Can u lose without working out?

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  • seansquared
    seansquared Posts: 328 Member
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    Wow thanks everyone or all your info! I just want you guys to know I do a little walking during the week and do at lease 30mins of dance five days a week. I am tryig to change my eating habits but it's hard when my husband doesn't want any healthy food. So making two different dinners frustrates me sometimes. Thanks again guys!

    Buy and cook for yourself, and tell him to go screw.

    I'm probably jaded by the constant stream of posts from people talking about how their SO isn't really supporting their desire to be leaner and healthier, but really, if someone isn't on board with you wanting to have the best body you can have, tell them to go f*** themselves.
  • cbl40
    cbl40 Posts: 281 Member
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    Yes. It's about 80% diet......working out is good for your body and your mind, so you'll feel better doing both together. Working out does make you more hungry, so that is where it gets a bit tricky.
  • llonka
    llonka Posts: 76 Member
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    Heck yeah you can! I was eating about 1770 calories and not losing, so someone suggested changing to about 1510 and i've lost almost three pounds in the last two weeks. I sit on my butt pretty much all day, i'm a stay at home mom. I guess from the calorie deficit, that's why i'm losing, once I get down some more i'll start working out again, don't want to be flabby and skinny! HAHA!

    oh and once the weather gets better, i'll go for walks again. :flowerforyou:
  • Justforthebacon
    Justforthebacon Posts: 61 Member
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    you will lose weight, but not body fat. the scale will tell you a smaller number but you won't have the ideal "skinny" body.


    Huh? "You will lose weight but not body fat?" Nonsense!

    You could do NO exercise and lose weight. That being said, it is good to exercise but not at all necessary to lose weight.


    I disagree, it's not non-sense. Evolutionary speaking, our body is very intelligent and keeping unneeded muscle around isn't beneficial to survival. Keeping stores of energy that cost nearly nothing is good. Those stores of energy would be fat.

    If you don't exercise, you'll lose some bodyfat and a lot of muscle. In addition this, the flip side is true. If you have a higher muscle mass and use said muscle mass often, your body has no choice but to burn fat and not muscle. This and hormones is why guys generally find it "easier" to lose weight than girls.

    You can disagree but that doesn't change the fact that you can lose weight (FAT) without exercising. Change in your diet is all one needs for weight loss. I wasn't going into what is BEST for the body or why one should exercise. I agree it is great and I do it but not for weight loss.

    There is more to body weight than just fat. There is bone mass, which is fairly difficult to increase or decrease, there is organ weight, again fairly difficult to increase or decrease, water weight, which is very easy to increase and decrease, and muscle weight which is easy to decrease and hard to increase.

    Just because someone loses weight doesn't mean it's automatically fat. Our bodies are predisposed to losing the caloric expensive weight first; that'd be muscle.

    So once again, yes, you can lose weight without exercising, but it'll be mostly muscle, not fat. In particular, women are usually way more prone to losing muscle than fat -- the whole "geared towards giving birth" thing kind of plays a number on their bodies. Because you lose muscle without exercise, you'll eventually plateau a lot quicker and see severe diminishing returns.

    In short, I agree with you that you lose weight when you don't exercise, but I disagree with you that you lose fat when you don't exercise.

    Not sure where you came up with this ("I disagree with you that you lose fat when you don't exercise."). Could you cite some studies on this please. It is ridiculous to say that someone losing weight with diet only will not lose any fat but will lose muscle. It makes no sense at all. Of course some of the weight they lose will be water weight and some muscle but YEAH they DO lose fat as well.
  • Matt_Wild
    Matt_Wild Posts: 2,673 Member
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    Not sure where you came up with this ("I disagree with you that you lose fat when you don't exercise."). Could you cite some studies on this please. It is ridiculous to say that someone losing weight with diet only will not lose any fat but will lose muscle. It makes no sense at all. Of course some of the weight they lose will be water weight and some muscle but YEAH they DO lose fat as well.

    They will lose both. Its a survival response of the body, a hormonal one at that.
  • burg1801
    burg1801 Posts: 124
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    It's amazing how so many people could have fundamentally different responses to this question. After reading through the first page, I'm more confused than ever.
  • HauteP1nk
    HauteP1nk Posts: 2,139 Member
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    You can still lose weight without working out... You would just have to ensure that you are burning more calories then you are eating.

    Of course, exercise is important for all kinds of reasons such as blood pressure, diabetes, depression, bone/muscle/joint health, etc etc....
  • yoashisme
    yoashisme Posts: 48 Member
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    Wow thanks everyone or all your info! I just want you guys to know I do a little walking during the week and do at lease 30mins of dance five days a week. I am tryig to change my eating habits but it's hard when my husband doesn't want any healthy food. So making two different dinners frustrates me sometimes. Thanks again guys!

    Well the hubby can eat what he is given or cook his own. Is he overweight?


    No my husband is a little under his ideal weight. He works construction so he can eat anything an burn all the calories back off in just a few hours. Unlike me where I don't work out for my job.
  • Startraveller
    Startraveller Posts: 65
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    I agree. You will likely lose muscle which is not what you want to do. Besides, the cardio not only burns fat, it gets the heart going which is good for overall health. Even 20 minutes of walking a day is considered exercise so get out there!
  • happyjoyousfree1
    happyjoyousfree1 Posts: 124 Member
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    ok so I know working out is best for me but is is possible to lose weight just by cutting out calories? I have been eating around 1250-1300 a day. It's not with the best foods but some are good. Is it still possible to lose?

    Yes, you will lose the same amount whether you workout or not if you follow MFP's plan. That being said if you don't workout you will not be nearly as healthy or athletic and will probably end up "skinny fat" Thin with a high bf%.

    I disagree with you on this!!
    I first began following the MFP guidlines and followed them to the letter.
    Lost about 1lb a week. nice not too bad.
    I started to do some cardio about 4x a week and than added a little strength in there 2x a week.
    Upped my calories and now I'm consistently losing 2 1/2 lbs a week.
    So diet alone will not yield the same weight loss as diet with exercise.
    In my opinion
  • thelowcarbrecipes
    thelowcarbrecipes Posts: 89 Member
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    I have lost 1/4 of my starting weight with very little exercise.

    Also I have been eating low carb so my muscle mass has been preserved as I am in ketosis where my body is going straight for dietary fat and bodily for for its energy [ketones]

    While my diet has been high fat, i have also usually kept it below 1500 calories per day, which has been really easy due to the satiating fats and protein I have been eating.

    So yes, I lost weight with very minimal exercise, so can you.
  • LeanMeanFitnessMachine
    LeanMeanFitnessMachine Posts: 659
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    If you want to lose without working out, your diet needs to be spot on. That means not "mostly good" but ALL good. Its not just about the quantity you eat, its about the quality. You need to be eating natural, unprocessed foods, upping your protien, and cutting down on sodium by eating fruits and vegetables in every color of the rainbow. Eat simple, eat fresh, eat at home.

    If you can't commit to this, you need to be working out, too, if you are expecting to see great results.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    ok so I know working out is best for me but is is possible to lose weight just by cutting out calories? I have been eating around 1250-1300 a day. It's not with the best foods but some are good. Is it still possible to lose?

    Yes, you will lose the same amount whether you workout or not if you follow MFP's plan. That being said if you don't workout you will not be nearly as healthy or athletic and will probably end up "skinny fat" Thin with a high bf%.

    I disagree with you on this!!
    I first began following the MFP guidlines and followed them to the letter.
    Lost about 1lb a week. nice not too bad.
    I started to do some cardio about 4x a week and than added a little strength in there 2x a week.
    Upped my calories and now I'm consistently losing 2 1/2 lbs a week.
    So diet alone will not yield the same weight loss as diet with exercise.
    In my opinion

    It will if your caloric deficit is the same (with or without exercise which is the way MFP is set up, Eat your exercise cals) as that is what causes the amount of gain or loss. If it is different then that most likely the difference is the amount of water gained/lost.
  • BeeElMarvin
    BeeElMarvin Posts: 2,086 Member
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    Wow thanks everyone or all your info! I just want you guys to know I do a little walking during the week and do at lease 30mins of dance five days a week. I am tryig to change my eating habits but it's hard when my husband doesn't want any healthy food. So making two different dinners frustrates me sometimes. Thanks again guys!

    That's great! As long as you are not "stagnant" you will do fine. Watch the calorie intake using MFP, keep it around the level that is suggested and you will lose weight. Good Luck!
  • pullipgirl
    pullipgirl Posts: 767 Member
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    You can lose weight just by cutting calories. I would suggest adding at least some walking I lost my first 10 lbs just by cutting calories and walking the dog for 30 mins
  • bikiniready201
    bikiniready201 Posts: 54
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    ive lost tons of weight in the past w/o working out :)
  • delilah47
    delilah47 Posts: 1,658
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    <---wonders if the op is opposed to exercise for some reason?

    If a person is disabled, exercise is often not an option. It's very frustrating to have to rely on diet alone to lose weight. Be thankful you are, obviously, able to exercise.
  • SilentRenegade
    SilentRenegade Posts: 245 Member
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    I've lost a lot of weight without exercising in the past. The problem is that it looks... sloppy, I guess. That's what my friend and I determined when we put on bikinis after losing weight. There's not a lot of definition, but you look skinnier. I would rather have some toned muscles, so that's why this time I've chosen a fitness route.

    If you are just looking to drop weight, I actually find (for me) that just cutting calories and eating better foods helps me drop the weight faster than when I incorporate exercise with it. I'm just being somewhat patient this time. :)
  • manasunshine
    manasunshine Posts: 130
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    yes you'd lose weight
    but by experience i know its not the healthiest way and that that doesnt work well for the long run. give workouts a try. theyre fun
  • Lojsen
    Lojsen Posts: 8
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    Energy in vs. Energy out. that is what counts. The excess will generate a weight gain. Simple as that.
    If you would like to loose weight you have to burn more kcal than you eat. But to get a firm body, you have to exercise.
    The only thing that worries me is that you might eat too little. If you do, the body will go in to starvation, and you might not loose any weight at all.

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