to expect weightloss with exercise but no diet?

[HowToLookGoodGlaikit]

I am doing 4/5 hours of exercise a week (cardio/strength at the gym, aerobics).

I dont want to diet I have cut down a bit though.

Is it possible to lose weight this way?

Well going against the grain I do a five kM jog every day and in the past two weeks (only just started) have lost six pounds and two inches of my waist.

Looking it up I burn about 500 kcals a day with my new exercize program everyday I push to my limit and it gets more each day but the weight is dropping off me and I am eating as normal. This is the way I got back to a size 8 after my other two children also gave me a flat stomach. The thing is reducing food intake slows matabolisim but exercize increases it so long term IMO it is better and will help maintain weight loss.

I've lost a lot of weight with lots of exercise/physical activities and no diet, I hate dieting . One time was when I had a physically demanding job in conservation (lifting heavy rocks, logs on daily basis, 8am-4pm). Another time I was training for a show so doing dance and training five days a week. Some summers I do a lot of cycling and running with the kids so I lose a lot of weight then.

So yes, it's perfectly possible, but 4-5 hours pw is quite small compared to the hours that I was doing. I've only ever been able to drop weight that dramatically (two dress sizes) when I've been spending most of my time doing physical activities.

I think you have to eat fewer calories. Don't say diet if the word is a turn-off but just say eat soup twice a week instead of whatever you would usually eat and that would make a difference already

At the end of the day we are all different, what suits one may not suit another.

Personally for me, I really have to cut down on the calories and exercise a lot and then, yes, I lose weight. I know some people that just diet with no exercise and they also lose weight. I was a few stone heavier than I am now 15 years ago and at that time I worked out every day but didnt change my diet and as a result I didnt lose a thing!

If you have a fair bit of weight to lose then exercise is good as well as just dieting as it will tone you up and hopefully prevent the sagging skin that some people can get.

You need to find something that works for you - trial and error till you find something you enjoy and that also gives you the results you want. If you want to lose weight just through exercise you would have to do hours and hours of it.

The research shows that most people don't lose weight through exercise. This is because a) muscle is heavier than fat so they may tone but not lose weight and b) people who start to exercise more usually eat more, either because they are hungry through exercising or they 'treat' themselves more having done their gym sessions.

I'm not saying it's impossible, a couple of people on here have lost weight that way but the key is what they say in their posts, they keep their food the same. This allows a calorie deficit. If you simply start eating more calories in response to your exercise (which most people do), you have gone nowhere weightwise, though you may feel better and look more toned.

That's what the research shows, also few people stick to full-on 5 times a week exercise programmes, although equally few people stick to diets in the longer-term.

Sorry to be depressing, there are lots of good reasons to exercise, and if you hold your portions/calories steady and watch what you eat, then it may work for you, statistics are only about averages and not personal to you.

It depends how much you're eating. Most overweight people would have to do a lot of exercise to lose significant weight without cutting back on the excess food.

I find diet is the most important thing for losing/maintaining weight. I do exercise as well, but that's more for general health and fitness than anything. Maybe I'm lazy but I'd rather just eat a bit less than spend huge amounts of time and energy on exercise - it seems easier all round that way!

4-5 hours sounds quite a lot, especially if it's as part of a generally active lifestyle (lots of walking etc). Make sure you don't fall into the trap of overeating because you think you're 'allowed' to having done some exercise. It's amazing how easy it is to cancel-out the weight-loss effects of a strenuous exercise session!

For me it depends on the type of exercise - and whether it's about losing weight or getting smaller. With doing a bodypump class (weights to music) a couple of times a week and eating exactly the same, I dropped about 1 dress size in about a month and a half. Can't make the gym twice a week at the moment but even with one class a week and eating the same, my clothes are noticeably looser after about 3 months. I don't weigh myself so don't know if my weight has changed, but have definitely toned up. For me aerobic exercise alone doesn't have the same effect (but I still do a bit as I enjoy it and it's healthy...)

If you want quick results - eg 1-2llb loss a week, then probably dieting and exercise together are the answer.

If you would like to shift the weight slowly - say 1-2lb a month then just upping your exercise may be enough.

When I was on crutches for about a month and then couldn't exercise for about five months I put on 4lbs - not through boredom eating - not something I have ever done - but just sitting on my arse so much.

Once I was back to my regular walking/tennis the weight went.

Also my DF lost a stone in a year just by adding a 20 min walk into his routine. When he stopped (began driving to work) he put the stone back on over a year.

Thanks for all the advice. So many differing opinions!

I love the exercise I am doing, so cant see why Id stop. It fits in perfectly with my DS's playschool too.

I have totally stopped drinking diet coke, and go through 2/3 litres of water a day instead.

Im not going to formally diet as such, I am going to keep on with what changes Ive made (lots of soup/eggs/veggies) and cut down on the crap (crisps!). Ive been lucky so far that apart from immeadiately after the workouts, I havent been eating more than usual. I eat a banana after my workout for the hunger pangs i get then.

Hopefully, this will work as I have a lot of weight to lose!

Sounds like a good plan!!

Maybe think about keeping a food diary, an honest one, and then you can work out what foods are good for your weight loss, what does and doesnt work etc etc.

Good luck!

let's put it in perspective - 100 gr of crisps - 600 kcal.
To burn it (just the crisps you just ate, meaning you won't actually lose anything extra) 2 hours of exercise.
What's easier - to skip this bag of crisps or to do work out for 2 hours (and more, if you want to lose)?

Probably won't lose lots of weight but will definitely tone up and look better. Not a bad way to do it to be fair if it stops you obsessing over the scales and encourages you to assess and appraise how you feel about how you actually look rather than how much you weigh.

So yes YA probably being a little U but that's no bad thing IMO.

Exercise creates a virtuous circle in my eating behaviour - knowing I've exercised makes me want to eat more healthily to avoid wasting all my hard work. Also makes me feel all 'my body is a temple' and helps with my will power. And makes me very thirsty so I can get all that water down me no problem.

Exercise also boosts resting metabolic rate as well as burning cals. It's a no brainer as far as I can see.

I'm ramping up the exercise and hammering my diet too just now, as I want to shift my muffin top. If I see great results, I'll relax the diet rules a bit when I find a good maintenance weight.

1 bag of crisps isn't anywhere near 100g though.

I can lose weight through exercise alone, not necessarily exercise exercise either. Just being more active, e.g. I tend to lose weight on holiday because I'm not sat at a desk all day.

Also I'm firmly in the camp that believes it's healthier to be slightly overweight and doing regular exercise than to eat less, weigh less and do no exercise.

I've never dieted. I eat pretty healthily though and don't drink but will eat chocolate if I want to. Or cheese. Or custard.

I have lost weight post dc both times with exercise alone.

Many people overestimate how many calories they are burning through exercise, as been highlighted by the discussion on this thread. You need to be working at really hard intensity to have a high calorie burn - for example running burns about 110 calories a mile at my weight (10 stone 4). If I am slow runner I may only run at 5 miles an hour and that would be 550 calories for a whole hours worth. Now, I run faster than that so I can get a better calorie burn for an hours worth of exercise, but I honestly think some people reckon that 2 miles/25 minutes on a treadmill means they can have a pizza

A combination of cardio efforts and strength work will burn calories and tone muscle. It needs to feel like really hard work though to ensure it is having the best effect.

And yes, weight generally quite slow without changing your eating. Portion control; less processed carbs; more protein.

Show - were you bf too? I didn't diet and the weight came off with exercise alone, but I'm not sure that it would have happened quite as quickly as it did without the bf!

100g would indeed be a lot of crisps. It is quite easy though to eat hundreds of extra calories a day through snacking, and if you're doing that then the easiest way to lose weight is to cut back on the snacks, rather than continuing the habit and hoping to lose the weight through exercise.

Sounds like the OP is doing this anyway though :)

100 gr is not a lot of crisps, big Pringles tube is 190 gr. I could easily finish it.

If you've got a lot to lose then I think you do need to adjust your eating as well (as you're obviously eating too much). 4 to 5 exercise sessions a week actually sounds great but I do think you need to honestly appraise what you're eating too. Simple things like reducing portions, substituting fruit / carrot sticks for snacks and only drinking water can make a good difference for your calorie intake but not your overall level of hunger. I'm doing "healthy eating" myself at the moment without going crazy.

I too could eat a whole tube of pringles but even half a tube is still a lot of crisps. The multi pack crisps I have at work are 25g

A bag of crisps is 34g, so 100g would be three bags of crisps. Thats a lot of crisps to me! I guess it goes back to the portion size thing and knowing what a sensible size is. Things like crisps, pasta etc are easy to have far too much of unless you are really conscious of what you should be eating.

Yes I could probably eat the whole tube of Pringles (have done some serious binge eating in my time!). That doesn't mean it isn't a lot though :)

Anyone who ate that sort of snack on a regular basis would probably be better trying to kick that habit if they wanted to lose weight, rather than trying to work it off with hours in the gym every day!

I do agree that eating little, being thin, and doing no exercise isn't the most healthy lifestyle, there's more to health than weight. But for weight-loss in itself, my experience is that diet adjustments work better for most people. Exercise is important for overall health, of course. And best of all is if you do both (as the OP is).

Most people eat a packet of crisps at a time, 33g or whatever.

The packet of quavers I'm going to have with my sarnie says 88 calories on the front.