To think I can lose weight exercising 5 x per week?

[SwimmingOnEggshells]

I fucking hate to diet. I'm short (5'0) so any of those apps tell me I need to eat 1200 a day which leaves me starving and I end up bingeing.

So I've started spinning at home 5 times a week for 35-45 minutes, high intensity and I'm a sweaty mess after.

Please tell me that by eating a normal, healthy diet with no major blips/binges AND exercising at this level of intensity will make me lose weight??

I want to hear your stories!

@minipie My diet is ok at the moment, but it was bad during lockdown. I was drinking a fair bit and then snacking on crackers and hummous and then we had loads of bbqs too. I've also been guilty of eating my kids leftovers and big big plates of pasta!

Right now it's very good. I mostly have a skimmed cappucino for breakfast, sandwich at lunch and then a very normal, homecooked meal in the evening. I'm not drinking mid-week and I'm not snacking after the kids go to bed.

I'm hesitant to calorie count because I find I get obsessive but maybe I need to face facts and use Myfitnesspal again :( I hate it though! I was hoping my healthy/normal eating PLUS a lot of exercise would do it for me. I suppose it's early days so I'll keep at this for a bit and see how I get on.

Well then you have reduced calories compared to what put the weight on, so that should work?

80\5 diet, 20% exercise.

Sorry!!

80%!! FFS

Have you ever tried black coffee OP?

I'd find it difficult to miss out my morning coffee, but the milk would raise my sugar a bit (and trigger hunger). I always drank milky coffee and couldn't see the appeal of black coffee, however I learnt to drink black coffee about 2 years ago and now I can't imagine wanting milk.

I really look forward to nice coffee in the morning.

I like milk in tea but that's a post-noon drink for me, and again in really look forward to it and savour it.

You cannot out run a bad diet alas. But I have found you can out run a "normal" diet. If I need to lose a bit of weight I find upping my activity level and cutting crap does the half the job. (Obviously individual dependant.) No snacks, no wine, reduce the amount of pasta I inhale etc. And take a good walk or cycle ride 3x a week (on top of normal exersize) will knock off the best part of a stone in two months. :)

I tend to find that is more sustainable for me than knocking off a whole food group, restricting calories or doing intense exersize that I just dont enjoy.

If your moving more than usual you should loose weight, if you can cut out something from your diet also like alchol or sugar in your drinks too this will also help

I’m the same height as you OP and am working towards losing about 13lbs. I’m 42 years old. I’m using MFP to track what I eat and aim for 1500 calories per day. I have gone over this once a week where I’ve been out for dinner. Using MFP, doing 3 full body weight based sessions a week at the gym and walking at least 10k steps each day has seen me lose 1lb a week since the start of this month.

I’ve tried sticking to lower calorie allowances before and I’ve found it unsustainable. At the same time without using MFP, I usually underestimate how much I consume.

I never lose weight through exercise. I ran 100km in the first 10 days of lock down and lost not a single pound (eating normally, I am veggie, don't drink anything other than water and don't consume refined sugar). I run, cycle, workout hard every day, climb, walk, lift weighs etc. If I don't watch my diet, I gain. If I want to lose, I need to consume 1200 calories a day.

I'm short and 39 too!

Exercise keeps me fit and healthy but it only maintains my weight.

Exercising works for me. I hate diets so I don’t do them, and I’m not sure how much I weigh, but I like feeling strong after exercise and I like feeling properly hungry at the end of the day. Proper, could eat a scabby horse hungry that only comes from exercise and being outdoors. It’s good now it’s getting colder because you have the extra burn from being cold outside and the freshness that comes with that. It’s the opposite way round for me, I can’t inhale food fast enough to fuel sustained periods of 25000 steps a day.

And I’m not 21.

I maybe wouldn't start calorie counting if you don't really need to OP.

I bet that if you started fasting a little bit and increase it gradually, and ditched carbs except for with one meal, you'd find the inches disappearing. I'd also expected your appetite would start correcting itself and you would find smaller portions satisfying.

I would treat the first few weeks as practice rather than having 'started', as making little changes and building on them is far more likely to be sustainable. Your body needs time to adapt to burning fat more readily, your gut biome needs time to adjust to different balance of foods.

I'd avoid weighing yourself for the same reason, it gets a bit addictive and if you don't see constant progress it can feel hard to maintain the motivation.

If you have a good diet you can both maintain a calorie deficit and not be hungry. A lot of hunger is also caused by a ‘crash’ after eating too much sugar/carbs.

Exercise is important, but it plays a small role in weight loss. Muscle mass however can play a part, the more muscle you have the more calories you need. So when you have reduced your body fat you cab build and maintain muscle, this allows a small calorie increase.

I’ve been circuit training 4x a week and eating 1000-1200 cals/day for a month now.

I have lost 1lb....

Everyone keeps saying that you can't outrun a bad diet (which is true) but it sounds like you've got a pretty good diet, and you're hoping that working out will create the deficit.

Personally I have to work out if I want to lose weight - I really believe that different bodies require different treatment in order to achieve similar things.

I would be genuinely shocked if you didn't shift some weight by eating 1600-ish a day and working out three or four times a week. That said, there are workouts and workouts - going to a pilates class isn't the same as going to F45.

I think the focus on weight is the problem.

If you lose no weight but convert fat into muscle, you will be healthier, regardless of what your BMI says.

If you are active and eating a healthy varied diet (consisting primarily of real unprocessed food) then I wouldn’t worry about the scales.

You might find that you don't lose weight, but instead replace some fat with muscle. If you exercise at the right times (about an hour before you are due to eat), then drink after exercise, then you may eat less too.

All that exercise is great for you, so well done! But hard to lose weight with exercise alone.

Look, maybe... but probably not. The issue is a lot of non-athletic, non-healthy people think "a lot of exercise" is a brief walk in the park, and "a healthy diet" is about 2500 cals of snacks and wine.

If you were to genuinely commit to 600-800 calories of exercise, and eat 2000 cals a day, you'd be on 1300-1400 and you'd lose weight. You could do 500 cals of exercise and eat 2000, totalling 1500 a day.

But people just don't. They burn 200 cals on a brief walk and eat 3000.

OK, you're doing 45mins of spin a day. That's fair. Wear a heart-rate tracker and see how much that's burning.

Then, what do you eat? A "normal" bowl of porridge could be 700 cals if you make too much. A "normal" sandwich could be 600 if it's overloaded with cheese and mayo. Your "normal" dinner could be 500 cals of rice alone.

So, you really will need to keep an eye on the food and weigh it, so you're not undoing all your hard work daily. I do a lot of strength training, started competing before Covid, more than happy with my figure and keen to keep food in balance so I can gain or lose as I want to, and I still keep an eye on the food and calorie intake. It's very easy to binge away benefits.

(ffs people stop telling her she'll 'be building muscle' on a bloody spin bike. You build muscle with a calorific surplus, which she is trying not to eat, and she's not taxing the muscle with resistance. She'd have to strength train to build muscle. Give over with the fairy tale that 'the scales just show you're gaining muscle' when all the scale shows is how many biscuits you've been having.)

In theory it should work, if you're burning enough calories.

Eating the right amount of calories to stay a healthy weight is
not dieting
its
eating the right amount for your body

If you have time watch www.channel4.com/programmes/lose-a-stone-in-21-days-with-michael-mosley

people who took up this challenge share what and how they had to change to lose weight post lockdown

I think also it is hard to do it on your own, unless you are very disciplined person.

Definitely what you eat 80% but don't give up sport as you will build more muscle. A low carb diet will fill you up more than empty sugar carbs. Fasting is good too. I run over 60 miles a week and can still put on weight, if I want to drop a couple of kgs I cut down on food quantity and fast.

Now I’m in my 30s I’m amazed at how fast I can put on weight. Keep doing the exercise, it’s great for you.

I'm ten years older than you @SwimmingOnEggshells and I can tell you it doesn't get any easier I used to cross trainer for 45 mins daily, I started in early January. It was APRIL before I saw any discernible weight loss...

Exercise is great but diet makes more difference.

80% diet 20% exercise is the official line.

I actually think diet is plus 90% and exercise is less than 10% unfortunately.

You can exercise all day but you literally are what you eat.

2020 lockdown has a lot to answer for

I spent 2 months with a personal trainer designed plan 4/5 days a week in the gym (2 days on 1 day off, repeat) each session was 2 hours of exercise. cardio, strength, core followed by 30minutes of swimming. 2 months, gained a pound.

About 3 months later I broke my foot so could do zero exercise. I cut out sugar and carbs and lost over 2st in 3 months. Went from nearly obese to healthy weight. Size 16-12.

I ran/walked 10k per day throughout September for charity and didn’t lose a pound. Planning on exercising a bit less in October to try and lose some weight!