead gratefully take that extra bit of weight loss the walk might win me.

Might well step it up when I have lost more weight, when it gets harder to maintain a deficit and have enough to eat, but at the moment I am eating well and getting all my nutrients. So I exercise simply for the overall health benefits and the good it does my heart.

Thanks and good for you! Congratulations on the weight loss!

PAV8888 · May 2020

Food gives you more bang for the buck; both are extremely important.

I started on this whole thingamajig a bit heavier than you.

At the time I had ZERO aspirations in terms of weight loss. I just wanted to stop being as sedentary as I was, which meant that I tried to increase my daily activity and walking.

Did I lose any weight? Sure. Over four months of ramping up my walking I lost enough so that my (analogue) scale needle no longer went past max and would more or less register correctly at the 280lb max. 5lbs? 10lbs? I doubt it was 15!

Then I went on to six months of: "hey: I'll follow every "clean eating diet trick" I can think off to lose weight as fast as I can!" I averaged about 10lbs a month (thankfully interrupted by guests and a trip) and was ready to give up when I discovered MFP.

Then I went on with a fairly aggressive yet still reasonable for an obese person deficit (21.35%--puny by comparison to what many attempt), that balanced my caloric intake and expenditures. That took care of 72.5lbs over 12 months without me being ready to give up.

Then another 11lbs at a 3.51% deficit over another year... early on in there crossing into the normal weight range.

In all this I also went from less than sedentary to more than very active.

On average I remain very active. And still within the normal weight range. And I still log and count my calories. And I still weight myself and look at my weight trend.

Since finding MFP I have not restricted *what* I eat... other than guiding myself with whether whatever I am eating is worth it to me. And worth does change based on circumstances: Sometimes it is satiety. Sometimes nutrition. Sometimes convenience. Sometimes satisfaction.

empressjasmin · May 2020

Thank you @PAV8888 !
I too often struggle with how much of a deficit I should be in. I often say that I exercise to feel good, which I truly do believe. I just didn’t wanna be counterproductive in my efforts.
I’m going to take it a day at a time, but this helps!
Thanks!!

AnnPT77 · May 2020

empressjasmin wrote: »

Thank you @PAV8888 !
I too often struggle with how much of a deficit I should be in. I often say that I exercise to feel good, which I truly do believe. I just didn’t wanna be counterproductive in my efforts.
I’m going to take it a day at a time, but this helps!
Thanks!!

Every day in a calorie deficit - be it small or large - puts you a bit closer to a healthy goal weight, whether you think of that deficit as created by eating less, or moving more, or a combination.

Every day at a manageable, moderate - even easy - calorie deficit, makes it more likely that it will be manageable to be at a calorie deficit again the next day, and the next. (White-knuckled extremes may not make those next days quite as probable.)

One feature of PAV's insightful and inspiring story is that losing a large number of pounds, let alone maintaining that loss, is inherently a long term proposition - months if not years - so finding a process that works for you without the need to harness huge reserves of effort, discipline, and motivation . . . that may increase chances of long-term success.

A corollary: One day, infrequently, here and there, not at a calorie deficit . . . maybe not such a big deal: Literally just a few hours or a day longer to get to goal weight, so perhaps sometimes worth it, as long as rare. If you think of weight loss as weight-maintenance practice, figuring out how to handle those rare celebrations or big events is going to be part of that practice. Most of us don't want to totally give those up forever.

Best wishes! :flowerforyou:

empressjasmin · May 2020

@AnnPT77 you rock! Thank you!
What a great way of looking at it - it’s a lifestyle change and not just a short term goal to work towards! 😁
Many thanks!!

SnifterPug · May 2020

Always focus on the food - but exercise as much as you can, too. I've gone from obese after years of yoyo dieting to a healthy weight (still want to lose a bit) by managing calories. BUT the reason I started managing calories was because I found some exercise forms I utterly love and I wanted to be able to enjoy them more by not having to lug around so much body weight. AnnPT77 mentioned the lifestyle change and she is so right. The gym is now non-negotiable and I love it.

Jthanmyfitnesspal · May 2020

@cmriverside and @AnnPT77 always have good advice. This is a calorie counting web site, so people here will recommend counting your calories. I do it and it works well for me.

When my wife wanted to lose ~60lbs, she found it didn't work for her. The act of measuring and weighing her food just went against her nature. Her approach instead was to work with a nutritionist to develop a set of rules that she follows, including drinking 24oz of water before every meal (with lemon and apple cider vinegar, if that matters), not eating certain foods (she dropped all "cow products" for a long time), and things like that. She doesn't exercise all that much, either.

Yes, it is always true that eating fewer calories than you burn will cause you to lose weight. But, there is more than one way to accomplish that. I think that, if you've struggled for a long time with your weight, engaging someone to help you is money well spent.

NovusDies · May 2020

Developing an exercise habit is easier if you are eating the right balance of calories to lose weight but still provide adequate energy. If you do not have your calories nailed down and you are eating too little exercise, even ones you normally enjoy, may become a truly miserable experience.

It is also possible that if you are eating too little then exercise will drive your deficit even higher to the point you break and eat everything in sight. Been there, done that.

If you have already been exercising for awhile then continue doing what you are doing. If not, ramp it up slowly to allow you to figure out your calories while also allowing your body to adjust to the new physical demands. It does not have to be anything more than just getting out for a nice walk if that would work for you.

empressjasmin · May 2020

@NovusDies I have also been there done that - overeating because I haven’t eaten much and then become hungry and eat everything! I know it’s a process that I must learn all over again!

Thank you!

rainbow198 · May 2020

For my goals, both diet and exercise were equally important to me as I was losing weight and it still continue to be during maintenance. The combination of both has giving me long term success.

When I just focused on my diet and not so much exercise, I lost weight on the scale yes, but my body composition wasn't going the direction I wanted.

So for me, giving my all to both diet and exercise has helped me to reach my goal. I have balance so I ever don't over do anything. This helps to keep things sustainable. I don't cut foods out and I don't overdo my workouts. I do workout a lot because I enjoy it, but I don't do hard, back-breaking exercise.

It took time for me to learn my body. After decades of eating whatever I wanted whenever I wanted, I had to learn which foods satiated me, which exercises made me hungry and which ones didn't, I had to teach myself that it was okay to leave food on my plate, how to stop eating right before I get full and I'm always trying something new such as a new recipe or a veggie etc.

Good luck OP!

empressjasmin · May 2020

@SnifterPug I have been focusing on food more too. But I definitely agree. Finding exercise that you like makes the world of a difference! Thank you!

@Jthanmyfitnesspal thanks for the helpful advice too! I’ve considered that it may be time for professional help as well. Just to get over the hump of trying to initially lose weight. Agreed that it would totally be worth it!

empressjasmin · May 2020

@rainbow198 thanks so much and you look great! 😊

Diatonic12 · May 2020

@empressjasmin Whatever we do to lose the weight we have to keep on doing to maintain it. You like walking and dancing. You've found modes of movement that you enjoy and can keep on doing for the rest of your life. That's a great decision.

AnnPT77 · May 2020

empressjasmin wrote: »

@NovusDies I have also been there done that - overeating because I haven’t eaten much and then become hungry and eat everything! I know it’s a process that I must learn all over again!

Thank you!

Now that I think of it, if you have at least 75 pounds to lose, you might enjoy joining Novus's "Larger Losers" group. Link is here:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/133315-larger-losers

empressjasmin · May 2020

@AnnPT77 Awesome! Thank you! I’ll check it out.

bmeadows380 · May 2020

not to mention that exercise does earn you back a nice bonus in calories for the day because the way MFP works, it does not take into account intentional exercise and expects you to eat those back, though, as was suggested above, start with only half and see where that takes you.

I lost my first 110 lbs or so purely through diet alone. But the more you lose, the less energy it takes to keep you alive and thus the lower the calorie limit goes. I eventually hit where I know is my rock bottom - I cannot maintain a deficit lower than about 1450 calories, and once I had lost enough weight that sedentary setting for my height and weight began to dip below that, I started feeling like I was hungry all the time and found myself slipping over my deficit often. But about 2 months ago or so now, I decided to start trying to get more active for my health's sake, and I've been increasing the activity since then. A nice bonus, besides finding myself with better endurance, stamina, and mobility is the couple hundred calories I get to add to my day. It's been amazing to me the difference those calories make in ending my day feeling like I'm hungry and ending the day feeling satisfied. Being able to add those calories back oftentimes means the difference between me staying within my daily allotted deficit or slipping over, or the difference between meeting my goals or not.

If you want to lose weight, you must have a deficit. Find a healthy way to create that deficit, whether it be diet alone, or eating exactly the same but adding exercise, or a combination of the two. Just don't let the exercise trick you into eating more - many folks do that. They'll exercise for an hour and earn 200-300 calories, but then blow it all on a high calorie protein shake or an extra slice or two of pizza and then end up eating more which in turn can wipe out their deficit. Remember - to lose weight, you must be in a calorie deficit!

Obese- Focus or Diet w or w/out Exercise?

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