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

empressjasmin wrote: »

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!

Weight management is about calories coming in vs calories going out regardless of exercise. IMO, regular exercise makes weight management that much easier because you're increasing your CO and have more to work with. Regular exercise also has numerous health benefits beyond weight management and is probably the single best thing you can do for your overall health and well being aside from getting to and maintaining a healthy weight.

I'm like @richardgavel . I could (probably) lose weight through diet and calorie deficit alone, but it's really hard for me, and right now I'm struggling because I'm stuck at home all day and don't get my regular daily activity.

Here's what exercise gives me, in some order or importance:
1. A mood boost and stress relief, which prevent me from snacking to make me feel better
2. An energy boost, which prevents me from snacking to get energy and not be so tired
3. A motivation boost and a small success, which feed into a circle of success where I want to do more good things towards my goals
4. Calorie burn that I can eat back and still be in deficit.

Currently I'm missing out on a lot of regular everyday activity, like walking a few minutes here and there to get to places, and on top of that my gym was closed for a month and I lost my routine. It's reopened now but I'm still anxious to go. I'm positive that losing weight would be easier for me if I was in my regular routine, which includes a lot more daily activity and the ability to go to the gym. Coincidentally (?), this quarantine also makes me stressed, anxious and exhausted, which means I could really use a mood and energy boost, and not reaching my goals (seriously, my current trend rate is 0,05kg/0,1lbs per week) makes me need a boost of motivation.

PaleoPrince wrote: »

I don't think it is worth doing rigorous exercise because I find it makes you want to eat the world after. I just eat 1500 calories and walk for 1 to 2 hours a day, I find it makes me feel better in the same way that cardio does but without the urges to eat tons afterwards.

I think it's great that you're pointing out that possibility. Thing is, the relationship between hunger/appetite/cravings is very individual.

It can be intensity-specific for some, as it appears to be for you. For others, it can vary with exercise type (strength vs. cardiovascular), even specific activity (running vs. cycling, for example). And this is one case where (anecdotally) it seems like snack/meal timing can have an individualized effect, even though food timing is generically (per most research) a very minor factor for normal people's weight loss or sub-elite athletes' athletic performance.

For me, moderate weight training tends to increase my appetite, but intense cardiovascular exercise (mostly rowing, in my case) doesn't have that effect at all. I've seen others report exactly the opposite. Bodies are weird!

I'd not recommend rigorous/intense exercise for starters, to a relative exercise beginner, in any case. But I would suggest that each person might profitably experiment and notice how different types and intensities of exercise affect them personally, when it comes to appetite.