To think that you CAN out exercise a poor diet?

[SallyAnne89]

I'm basically food bank poor right now. I'm getting back into exercising anyway. AIBU to think that even though I can't afford to change my diet i can still lose weight through exercise?

I'm currently maintaining so roughly calories in = calories out and should be burning 200-400calories a day once back into it. Exercise is free but healthy food isn't, so I can't think of an alternative right now. I do my best, so chose baked potato over bread that kind of thing, but can't drastically change my diet right now.

@Moneyplants

I have read good things about intermittent fasting, but I already do the 16:8 most days and the 5:2 most weeks (more than that when it's the week before pay day). And my weight is staying neutral.

I am going to exercise anyway because it helps my mental health/ stress/ sleep and I enjoy it but ideally I would love to lose some weight and get healthier too. I miss eating clean and going to the gym, but I'm just not in that place right now.

It never makes sense to me how being poor makes lots of people fat but others really thin. It seems like the maths is off. I think stress just makes my body hoard everything.

Not dieting related, but good food on a tight budget - might be worth checking out Jack Munro - cookingonabootstrap.com/....love the backstory here too.

@SynchroSwimmer

I do quite a few of her recipes already and do find them helpful . Thanks though

Yes of course you can. When I was 21 and doing 2-4 hours hard training a day (usually minimum 2 hours on the water rowing, other days adding in running or circuits too) I had to eat 5 'meals' a day just to maintain my weight, and one of those meals was a giant Mars Bar. My BMI was 22.

Things conspire though: I'm 30 years older and now if I tried to train 2-4 hours a day it would take a long time to reach a point where I was fit enough not to be injured by that level of work, and not go to bed for 3 hours after a rowing outing . I've also got to do annoying things like earn a living and sling food at my child occasionally. So it is much more difficult to live an actual life and outrun a bad diet.

I dont think its possible, sorry! After my second pregnancy i had 10kg left that i couldnt shake due to unhealthy eating and no exercise. I started exercising like crazy and felt a lot better. I looked better too and my clothes felt less tight, because everything was less 'flabby', but i stayed at the same weight. I gave up the exercise after 6 months or so due to a stressful time and i definitely noticed a difference in the mirror. I looked 'fatter' but on the scales the weight was the same. It wasnt until i went on a strict diet that the kilos actually started dropping.

@TemporaryPermanent

I think I lived off vodka, pot noodles, aspirin and cigarettes at 21 honestly. I was a size 6 and don't remember eating very often. I think I'm paying for it now

@Jeleste

I wish it was only 10kg for me! I'm 6 stone up from when I had my first child

6 and a half stone actually. I ditched the booze and cigarettes, though, so I guess that's something

I definitely out trained an awful diet when I was training for a cross channel swim. But I was swimming for 20 hrs a week, 6-8 hrs of it in water temperatures of 12-16 degrees.

I lived on fast food, carbs and sweets and was still losing weight when I was trying to gain to cope with the cold.

That’s a pretty niche example though.

If you are already doing intermittent fasting that is good as i think it will help with health benefits if you are not losing weight on it why not look on the 5:2 thread on here they will give you good advice on tweaking things so you start to lose.

About 10 years ago I lost quite a lot of weight with a not great diet and loads of exercise.
My diet wasnt bad, I didnt eat fast food, takeaways, fried stuff, very very little pasta and rice, a bit more bread, but it wasnt great either - not enough veg, a lot of fruit, chicken, tuna, eggs, cereals, soups
And the exercise was at a level which most people can't do, including myself now, because I have a child now and didnt then.
I don't drive so walked a mile to work and back, 4 nights a week I walked another mile to the gym and did an hour weights class followed by an hour cardio, and a mile walk home. At the weekends I probably walked 4 or 5 miles just going about my business, I'd go to the gym at least one day over the weekend ( and often both days) for at least an hour, if not 2, so between 8 and 12 hours a week in the gym and at least 90 minutes a day walking. I didnt actually have time to eat that much or was just too shattered to bother. So not the healthiest way to go about it, and not really practical for most.

Ditching the booze is quite a major calorie reducer. Hope that works for you - impressive.

I always feel that an hour exercising is an hour you're not eating.

I do myfitnesspal which is very generous about allowing calories for exercise, but I ended up just having to stop eating them - it just doesn't work at this level - I can eat only about 10% of what they allow for exercise and still lose weight. Calories in, calories out does work. Optimum health is all very well but good enough is good enough. A jacket potato with baked beans is a perfectly good meal IMO.

I'm getting back into exercising anyway. AIBU to think that even though I can't afford to change my diet i can still lose weight through exercise?

Weight loss is 80 % diet.
It doesn’t matter what you eat (weight wise) it is the amount of total calories you consume.

I used to exercise 6 X a week, running, yoga, weights UNTIL I was struck down and unable to get off the sofa. M.E, fibromyalgia, thyroid issue. All resulted in a nearly 2 stone weight gain.

By religiously logging everything I eat in MyFitnessPal, after working out my TDEE, I have WITHOUT ANY EXERCISE AT ALL, been able to lose 2 stone so that I weigh less now than I did before when I was super fit and healthy (ha!) by the way 2000 cals per day for a lot of woman is a rubbish and excessive target.

Obviously a healthy diet is best for overall health, but weight wise it is total calories eaten not what you are actually eating. If you already follow bootstraps on a budget and are eating as healthy as possible given your budget then it’s portion sizes and total calories I’m afraid.

Work out your tdee and go from there

tdeecalculator.net

i can out exercise a crappy diet, however i was going to a zumba class 3 times a week and the gym 4 - eating not too bad during the week i could eat as much crap and drink as i wanted at the weekend and still would lose 1lb
i put it back on as i got too complacent and the exercise slowed down

Usually you can’t put exercise a poor diet due to amount of calories being consumed. But I think you’ll be fine, from what you’ve said it doesn’t sound like you’re eating crisps/sweets/chocolates etc. You’re eating ‘meals’ so yes would be good to cut out some of the processed meat but again, you’ve not the money to overeat this so just keep the calories down and don’t snack. See how you get on. good luck!

Although you may feel the quality of your food is poor it doesn’t seem like you’re eating excessively. I think people usually mean excessive “treat foods” when they use this saying.

You can eat healthy frozen, I'd ignore Jack monroe she's jumps every bandwagon going.

You can but don't expect to look great at the end of it (skinny fat). You will also probably be more lethargic, lose muscle and not be able to workout as efficiently, which will make exercising for the calorie deficit harder.

Of course you can. It's only relatively recently that people have become both more sedentary and obsessed with healthy eating. For most of our history, we consumed lots of (unprocessed) stodge. And even on a low income it's not difficult to include enough nutrients to avoid deficiencies that would cause a problem.

Look at the average size of people in the 30's, or even during rationing when there was loads of stodgy food. They're a lot thinner than the average person now fretting about white carbs.

The only complication is how much you exercise. If 30 minutes a day at a gym is what you class as lots of exercise, then no, it won't work.

My own diet is lots of white carbs, cheese, full fat everything etc. I have neither the time or the inclination to eat some nasty wholesome cereal with yoghurt and blueberries for breakfast and then snack on dried fruit and other shite before steamed veg and fish for lunch. Toast/ crumpets and sandwiches for lunch, with a banana if I need a snack. But I'm very active, and much as my diet might horrify many, I'm equally shocked by what most people class as exercise.

I'm equally shocked by what most people class as exercise

I agree Trainspotting the amount of exercise most of us needs to do is much more than we think. I do 5 x gym sessions per week burning 1000+ calories each time and although I watch what I eat, I'm not as thin as a pin!

I read people in here happy that they're getting exercise as they're walking X steps per day but we should all be doing this anyway! We need to be doing hard, strenuous exercise that gets us out if breath not casually walking the dog as one if my friends thinks...

You can't, in the sense that there aren't enough hours in the day to "exercise off" 30 Mars bars, especially factoring in sleeping and working time.

But you can lose weight on any diet by eating less of whatever you are currently eating. You don't need some special Healthy Food (tm). In your case, a slightly smaller serving of pasta/meat/beans, less cheese in omelette and one slice of bread instead of two, would be a great start.

I can out-run a pack of mince pies, but it takes me 13.1 miles and about 2:15 hrs. My pb for a pack of mince pies is about 15 mins. It's a cruel world

Exercise is well worth doing for its own benefits of feeling good and encouraging a healthy, strong body. Brisk walking and youtube videos/ free apps are probably the cheapest ways to make a difference. Running is deceptive if the milage goes up and you find yourself needing to invest in trainers.

It's easy to get suckered into thinking that healthy food is fresh and from scratch, it doesn't have to be. Cheaper options of tinned/ frozen/ dried foods are still good additions to a diet. Don't underestimate the benefits of foods like the humble baked bean just because it's in a tin. I'm not going to pretend that tinned fruit is identical to its fresh counterpart, but it still has fibre, some vitamin content and is guarenteed to be edible and not go to waste.

As long as you throw in lots of frozen veggies then you'll be fine for a while. They retain most of their nutrients after freezing despite common myths

@MrsJBaptiste I walk about 10,000 steps a day that's all it takes for me to be slim and eat what I want (within reason!), I don't enjoy any other kind of exercise so have never done it (regularly) I go for a 15 min walk mid morning and mid pm on top of my usual steps, though I have a sedentary office job. I try to walk as much as I can like taking the kids to school. That enables me to burn about 2100 calories which is more than enough if I'm trying to maintain or even lose weight (though I do limit calories if trying to drop a couple pounds). I lost 20lb 2 years ago doing just that while limiting calories to 1200, and have generally maintained it (putting on a few lbs now and then, then losing again).

It was HUGELY enlightening to me that I could lose weight without "working out", it made it less daunting, achievable and most importantly for me- maintainable.

But yes I could eat more if I exercised more, but I'm happy with the balance I have, I don't go without and I do drag myself to do something I don't enjoy (I really wish I enjoyed it!)