Honestly, who can lose through exercise alone!

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Started the gym back in August, I go 5-6 times a week, 30 mins cardio and 20 mins strength training on various resistance machines.

Not changed my eating habits except very slight reductions in snacking.

I've significantly changed shape. All my clothes are lose. It's always been this way for me - I lose weight through exercise as I cannot bear the hunger and misery of diets.

Surely if I keep upping my exercise load, I'll keep shrinking? Is anyone else like this or am I deluding myself?

Haven't weighed myself as I don't allow scales in house due to having teen girls. But clothes certainly looser

I sadly don't lose weight through exercise alone. I can go to the gym 3 times a week and do 3 runs and not lose anything. My body does change shape though. I've had to cut my exercise down recently due to change in childcare arrangements so have been calorie counting quite strictly and I've finally been able to lose some weight.

I'm no expert in this, but DH can always lose weight from exercise alone, and I never can. I think it really depends on your metabolism.

I started the gym beginning of September as slimming world just wasn’t working for me anymore. I’ve lost a couple of pounds since starting but lost loads of inches! Clothes looser, jeans falling down whereas before they were a struggle to do up. Mentally it was hard to accept the scales not moving but I’m used to it now. I’m happy with inch loss for as long as it continues. I still keep my scales to make sure I’m not gaining weight.

Kind of, I can lose weight very easily by just upping my exercise if I continue to eat the same but it’s easy to think you can eat more because you’re exercising which doesn’t work for obvious reasons?

Why not weight yourself in the gym then you'll know if you're deluding yourself!

I think people confuse "going to the gym / going jogging / going swimming 3 times a week" with the long term commited and dedicated training regime needed to be involved in competitive sport. Both are "exercise" but they are not the same.

The daily training regime that even a pretty average club swimmer / runner does would be way beyond the abilities of most people. That sort of exercise most definitely makes you loose weight, but an average person is simply not capable of expending that much energy through exercise. If they tried they would almost certainly injure themselves within a few days.

The mechanics of this are that each pound of fat provides 3,500 calories. That's the same if you are eating it or using it from storage. Look up the calories needed to walk a mile, run, skip or whatever and you will see that you need to move a tremendous amount to lose 1 pound never mind a stone or whatever. What exercise does do is build more muscle which is why body shape changes. Muscle weighs heavier than fat, which is why scales are useless indicators

I run 4/5 times a week 4 or 5 miles a time, and I still have to quite closely monitor what I eat if I want to lose weight. I can maintain weight if I eat a little more often, but I can't go mad.

I'm 63 though and post meno, which makes a difference. My calorie requirements seem to have dropped to near nil, despite having a busy job and doing the running, so I can only eat one fairly small meal a day if I want to lose weight. If I run too, I can eat one slightly bigger meal.

Sigh. Ageing is no fun.

Yes, me. I've never dieted, I eat like a horse and it would make me totally miserable. But if I do plenty of CV (mainly running at the moment) I can eat whatever I want.
Actually I don't know if I genuinely lose weight as I don't weigh myself, but I can quite easily drop a dress size in a few weeks by upping the exercise. I'm mid-40s so probably won't get away with it forever.

I think the other side of the coin is that people vastly underestimate the number of calories in things like chocolate biscuits, cakes, alcoholic drinks....

Yes, when I was running 20kms three times a week, I would loose weight.

Yes, through cycling. However that is about 15h per week of pretty serious structured cycling plus strength and conditioning. A week or two away training eating enough actually becomes a chore and is bloody hard to do!

As a previous poster said, it would be far too much for someone just getting started to do and wouldn't work.

I do think there is something though in exercise making you feel better and want to nourish your body with good food rather than junk. And it also relieves boredom eating as you are actually doing something durning that time.

Interesting range of responses, thanks! I think the reality is I have changed shape due to toning up but I probably need to cut some calories to push weight off. But hopefully it's more like 200-300 rather than 600-700 per day thanks to the exercise.

I'm 43 so have gone all in on the exercise to kick start my metabolism. Back to stupid Huel for lunch,

Definitely not through exercise alone - though I did up the exercise and lose weight when I was in my late teens, but I suspect there was a food element also even though I wasn't following a specific diet. I can distinctly remember choosing not to have a Mars bar after my aerobics class as I'd had the previous time, and not wanting to undo my good work. And also having lasagne and salad instead of lasagne and chips in the college canteen!

I think what you are doing is great, OP - maybe weigh yourself at the gym in the same clothes at the same time of day if you can't have scales in the house. Though it's a very good idea not to weigh yourself when you up the exercise as you will almost certainly gain weight to begin with.

I went to the gym regularly for ten months and built a sustainable exercise routine before focusing on diet and didn't weigh myself in that time. I think when you do that and you become fit it makes you not want to spoil your efforts in the gym with eating too much so then sorting out your diet is an easier thing to tackle than otherwise, as the motivation is higher.

I've now lost just over a stone in two months by eating variable calories/5:2 and 16 8 and logging everything on Nutracheck. I have a stone and a bit to get to goal and BMI 24.

Whatever you do should be sustainable long term as maintenance will be basically what you are doing to lose weight with a few tweaks. If you just go "back to normal" the weight will go back on. It seems obvious but I've been yoyoing about like that for nearly 20 years now! The difference now is that I sorted out my hormones (needed oestrogen) which meant I can exercise more without being exhausted and ill, and got fitter first, and hopefully there will not be any big lifestyle changes coming up which mean I can't continue.

I could when I was in my 20s and training about 12 hours a week for rowing. I probably can now in my 40s, just don't have the time or energy to do so as a mother who works 45 hours a week outside

Yes you can lose some but I imagine you would hit a point where your TDEE has changed and you need to adjust your diet to keep losing. I am at this stage now. Easily lost weight by eating less and working out more for 6 months. Now stuck at one weight for 6 weeks! My shape is different though

What do you mean deluding yourself? You're doing the exact basics of fat loss and muscle gain consistently - strength plus cardio exercise regularly - and doing it well.

That just means you burn way more incoming calories than you store as fat and your metabolism is subsequently increasing. You can't avoid getting in great shape if you continue being consistent.

I'm a PT and I never calorie count, weigh myself or diet, and that's because the science tells a pretty clear picture. It's the diet industry that makes people diet.

I have been running 3k or 5k every second day for almost a month. I eat two three times a day. No snacking but no calorie counting. I have lost 2kg. I am not doing this only to loose weight but I am going to a long hike and I have to get fit. This is sort of experiment how much I can loose without calorie counting. I can't manage calories counting in long term.