Will exercise alone shift some weight?

[clemettethedropout]

Pre children I was one of those irritating people who could eat what they like and remain a size 8/10. I now have two children (5 and 2) and my weight is creeping up. I am now a size 14 and have a stomach that looks six months pregnant.
I eat quite healthily, though I have a taste for Dr Pepper and have a good appetite. I don't really want to go on a diet but will exercise alone help me lose some weight. At the moment I don't exercise beyond walking, and I don't do much of that. Would a couple of sessions a week on the Wii Fit or similar make a difference?

a little but not much. Try cutting out the Dr Pepper....

Exercise will turn the fat to muscle which will allow you to eat more and weigh less. Gentle exercise will not however shift a lot of pounds. You need to burn 3500 calories to burn one pound of fat. But if you gain a pound of muscles it burns a third more calories than a pound of fat to move around. So stop thinking pounds and think leaner.

And quit the bloody Dr Pepper, it's gross and not good for your teeth or your weight.

Personally I think reducing the amount you eat is the most effective method. Exercising wont hurt..but if you did BOTH you would be guaranteed results

How about combining exercise with food journalling? Something like foodfocus.co.uk is free and helps you keep track of what you're eating and how many calories you're burning through exercise. The good thing is, it doesn't tell you what to eat, but I find just the act of logging it makes me think more carefully about what I eat and whether it's really worth it.

you can not ever make fat turn into muscle - sorry but if you take a pound of fat and do whatever with it - it will never turn into muscle.

You can though inrease your muscle size and reduce your fat intake which will help you to lose the fat inside your body - muscle is supposedly supposed to use more energy than fat does - so increasing your muscle size will help you to stay slimmer. To oncrease your muscles you would be looking at doing something in the way of kettle bells or a body pump class - actually moving weights of some kind.

make sure you eat a sensible diet - lots of fresh food and water to drink - not fizzy drinks or cordial, plenty of vegtables and a few helpings of fruit.

Wii fit won't help but proper exercise will time you up and make you look slimmer even if no lighter buy really eating less carbs and cutting the pop out will make bigger difference

Tone you up

But

Damn this phone

I lost nearly a stone of post pregnancy weight walking two miles FAST five days a week pushing a buggy and eating 'sensibly' (ie cutting down on biscuits/crisps/sugary drinks/carbs at dinner - basically just thinking about it). It was very easy really

Thanks for your input. I do eat mostly sensibly - the Dr Pepper is my only "vice" and not one I want to give up. Water makes me retch. I don't want to be thinking about what I eat beyond whether I have had my five a day, which I do. I am still at the stage where I would rather be a bit bigger but have a relaxed attitude to food.
However, light exercise will probably make me feel a bit better - I was just wondering if it would make me a bit lighter, but it seems probably not.

I think the idea of food and exercise is 80% food 20% exercise.

do aerobic exercise first so increase your walking a bit and then after a few weeks, start to do high reps, low weights......unless you want to look like a body builder.

Oh - so I can't just do a bit of Just Dance on the Wii or something fun? Don't want to do reps or weights at all!
(am aware that I am sounding petulant, but I am only going to be able to motivate myself to do anything if it is actually fun!)

through exercise alone i have lost a poxy 2kg. i feel better though!

ive got about another 10lb to go so think ill have to diet too.

Ooh vicar, what have you been doing (hoping it doesn't involve going near a gym...)?

My friend started doing the jogging thing on Wii (she'd not long had her baby daughter) and now, she's doing about 7 miles every time she goes jogging. She said it did make a difference in that it got her used to exercise again and built up her fitness before the real thing.

There are plenty of research papers that say that you can do it with exercise alone, provided you don't go and hit the beer and mars bars regularly either ;-)

The basic principle is input being less than output so the energy that you use has to be greater than the energy that you take in through food. I think about 15-20 mins a day would be realistic, rather than a couple of times a week.

I wish I could find the link but I'm sure I read recently that, particularly for women, exercise alone was not as effective for weight loss as managing your diet as well - for one thing, exercise makes you hungrier!

However, I think it said that exercise was vital for maintaining the correct weight once you had lost it.

Will look for the link again.

I lost a stone cuttingback on food

have kept it off

still exercised throughout but eating changes made the most difference

I havent eaten a sandwich in 6 months!

Hmm. Even thinking about cutting down has made me eat more.
Need to find some motivation...
Thanks for taking the time to reply everyone.