Mumsnet Talk

I think the issue if you just focus on calories, and burning as many as possible through exercise, is that you can lose sight of health and nutrition. Sure, heavy cardio will burn off carbs, but you're probably not doing your body any favours unless you eat good fats and protein.

I would second giving the 5:2 diet a bash. I tried it last year and whilst I didn't lose much, that was because I didn't control myself enough on my non-fasting days and went a bit nuts. I did maintain my weight despite that though. I've just started it again this week and a.m determined to do it properly this time. Attending my dd's Valentine's tea Party at nursery today was a challenge though!

YABU I agree with most of the other posters - who say that no, exercise alone won't necessarily shift the weight.

Diet is more important.

I exercise 6 days out of 7 - for at least 30 minutes. Some days I go for a run for 45 mins- 1hour, other days it is a fitness dvd.

My problem is that I like eating food, and drinking wine.

You say you log on mfp. Have you set your cal goals and the protein/carb to suit you? Mfp isn't perfect. but it is good if it helps you be accountable for what goes in your mouth.

Maybe you need to meal plan - (I don't do it, but others who do are successful) then you will only have the correct foods in thehouse, and will stick to the 'diet' better.

probably would increase the exercise too. Strength training is as, if not more, important than cardio. Increase your muscle mass and burn more cals.

DW went from (as I recollect) 70kg to 57kg over a year after she began going to the gym. She goes every morning from 5.30 to 7.30 and does a 3-hour bike ride on Saturdays. After a while she started putting on weight again because she was developing muscle and had just about no more fat to lose.

She didn't alter her diet at all. Having said that, she wasn't eating unhealthily to start with. She also began taking dietary supplements - whey powder and that sort of thing.

*I gym 5 times a week, go properly hard and only burn around 500 calories each time. Not cutting cals and carbs alongside this will not give me the results I want.

Stop being so weak and stop making excuses.*

euro are you Jillian Michaels or just really serious about "not phoning it in"

Whenever I exercise 6-7 days a week (hard with Jillian Michaels DVDs or running), I lose my extra weight very quickly.

Yes, OP, it's not a bad method, provided you're not polishing off a whole loaf in toast afterwards. I find exercise suppresses my appetite, possibly because it makes me drink more water.

If you have an active lifestyle you can eat whatever ime.You have to do everything really fast though and helps if you have a manual type of job.

dh is 10 stone and thinks nothing of eating a pack of 4 choc bars,a full bag of haribo or 4 packs of crisps but he moves a lot.

DP always used to do it with exercise alone. He was boxing , so always ate a reasonably healthy diet. He did do 5 hours of exercise a day though when he needed to get to a fighting weight. which makes me almost glad he ended up with partial sight loss as I never got to see him. Nasty mean Horrace...

Weight loss is 75% diet and 25% exercise....you will not lose substantial weight if you exercise a lot but eat badly.

Agree about the shopping, don't buy crap and you can't eat it. No-one can control urges, we all have urges but if the crap isn't in the house you can't eat it.

As for excercise, according to the programme that was on the other day some people's genetic make-up means that no amount of excercise will make a blind bit of difference (research University of B-ham) and the interviewer was make to do just 20 seconds of hard excercise 3 times a week and it had health benefits (weirdest thing I ever saw!).

I do 40 mins treadmill as hard as I can 3 times a week (disabilities so sometimes nothing at all) and I can definately see the difference it makes (mentally a huge difference).

I lost about four kilos over six or seven months just by exercising. Every single day I meant to diet too, but every single day I failed. The weight came off anyway. I was doing spinning classes and a bit of running. To begin with I just got smaller without getting lighter, but after a while my weight dwindled a bit. I'm guessing I had just changed my metabolism so that I burned more calories.

I don't think you can lose weight just by the calories actually burnt during exercise its too depressing an equation, like a mile of running per biscuit etc!), so in the shorter term exercise doesn't help. But I do think you can change the way your body works so that, longer term, thanks to exercise, you are burning more calories just by existing.

I'm with chrome. I hit the gym 4 mornings a week before work, lost 2 dress sizes and ate exactly what I wanted!

Dollyboo, you're mistaken, fasting 2 times a week is not something all practising Muslims have to do. Most do not.

It is sunnah, that is the prophet used to do so and is therefore recommended but not at all necessary. The only fasting that is absolutely required for all eligible Muslims is the month long fast of ramadhan. Hth.

"I'm not doing a huge amount maybe 2 hours a week on the treadmill at home. "

To lose weight, even with dietary modification, you need to be doing moderate exercise for about an hour every day, so 20 minutes a day just won't be enough.

If I was in your position, struggling to control over-eating impulses, I'd definitely try the hypnotic gastric band.
Sorry to bang on - just feel strongly that fasting at all for 2 days a week is not a realistic or healthy way to live.

I'm the same. I have a huge sweet tooth, love cake, biscuits etc. I started running 5km 5 times a week and now I'm a size 8. Didn't change any of my eating habits at all.

http://www.quranandscience.com/legislative/185-medical-aspects-of-islamic-fasting.html

Mrs terry- note I said PRACTISING Muslims !

A pound of fat has 3500kcal. So if you want to lose a pound a week then you need to burn 500kcal a day. That's 50min of running at a decent intensity for someone average sized. It's a lot of exercise, so it's much more sensible to also do it via healthy eating.

Plus, food is not just about calories: it's about nutrition. When you feed your body crap you're not helping it be as healthy as it could be. You can be skinny and incredibly unhealthy if you have a poor diet. Your body needs various nutrients to function properly and to ward off diseases (from colds to cancer): food as medicine if you will. So you need to look at what you're eating and what it contributes to your body rather than simply the calorie/fat content. That's not to say you can't have chocolate etc, but more that you need to make sure you're reaching your goals in relation to fruit and veg, whole grains etc daily, and THEN eating the 'treats' (although I hate that word) if you still fancy them.

Finally, you need a long-term attitude and excessive exercising or fasting are not good lifestyle options. How would you cope if injured yourself for example and were relying on exercise alone to burn off excess calories?

You can control your eating... by controlling your shopping.

And I dont mean that to sound harsh, but that is how I did it. Do not buy the chocolate, or the cheese, or the crisps, or the alcohol... or whatever it is that you pig out on.. because if it isnt in the house when you get the urge, you wont be able to do it..

And I went from being someone who happily ate half a dozen crackers, loaded with butter and cheese, at bedtime...

If there was no cheese in the house, then I couldnt do it.

I know a few Muslims and none of them fast two days a week...

5:2 suits me too because I love eating. But you still can't binge on the other 5 days of "normal" eating. Anecdotally, quite a few people (myself included) doing 5:2 have found their appetites supressed after a few fasts so that over-eating on non-fast days is no longer a problem.

The 5:2 makes a lot of sense to me. It'd also been scientifically proven for its health benefits. A lot of Muslims who practise the religion of islam also fast a couple days a week and eat normal the rest of the time.

Actually, it looks as if it's a success! Here.

It is all about what you eat. As said above the amount of exercise you have to do to wipe out that chocolate bar is considerable. As you have stated you do not have a healthy relationship with food so to advocate an exercise regime would be wrong.

Work on why you binge, your self esteem etc and go from there.