Importance of exercise

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abbullar
abbullar Posts: 61
in Health and Weight Loss
If I'm under my calories, is it important to do cardio?

Replies

  • maurapie
    maurapie Posts: 48 Member
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    If your only goal is to lose weight, you can do it with diet alone. However, there are a ton of benefits to cardio, so I would recommend it!
  • bizco
    bizco Posts: 1,949 Member
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    Losing weight is 80% diet, 20% exercise. If your goal is simply to lose weight (fat & muscle) then you don't have to exercise if you're meeting your calorie limit. Of course, this requires accurate logging of all food & beverages.
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
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    Agree with both previous posts.
  • Sublog
    Sublog Posts: 1,296 Member
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    If I'm under my calories, is it important to do cardio?

    Nope. Cardio is an extension of your diet. Cardio is not needed for weight loss. It just creates a larger calorie deficit. However, I might add, that if you don't do cardio, you should seriously do weight/resistance training for optimal body composition while dieting.
  • ncahill77
    ncahill77 Posts: 501 Member
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    In my opinion, losing weight without exercising is boring, the working out helps take the place of the food!
  • mallory3411
    mallory3411 Posts: 839 Member
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    YOu can but you will likely have lose skin and not be toned at all if you are not exercising along with a calorie reduced diet.
  • Josteyn
    Josteyn Posts: 44
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    Why would you want to look flabby (even if you are thinner) when you could look toned and healthy?
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    Why would you want to look flabby (even if you are thinner) when you could look toned and healthy?

    this!
  • My1985Freckles
    My1985Freckles Posts: 1,039 Member
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    In my opinion, losing weight without exercising is boring, the working out helps take the place of the food!

    Amen to that!
  • harpnnag
    harpnnag Posts: 14 Member
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    Right now I am virtually unable to exercise due to an health issue. I am losing weight, BUT, I am not trimming down in size the way I have in the past with exercise and careful eating. I have a scale that measures body fat % and as I am losing, the % is going up, that means I am losing more muscle than fat. Muscle is your metabolic booster.. uses more calories to operate than fat. I would ramp up the exercise if I were able. Right now, although not well, I am taking short (15 minute) walk outside to both motivate and at least move my body a tiny little bit.
  • rocketpants
    rocketpants Posts: 419 Member
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    I agree that it is entirely possible to lose weight without working out, and you can easily eat back all the calories from even a big workout. So from a pure weight loss perspective it is calories in vs calories out. However, getting those extra 300-1000 calories a day makes a big difference in how strict your diet needs to be. Also from a health perspective cardio is very important, probably more important that being sligthly over weight. Additionally if you work to find activities you like, cardio exercise will become something you seek out, not avoid
  • mhankosk
    mhankosk Posts: 535 Member
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    I agree with all the above posters. I thought the same thing when I was starting out (not too long ago). I was dreading exercise. But, I find myself loving it now and actually looking forward to it on some days (no joke). I feel a heck of a lot stronger and I definitely have more endurance. You *can* lose weight without exercising, but I promise you won't feel as good about it and it will probably be harder to stick to it. Logging food is way easier for me when I know I get to log exercise for negative calories as well. Plus, since I worked out that day, I may be able to have one more portion (or half portion depending) of the food I love and still not be over. It's way more satisfying. Also, exercising gives you more than just 1 goal. I have a lot of goals now: a) I want to lose weight b) I want to be stronger c) I want to actually run an entire 5K d) I want to be able to do Insanity and earn that damn t-shirt! If I wasn't exercising, I would have one goal and when you are having problems meeting 100% of your goals, it can be discouraging. When you are having problems meeting 25% of your goals, however, its not as discouraging and I find it is easier to get out of a rut.

    Keep in mind tho, that everyone is different. If you really don't want to exercise, then you don't have to. Just wanted to share my experience. Good luck with your journey! :)
  • rieson
    rieson Posts: 16 Member
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    How far under calories are you? I would not recommend going under your calorie recommendations, if you do this on a consisent basis you body will go into starvation mode and will not lose any weight. Eating the right kind of calories is important as well.

    The above poster is correct, losing weight is 80% Nutrition, 20% Exercise. Everybody's needs differ based on thei Height, Weight, Activity Level and amount of weight needed to lose.
  • Josteyn
    Josteyn Posts: 44
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    Even if you have health issues, if you can do a 15 minute walk, you can do a 5 minute step-routine on the stairs (or a child's step-stool) and each 5 minutes gives you around 75 calories-worth of exercise. If you put extra in by holding (and lifting) hand-weights in time with your routine, you get fitter arm muscles as well.

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