You can lose some weight through only exercise

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FiberousJ
FiberousJ Posts: 82 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
What I'm trying to say is you can lose ''some'' weight through exercise alone. But reaching your goal is a different story. The reason I know is that at times I have lost 20-30 pounds through lots of exercise over a period of time, while still binging and eating whatever. But if you eat it back and stop exercising, you will gain it back. Did I reach my goal through exercise alone? No.

Many people say that exercise alone won't help you lose any weight. That's not entirely true. It depends on how much you're exercising and how much you're eating. You can lose some of your weight, it's just that you're not likely to reach your target if exercise is the only thing you're doing.
At the very least, exercise can at least make it harder for you to be obese.

Diet is very important, but if you only diet, you're going to have to eat very few calories for the rest of your life. That is why doing a combination of diet and exercise is easier and healthier, not going too extreme. Resistance training is also important because it will help with your body composition as opposed to just your weight.

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  • Speakeasy76
    Speakeasy76 Posts: 961 Member
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    I was able to lose weight at one point before my wedding mostly through exercise alone and get to a healthy BMI. Sure, I probably tried to eat "healthier" and eat less, but I was mostly focused on exercise at the time. An exercise habit has been a relatively easy thing for me to maintain, as I've done some form of formal exercise for most of my adult life.

    Eating in a deficit took more discipline, and a long history of restrict-binge cycles that triggered anxious thoughts. However, to lose weight after my babies, and then to lose a bit more after that 8 years later, I had to pay more attention to not only what but how much I ate. That's when MFP came in.
  • FiberousJ
    FiberousJ Posts: 82 Member
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    NorthCascades wrote: »
    It's really just math. Exercise is like having a side job, getting more money can help you save for retirement. There isn't really a distinction between exercise calories and being alive calories.


    That's a good analogy.
  • spiriteagle99
    spiriteagle99 Posts: 3,677 Member
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    When people hike the Appalachian Trail, some people, especially men, tend to lose a lot of weight despite eating a very unhealthy and calorie rich diet. I knew several who lost 40-50 lbs. in a few months. The problem was that as soon as they stopped walking 15-20+ miles a day, the weight came back because they had learned nothing about how to eat in a healthy manner to sustain their weight loss. It was always interesting to go to the autumn Gathering of Appalachian Long Distance Hikers and see those who had just finished the trail, looking anorexic, and those who had hiked in past years, who were definitely on the plump side. A few perennial hikers did serious damage to their health by the way they ate. When you are exerting that much, you end up forcing calories, eating lots of ice cream, pizza, Oreos, and other calorie dense foods just to get enough energy to keep hiking. It has consequences.

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