September 5
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Mrs_Hoffer
Posts: 5,194 Member
Did I exercise for at least 20 minutes?
Did I stay within my calorie budget for the day?
Did I keep track of everything I ate and drank?
Did I stay within my calorie budget for the day?
Did I keep track of everything I ate and drank?
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Replies
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The subject for today is Cannot Achieve Goals with Exercise Alone:
I suppose it depends on what goals you are trying to achieve. I know that when my goal was losing weight I would work out like a mad woman. But really success in losing imo is much more tied to eating less calories. Sure exercise is good for you but by itself it is like one leg of a stool. The stool might balance but more likely to fall over.
If your goal is to meet health metrics the same applies. I found that even in maintenance for years and exercising regularly, that my blood work was STILL not where I wanted it to be. And my Blood pressure was not either. In that case the total calories were not the problem, but the nutrients were. So again exercise alone could not help me improve either BP or blood work.
I will ask this same question to the entire community because there is such a wealth of experience and knowledge here. "What goals have you NOT been able to achieve with exercise alone?"
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Short answer: Lose weight.
So much of my thoughts on this tie into CICO as well as the quality of what you eat. Exercise can be a helpful tool, but has a point of diminishing returns.
I just put a stupidly long post in the September 4 thread that also ties directly into this. I am pasting it here in a spoiler so I don't ramble on and on two days in a row!
Keep in mind that for me, tracking encompasses CICO as well as keeping my diet clean. It just naturally works that way after doing it that way to run those marathons. Tracking is a habit that includes those, in my case. How that ties into exercise should be obvious to any who read the spoiler.I lost 96 pounds between January and
November 2014 (from morbidly obese at 316 pounds and 40.6 BMI to overweight at 220 pounds and 28.2 BMI). I was tracking during that entire time.
I maintained that "overweight" status (actually gaining 10-15 pounds) for two more years through June 2016 when I ran a bunch of half marathons and full marathons. I was still tracking but had to eat to fuel my body for the running, so I basically sacrificed further weight loss to keep running at such volume. Truth be told, I really wanted to eat under calories, but was simply too hungry to do so, and also felt I underperformed without keeping calories at maintenance. I would have easily overeaten and gained weight during this period without tracking. Tracking kept my diet clean and let me keep my weight where it was.
When an injury stopped my running in 2016 I also stopped tracking because that running hunger stuck around for a while and I was ashamed at my daily numbers while I kept on eating and eating. I didn't want other people on MFP to see how over I was going on calories, let alone hold myself to account, so I "hid it". That cost me as I gained back over 60 pounds.
When I tried in March 2017 to get my weight back in control and make a return to running I was back to obese at 292 pounds with a BMI of 27.5. I literally tried to run the weight off using a training plan to quickly get back to half marathon distances. Between March and June after running 3 half marathons I had only lost 10 pounds. There was one thing I was not doing...tracking.
Due to perceived difficulty running which I attributed to strength (yeah, I had blinders on, obviously), I shifted to a strength program that also used a low carb primal diet to quickly build core and lower body strength. To follow that diet and hit my macros I had to start tracking. Suddenly I started losing weight at a faster pace, and I decided to stick with that for a while since it was working. My weight loss was offset somewhat by muscle gains, but I was having a good time with it, which was the important thing.
By 2018 I stopped tracking and just kept with the weight routines...until I stopped that too.
Now I'm here, again, and have lost 63 pounds since March 8, 2021 when I started tracking and exercising again. This time focused on losing all the weight and focusing on really just that. Not letting the running or strength or anything else get in the way (yet still doing those things to help speed the weight loss). Then I want to learn how to do maintenance, which apparently also involves tracking (no surprise to me at this point).
I think one of the big lessons I have taken away from these experiences is that trying to manage nutritional health without tracking is like driving without being able to see.6 -
@SummerSkier Weight loss has not been possible with exercise alone. On the other hand, muscle strength, flexibility and cardio strength are the result of appropriate exercise. The UAC is founded on a truly healthy foundation built on both elements.5
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Today was a day of extraordinary physical activity due to the demands of getting our farm ready for sale.
Exercises: active stretching 20 minutes; walking 30+ minutes and lots of lifting and carrying from noon until 4 pm.
Tracking: good
Calories: under my limit8 -
RangerRickL wrote: »Today was a day of extraordinary physical activity due to the demands of getting our farm ready for sale.
Exercises: active stretching 20 minutes; walking 30+ minutes and lots of lifting and carrying from noon until 4 pm.
Tracking: good
Calories: under my limit
@RangerRickL I think you put this on the wrong day! It must've been a rough day for you! Lol. 😊1 -
I could be the poster child for “you can’t out exercise what you eat.” Back in 2012 when I ran the Chicago marathon, I thought I would lose all kinds of weight and although I did drop some pounds, it was nothing like I thought it would be. I wasn’t tracking back then either because I was still in my “I hate to track” phase. Of course, like @WhatMeRunning said, you have to fuel your body for that kind of physical activity. And BTW, I really appreciate your honesty and recap of your journey.
I have a better understanding of this now, although interestingly enough, am slipping into that mindset again. Now that I have more time to bike all day, I get all excited about all the calories I’ve burned, I’ve tracked so I know I didn’t eat back all the calories, and yet I find myself frustrated that the scale isn’t moving. It could be muscle gain, it could be water retention, or who knows what. I just know to stay the course and not give up.
I get really irritated with headlines that read “so and so started running and lost 100 pounds in 3 months - click here to find out how”. Stop the insanity!7 -
3xyes
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Yes x3...weights session
Day 5 no grazing.
Day 5 complaints bracelet.
Day 5 journaling.
Day 5 stretching.
Day 5 monitoring sugar intake.7 -
I reviewed my tracking today as I’ve been on a plateau for 3 weeks now. The plateau started when I increased my exercise (started bodypump and running) I started eating more of my exercise calories back.
On one hand exercise has been great at making it easier to make healthy choices but on the other hand it makes me very hungry. I’m going to start refuelling post workout with protein to see if it curbs it.
✅Did I exercise for at least 20 minutes?
✅Did I stay within my calorie budget for the day? Only just 😅 weekends are tricky. From tomorrow I’m going to try calorie cycling to allow for a slightly bigger calorie budget at weekends so my goal will be the same over a week.
✅ Did I keep track of everything I ate and drank?
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Yes x3
Strength training today. It was really nice to pick up heavy things and put them down again.
For me exercise is key. I have never successfully lost weight over the long term without exercise. When I only concentrate on calories I tend to not make the healthiest choices. When I'm exercising too it feels like it's all about health rather than vanity. I have much much more health motivation than vanity motivation and it's longer lived.
I also think the endorphins and self confidence from exercise are super key. It's really really hard to show up every day and keep slowly losing weight. I'm going to take anything that can give me a boost.9 -
05/09/2021
Exercise – yes, cycling, cardio etc
Tracked – yes
Calories – yes.
I didn’t get quite as much exercise as usual today (a short bike ride just to the shops plus a couple of short utube cardio workouts) but I did do a couple of hours of housework.
Exercise contributes to all sorts of health-related goals but I could not have reached my weight goal by exercise alone.6 -
@taurie, I have always used weekly averages for my calorie goals. (sometimes averaged over 2 or 3 weeks when on holiday). It just always made sense to me. I’m quite short and before I retired, fairly sedentary so my calorie allowance was very low, so if I was going to eat out with friends, family gatherings etc I needed to restrict calories on other days. It worked very well.
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✅✅✅6
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9/05
Did I exercise for at least 20 minutes? 👍🏻
Did I stay within my calorie budget for the day? 👍🏻
Did I keep track of everything I ate and drank? 👍🏻
3 Pass Days Remaining6 -
I completed all three today walking and spinning.
I think that as long as you are active and engage in some from of exercise you are a winner and no reason to deprive yourself if careful.7 -
Exercise:✅
Tracked:✅
Under:✅
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Today was a pass day. I didn't sleep well and felt bone tired all day. Had planned to do a walk in the park and a low impact spin but that didn't happen. Really just had too many snacks today.
Exercise:✅. 20 yoga + 10 stretch
Calories:❌
Tracked:✅7 -
@whatmerunning @biketheworld You two are beyond amazing. Thanks for sharing.
I can't say that I have ever thought I could lose weight by exercising. I am not the caliber of athlete to burn enough calories to make any progress. Where am I going on a couple hundred calories a day, lol? I am working on exercise for the health benefits...hopefully it is doing some good, who knows.
Exercise:
40 minute bike ride and that darn 10k race. The last mile (uphill), especially the last 1k was torture. I fleetingly thought about walking at about 800 meters then snapped out of it and said h@%l no, I haven't come this far not to run it all!
Tracking:
Calories:
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Exercise ✅ 30 minutes walk
Tracked ✅
Under calories ❌
It was Father’s Day and had a few too many extra treats with hubby 💙
But I did track them all 😬
1/3 pass days used6 -
Pass day 27
