I don't want to be fat. But i don't exercise.

[Rainydays26]

I feel like I'm going to be fat for ever. I know ideally your meant to loose weight slowly but it just feels hopeless. I have lost but its now slowed right down to an almost stop.

I know the answer is exercise I do very little. I just can't get motivated. I never stick to it. I have apps as smart bike that I can do challenges with when connected to tv. I need to do core and stomach exercise I find that even harder to do. Logically I know what I need to do. And it's down to me to put the effort in. But I find it hard. When it should be simple.

Just edit to add i can't reduce calories anymore. I'm already lower than I should be.

You can't think of anything worse? Being weak, frail and dependent on others in my older years is much, much worse to me than exercising - I am with you on the gym thing though, I will exercise in my own home.

You have lost a lot of weight and without any exercise you won’t tone up. People are right exercise doesn’t contribute much to weight loss , but exercise will help you tone up, get stronger and has so many other benefits , there are so many things you can do , start with YouTube videos , you can do a lot without any equipment

I think you have done amazingly to lose so much weight. Changing your shape will be more down to exercise than diet. Is there any exercise you enjoy, any way you can move more? Obviously, targeting your tummy might give the result you want fastest but if you enjoy swimming or dancing do that.

Im the same I can't just walk for the sake of walking and I don't like being around people so I wouldn't join anything. My motivation gos from yep I can do this in a positive way feel good about it. To the other extreme and feel like a slug. I wish I did love it.

That's what I'm thinking but I don't feel like in getting anywhere i guess i just have to carry on.

Once you’re in the habit of exercising it’s easy to keep going - but starting is hard! You just have to make yourself do it.

I exercise often and I don’t always love it, but I do it for the physical and mental health benefits. The endorphins and sense of achievement keep me going I think. Plus it gets me out of the house and off my phone!

As for walking, aimless circuits around say your area are so boring, like being in a prison yard I say! What I've done to remedy that is to have a focus at the turnaround point and have a list of podcasts/my audiobook ready to go before I leave the house.

So I have five days a week that I do an hours walk. I don't do anything else other than lift dumbells for arm strength a few times a morning. I'm nearly 70 now and walk to keep moving, not for weight loss etc. That doesn't work anyway IMV.

I have five places to go and mix them up. There's something at the halfway (or thereabouts) point such as a garden centre, a cafe, a shopping centre (the walk there is nice ha ha), two local beauty spots with picnic benches and coffee vans. It just breaks it up and I can time myself to see if my pace is slower or faster than normal. So have something to aim for is what I do rather than going round in circles!

I can't offer anything else other than 16/8 method of eating which I've been doing for a few years now. Apart from anything else it keeps my paws out of the biscuit tin at night and helps nightime reflux by not eating after 7pm.

Good luck out there!

Maybe you’ve had the high of a great run of progress and you’re now disappointed that it’s hasn’t continued on at that same fast pace. That’s understandable. But the pace was always going to slow down. Accept your disappointment, see it in context and move on to the next phase that you’re in.

Look into fasting for loose skin.

At home i have an i bike. Which is my go to when I push myself to. But i don't iften get that far. I have a cross trainer that I can't even use. I get very beathless/dizzy within a minute I haven't tried recently though. But they don't do much for core and stomach anyway.
I have a twist and shape and wounder core which again have barely touched
I don't even know if they do anything

Yeah i get it was always going to slow compared to before. And I know it's a different phase. But it feels like it's stopped

I'm in a dance for exercise class and the only person who doesn't have a tummy is the instructor, whose body is insane. A mix of women, mostly 40+, none overweight as such and some in great shape in terms of looking good doing the moves with good definition on arms, legs, etc. Having a bit of a gut - with fluctuations for time of day, month, heat - etc is 100% completely the norm. It is those who don't have that who are the anomoly. The few people I know like that are have very particular physiques - but then may be very straight up and down which doesn't necessarily look great either or they are people who are exercising at a really serious level.

Cross trainers are definitely good for your core! But getting dizzy and breathless so quickly is worrying - are you getting dizzy and breathless with other types of exercise? If it keeps happening it would definitely warrant a GP appointment to check there’s nothing underlying.

Op you’re absolutely right this is exercise, however your low bmi info was missing from your op and was a critical point. So all posters who didn’t know that are right. They thought you were over weight as you said you were fat. You now need to exercise, yes. Mainly strength training.

when I lost weight and hit goal, I looked like I lost weight, and I had lose skin, a year of body composition and eating my protein, even though I did it throughout. Has made an enormous difference.

you need to tone up and build muscle. There is no other way round it. I’m sorry. I’m fit and toned. I have muscle definition. Which is very visible. When I first lost the weight my husband and daughter said I looked too thin. My daughter said to me at the weekend I looked a normal healthy weight now. And I was in my underwear. My weight was the same at both points.

you need to start small and build up. As you do it it gets easier fast.

so for me. Every morning when I get up I do these exercises. It takes about 15 mins.

i do planks, squats, hip flexors, sit ups etc. all using my body weight to strengthen.

then when I get time I go for a run, a fast run now,on the treadmill. just 20 mins. That’s made the biggest difference to my waist. I then either do full upper body weights, which takes another twenty mins, or I do something like rowing, bike or incline climber.

so all in most days I do 45 mins to an hours exercise. And it shows. I also take creatine to help build muscle and recovery.

when I started I couldn’t do a tenth of that. But it jisy becomes easier and you realise you can do more. You also need to eat a min of 1g of protein per kg of body weight, but to build muscle aim for a min of 1.5.

it takes time and energy, but I promise it gets easier, and you do get the results.

I would try to build in everyday exercise so go for a walk at lunchtime or before or after work. If it helps you go, mix it with listening to the radio or a podcast.

What about cycling, rather than just an exercise bike. I find being outside or going somewhere like the pool or to a class makes it better.

I would just try lots of things and do something every day. You will find a few things you enjoy if you try enough different things.

How active are you at the moment? Do you know how many steps you do for example?

Yes. Have you ever looked at adult ADHD at all?

Ah yeah now you pointed that out I can see how it read. I think its because I was talking about how I felt. Also although my bmi is ok I still have a fat stomach. But yeah I should have said much bmi.

Anyway so if I had been more clear about the bmi. The advice would have been exercise?:

Its like i know what I need to do. But its the actual doing it. Even the thought of moving my exercise bike and connecting it to tv feels like it will take loads of energy . I have a good reason to do it I feel shit with how I look. Over time exercise would help that. But my motivation is zero.

No i haven't. But just for argument sake if I did have it what would it mean

Ok now you've updated, this doesn't sound like a fat issue, it's a loose skin issue.

Loose skin isn't flat like a piece of paper. It looks and feels flabby.

The most important thing is you have lost weight and are now more healthy.

Depending on how long you were fat, your skin may firm up a bit.

If not, and it's causing you distress, there's nothing wrong with going to your gp and seeing whether nhs help is an option.

Unlikely if its cosmetic but if it is really distressing and depressing you, it may qualify. Depends on criteria where you are.

Yes, the answer isn’t to lose more weight, your body won’t be what you want, I’m sorry. The answer is exercise. Cycling won’t do much, not at the level you’re looking at. I would start with some toning exercises. Using your body weight as resistance, there are lots of tutorials on line.

it doesn’t matter if you can’t do much to start. Even if it’s one or two and seconds, the trick is to persevere. As it will become easier and ensure you consume enough protein.

there is no other way, I’m sorry

I get confused about toning . I don't think i fully understand it. But I googled 10st women toned vs not toned. Now I have a visual it makes more sense. Maybe I need to give myself challenges. I did that with weight lose. But I'm not sure how I would do that on exercise. Maybe I will come up with something

It’s easy once you start. So do a plank. How long can you hold it for. Say 5 seconds.your next challenge is 10 seconds. And so on.

canyou do a sit up, do one. Next challenge is two. Same foe squats or lunges.

thr challenges are the easiest bit.

youf challenge is starting.

Well I was diagnosed in 2016. There is medication for it, but I didn't start this regularly until about 3 years ago. Just being diagnosed was the first step which made me look up about how ADHD affects things like motivation and habit forming (both of which I struggle with) - there are other areas too such as time management and organisation/planning. Understanding how my brain chemistry differs from the "norm" helped me look at different strategies and methods to approach things, rather than just beating myself up as I failed to see the patterns where I would fail over and over. I did a lot of beating myself up and despairing and wallowing in confusing depressed funks before I was diagnosed.

The medication helps a lot but honestly, just understanding that I might not respond to standard advice/tips and that I need a different approach and it doesn't mean I'm broken has been really helpful as well. And then talking to other people with ADHD (mostly online, but I do have a couple of friends IRL who are diagnosed) and hearing what works for them is really helpful as well as things which work for other people with ADHD are often more successful for me.

In terms of exercise I prefer in-person classes, because I find that I respond more to external structure, which might not work for you as you've said you don't want to be around other people. I do second BTW as another poster said, that the class I attend has a lot of older people and certainly I don't feel anybody is there to judge anyone else's body. But I also understand preferring not to do group classes and don't think my solution will necessarily work for you. The other things I've had success with previously have been choosing an exercise which is quick to do, like the 30 day shred is not bad at all, or which is designed for people who are completely unfit but has measurable progress, like C25K (which I just did from a free app). Or I had a stage of liking the idea of what is called Nutritious Movement by Katy Bowman, where she points out that generations ago before cars, computers, factories etc we would have got plenty of movement/exercise just from living our daily lives and that it's not surprising people hate "exercise" because it's completely unnatural. She has a whole philosophy around building movement into your everyday life so for example thinking about how you bend when you need to access a low cupboard in your kitchen or stretch when putting groceries away, and building this in so it's like you're getting your movement/exercise naturally when you would be moving anyway. Things like choosing to take the stairs instead of a lift or carry something heavy rather than roll it in a cart, or choosing walking/cycling for part or all of a journey where possible - I loved this whole thing because it felt useful and real. I don't do this very consciously any more but there probably are aspects that I do still incorporate without thinking much about it.

Caroline Girvan does amazingly simple YouTube strength exercises. Can you afford a set of dumbbells? They’re often on Facebook Marketplace much cheaper or Lidl / Aldi have them for their exercise special weeks.

Im currently enjoying this one but she’s got loads that are shorter.

Challenges with little milestones are another good tip and yes - you probably can't directly measure "tonedness" but you can easily measure strength or stamina in terms of how many repeats of an exercise you can do, how long you can hold a pose for, how much weight you can lift etc.

Often strength and stamina will translate into "tonedness" in a similar way to how weight will correlate roughly to how slim vs fat somebody looks. It's never a perfect relationship between the two but it's much more measurable.