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 don’t look fat, you look like you lack muscle mass and tone.

Visceral fat is the fat around your organs. The bad stuff that’s linked to a myriad of conditions and diseases. A visceral fat index of 1-12 is healthy, 13-59 is unhealthy. The lower your number the healthier you are. You’re a 4, that’s very good.

Your muscle mass is high, which leads me to think that you’re either carrying it everywhere but your stomach OR you have a slim stomach hiding under lots of loose skin. If the former, you need to build muscle in your trunk/stomach area to see a visible difference. If the latter, the same as the former but your GP can also refer you to an NHS specialist who might put you on the pathway for loose skin removal.

either way, work on reconditioning your stomach area by gaining muscle there, and see if your GP can give you a clearer picture of how much of your stomach is loose skin vs fat mass.

My op wasn't quite as it seemed. I worded it really badly.

I don't break a sweat. I get warm but thats it. I pedal fast think I'm doing well. Then I look at my legs and they are going slow 🐌

I think i do look fat though. But thats probably because I don't fully know what I'm talking about. But from this thread it looks like I can change what my stomach looks like quite a bit.

You don’t necessarily need to do ‘gym’ type exercise. Just walking, if you do enough - fairly brisk, not ambling - should help to shift the pounds.

Edited to add, the BF of a dd lost 5 stone purely by stopping buying (and consequently eating) all the crap, i.e. biscuits, chocolate, cakes, crisps, etc., and a LOT of walking.

TBH I scarcely recognised him afterwards! IMO he’d lost just a bit too much, but he’s put some of it - a bit - back on now.

Exercise DOES matter. Without some strength / weights workout you will lose muscle. Muscle helps you burn more calories. A low calorie diet without some effort will kill your metabolism dead

Ok. In that case its killed .my metabolism 😭 and may be why I'm hardly losing weight.

You've eaten the bare minimum for months. You haven't exercised other than for a couple of weeks at too high an intensity with no core strength, weightbearing or resistance exercise. It's quite possible with such a level of restriction that you haven't consumed enough protein to maintain or minimise muscle loss.

As a result of losing so much muscle mass along with adipose tissue, you are weaker and your body requires far less energy in order to function that it would with the original proportion. You're also quite likely to be low on collagen and quite possibly have some fairly significant nutritional deficiencies if you've just dieted. You've become deconditioned, less active, carrying less weight, you're not as fit or as strong as beforehand.

Add into that your mindset - all or nothing/it's not worth bothering if it's under 90mins, not wanting to go out, putting every barrier possible in front of suggestions to exercise.

You've lost a significant amount of weight quickly. You've got some loose skin. You've got significantly less muscle mass than you did before you started.

It is not helpful to you to assume everything is awful and can't be changed. It can. In the time you spent typing the post dismissing multiple ways you can't possibly exercise, you could have done ten standing push ups against the wall, ten calf raises at the sink or ten leg lifts and stretches from the sofa.

You have to move.

But it is once you’re already slim… Getting there is a combination of both for sure but once slim, if you exercise then your metabolism works harder and burns faster therefore you pretty much can eat as you please. I used to be fat, I got slim through calorie control, running and strength workouts. I now eat whatever I like but don’t gain the weight back because I still run and workout most days. So yes, exercise is important if you want to keep it off unless you want to use MFP forever.

Agreed. It helps lower the amount of loose skin too, you become toned and look and feel way better. It really is important to move around.

"Just" 😂

I cam see what your saying and your probably right with some of it. But I don't know where you got i was putting things in the way. Yes I said I don't like going out. Being around people. But that doesn't kean I won't do anything theres things I can do at home. And a few people have suggested things I can do. And pointed out about muscle loss and why my body is how it is. Theres quite a bit I didn't understand before. Ir at least I thought i did but I didn't.

So my focus is now to build up muscle again especially miy core. But other areas to. I'm definitely going to do it. Otherwise its all a waste of time

I hate the word just 🤣

From each time you said you don't like that, wouldn't do that, can't do that.

If that photo is your normal standing position, your posture needs paying attention to. Your hips are tilted back and your tummy is poking forward. Chances are you're a bit flat footed, your feet drop in and your shoes wear on one side of the sole. And you push your head forwards - any neck pain or headaches? Do your arms come forwards and your shoulder blades poke out like wings?

Improving your core strength with tiny exercises, like the plank you say you can't do, with little bursts of leg lifts, of laying on the floor or your bed and stretching your leg out, will help you to learn how to stand upright rather than slumped. Making a point of drawing your shoulders down, your shoulderblades flat (fold those 'wings') and your neck long will help. It'll help teach you to put your hips in the correct angle for your abdominal muscles to work - and it's a lot less effort to move once you are deliberately working to hold healthy posture.

If that's too much to take in, think of depressed and miserable and slumped. Now think of positive and confident and tall. That's the difference.

Exercise absolutely matters. You've got to learn to get into it.

Ah well anyway it doesn't mean I won't do anything it's just i feel i can't in them settings but I am going to do things at home.

I'm not sure what you mean about how I'm standing/flat feet/hips forward i don't know what you mean by shoulder blades sticking out like wings. I don't get neck pain ir headaches my shoes are not worn towards the front I may not he standing naturally because I'm awear I'm taking a photo. Not on purpose thogh.

With the planks i don't think i can lift my own weight i think I have to build up to that. The reason I don't think i can do it is if I lift or push something that is heavy to me my arms give way. So I can't see me doing planks. I will try but I don't see it working i will try though. If not then i csn find other things. But I will need to build muscle in my arms.

I'm not sure about how I'm standing its just one picture that I took myself. If a picture had been taken without me being awear. It may be different.

I can see from it that you are tilting your hips back and up and this makes your tummy stick out more. This affects all of your posture, your upper back, your shoulders, your neck, your head, your legs and your feet.

You don't have to do a full press up to do a plank. You can start by standing up and leaning into the wall and push yourself up straight. You can start on your hands and knees and push up your top half, you can try as though you're getting up from the floor rather than holding yourself exactly straight and level.

You can lift a shopping bag by making sure your back is straight and using your bicep to lift it slightly so you feel it.

You are weak because you have been on a strict diet without regular, small bouts of exercise. The moment you start working those muscles a tiny bit, you'll start getting stronger, stand straighter and feel better.

I've been there in rebuilding fitness and muscle after wastage. In my case it was from hard pregnancies with nausea then SPD which killed my appetite and energy, then ended up being housebound because of pelvic pain. Add in a EMCS and complications in HDU to recover from too.

After the quick birth weight had gone, despite being 2st heavier than usual, by legs were thinner than usual because I'd barely used them for 9+months.

I started with using walking poles to walk 100m x2 to the end of the road and back (and went to bed to recover) and gradually extended a bit more each day. At 6 weeks I could add in post-natal pilates. After 2 months I could walk a couple of miles and could go to a gentle post-natal class. At 5 months I was fit enough to go to a mainstream class. Logistically the best one was a somewhat macho circuits class and it was before the culture of women lifting too had really got going, but with hindsight it was my best fitness move because it introduced me to weights.

I had to repeat the process two years later after another baby.

That time I phased in C25k as I was fed up of huffing and puffing everywhere, and less than 18m after hobbling around on crutches I ran a half marathon. (I loathed running at school, but it's much nicer without a bellowing PE teacher and better scenery than loops of a school field)

With a plan to gradually progress what you do, getting fitter and stronger is absolutely doable.*

It's not easy pushing yourself to do it, but life being unfit and weak isn't easy either. This is why I'm such a strong advocate for exercise and functional fitness. I also want to do my best not to suffer 20+ years of osteoporosis in later life like other generations of my family.

Being strong means little everyday
activities get easier for example instead of having to battle for a busy parking space near the supermarket and rattle the shopping trolley backwards and forwards across the car park, I can be "lazy" pick an easy parking space at the back and shove the food shopping into two IKEA bags, stick one on each shoulder, park the trolley up and do a single carry to the car (and my teenagers get through a lot of heavy cans of rice pudding!)

• You can do this DIY from home, but you will need to do your research on finding a plan to progress you or it's easy to get stuck doing random videos and not progressing. It's also very difficult for checking for good form on your own especially if there are long term weaknesses/ imbalances. This is why PTs, gyms and classes are valuable to novices.

That's way too much exercise no wonder you feel overwhelmed. I follow Caroline Girvan which I'm not recommending as they are probably above your level, however her strength workouts that I do are 30 minutes a day 5 days a week which I do I then do a couple of runs if I can fit it in. Nothing long just 5k which takes me 30 minutes, I'm a slow runner. But you could just walk, start slow and walk 10 minutes then build up. Strength training is your friend here, you will build muscle, speed up your metabolism and set yourself up to be healthy later in life.

If you’ve not got them already, get some RENPHO scales from argos and use them as a rough guide for progress - visceral fat, subcutaneous fat, muscle particularly. Seeing the levels change with regular weighing acts as motivation.

Agree with 10k steps walking and proper heavy weight lifting. Muscle is critical to bone health and going through menopause it’s essential to build and maintain muscle to avoid osteoporosis and broken bones (through falls) and retain functional fitness/mobility/independence into old age.

Have you tried a plank since you lost weight? Don’t try and push up into the plank. I can’t do push-ups but can hold a plank brieflyI find them a lot easier in a full plank with hands on the floor rather than with my forearms on the floor. Maybe look up a how to do a plank video on YouTube as I think you might be imagining they are harder than they really are. Once you know how to hold the position you could aim to hold them for a little longer each day.

Sounds like you built back up really well. And that you feek better for it.

I will be doing it from home i just hate the thought of a class. Maybe in time I will feel different. For now it will be from home. When you say about random videos. Are you staying its better to find a video instructor that I feel is right for me and then stick to their videos?

I'm gonna do pilates at home. I did one for beginners this morning. It was only 15 mins and showed a few different things .there was where you go on your side and circle your leg. One simlar to a sit up. And One where your on your stomach and lift vthe front half of your body. Then a bit where your in your stomach you lift your arms and legs and kind of kick them. And one where you sit and turn top half of your body left and right. That was 15 mins.

I think I may have been doing the leg circles wrong. Because she said you feel it in the hip and core. But I was feeling it in my calf.

I have scales that show fat , muscle and other things. And yes somone else said to use them numbers as motivation.abd try to step away from the weight. I don't know if I fully can i get a bit paranoid. I will try though once I get going I might feel different.

I'm not doing walking at the moment. I don't like the thought of going out walking for 10k and eveb general it bores the crap out of me. But what is the difference between doing 10k walking and 10k on my exercise bike? I'm just trying to think of alternatives.

When you say heavy lifting how heavy di you mean? I thought if I wanted to tone i use weights that are not overly heavy. But heavy if I wanted to bulk out muscle wise? Or is the amount I lift linked to metabolism? The weight I'm using is 0.75kg on each plate. I can feek that on my biceps before I even start. So I was thinking that's ok for now?