Good realistic advice for new starters

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Happy to share mine with anyone looking to start? I am 9 months into a lifestyle overhaul and have lost 3st. I still need to lose some weight so I am continuing on.

I think the new year can bring a lot of pressure on people to lose weight and rush into mad diets with crazy exercise regimes. I was one of them and would feel frustrated and disappointed in not losing weight fast enough. Exercise is not going to make you lose weight, changing your diet does, but exercise is good for you in lots of other ways.

-Firstly do not hurt yourself, if you have health conditions get proper advice from a professional before doing anything
-Don’t let Social media fitness influencers get to you (or sell you crap) a lot of what you see either is not real or is athlete level and you need to be realistic about what your level of fitness is, so take it slow and realistic and research whether it’s suitable before paying loads of money for it
-Don’t go crazy eating mad low calories a day, or cutting out foods without doing proper research. Women need to protect their bone density and muscles so you need certain nutrients and food groups so think about the long term and not just a goal of getting weight off.
-Weight loss is not linear and is frustratingly slow. You will lose more to begin with but will naturally stall and have gains and fluctuations. You aren’t failing if you don’t lose any weight for a couple of weeks or have a bad day eating something off your plan
-Plan ahead! Don’t let yourself get too hungry, miserable and stressed out

Good luck to everyone starting out or carrying on

Exercise is not going to make you lose weight

I disagree with this, it worked for me.

Weight loss is not linear and is frustratingly slow.

I also disagree with this, I've not found it particularly slow.

I think the thing is that other people might not have the same experience as you.

Weight loss is hard sometimes, I did not have linear progress and my weight fluctuates depending upon stress etc. I would say the majority do not have linear progress unless they refuse social events and never ever overeat.

Exercise alone may or may not help. Clearly it worked for the previous poster. .

Two years ago I lost 4.5 stones. Owing to binge eating disorder (a serious MH issue) I spent the last 12 months regaining most of it.

Now in therapy again and following a 14/10 intermittent fasting program. Early days so will report back how it goes.

I have plans though. I'm 58 and in the fortunate position of being able to retire although I will still work 2-3 days a week. The other days will be focused upon me.

Totally agree that this time of year is when people make huge changes and it puts them under a lot of pressure to succeed.

Ok let’s say for most people this is the case with some exceptions and based on so so many of the posts I’ve seen on here in months

but great input thanks super informative 😂😂

the point of this post was to be supportive and tell people not to worry about having an idealistic view. There is nothing worse for your self esteem than seeing someone breeze through weight loss whilst you struggle. And those who don’t struggle are far less likely to post here than those who do

Well, I posted it because I'm tired of seeing it repeated to death on here that exercise doesn't matter when I think- I'm sorry- that this is fat people's thinking. It's an excuse, and people love to hear it and repeat it because it lets them off the hook when it comes to exercise.

Keeping going and keeping focus - any tips for that?

It’s been scientifically proven not to be a main factor. A few days ago I watched a great YouTube video by Dr Chris Van Tullekan on UPF which spoke about this and there is a lot of research out there about this. Exercise is so good for your joints mobility and mental health but they have not been able to prove that it is a sole contributing factor to weight loss without changing your diet at the same time. You can’t exercise out of a poor diet to lose weight.

but great input thanks super informative 😂😂

Likewise, I don't find your sarcasm helpful. I just pointed out that something you posted may not, in fact, be true.

I do agree with you that people who are struggling are more likely to post here, often repeating the same point about exercise as you. If you pay attention to the people who have succeeded in losing, they often say that exercise was very important. That's how my post was informative.

@stealtheatingtunnocks the long game. Looking ahead I think. Not day to day or week to week weight loss, it’s small little goals. You can look back on how far you have come but don’t look at others to compare yourself.

@waistchallenge you did not say that and I never discounted exercise, it’s good for you but if I eat 3000+ calories of sugary foods every day I can’t exercise my way into a weight loss from that. Exercise is not its own weight loss tool. It’s a tool for improving your physical health, mobility and muscles etc. not everyone can exercise the same as everyone else either, perhaps due to their physical abilities so it’s misleading for people to think they can’t lose weight unless they exercise, they can.

Yes, I agree with you. But I think it can help if you do it as well as cutting out the sugar.

Of course you can’t out run or out exercise a bad diet! But when I’ve done eg 30 minutes of walking so I’m slightly out of breath, cardio, whatever works, then this as well as with diet makes a difference to losing weight and toning up.

A friend of mine who loves her food but is also a yoga and gym fanatic lost her covid weight she put on (dropped a dress size). Other friends have toned up significantly doing gym workouts, iron man challenges (with decent diet programme in there too). Again have seen with covid and not bring able to go to gym and then after when they do, you see the difference. I’m not a gym bunny so that’ll never work for me!

Exercise is really important for health. Weight bearing exercise is very beneficial for women for bone density. Will exercising help you lose weight? For many people it will make little difference and that's not a fat person's excuse.

my post had helpful advice about how it’s good for you but it’s common misconception it’s a ‘fat persons excuse’ when being very large or having a health condition can hamper, hinder and injure you to over do it and try become someone you naturally are not and most likely fail.

a lot of exercise is a skill you have to get good at, there are so many financial and social issues with the advertisement of exercise for weight loss - you can just walk more, if that’s what you are able to do, just move around more. If you don’t want to join a gym that’s ok you can still lose weight. I lost most of mine with no exercise I am only just getting into exercise for other benefits now. It wasn’t the pivotal part of my weight loss process.

@Gonnagetgoingreturnsagain toning up is not weight loss. if you have significant weight to lose like I have got nearly 5 stone it’s not the same at all. If I have one stone to lose then toning up is going to work more to drop the dress size but not like, 4 dress sizes? Obese people can often feel intimated and overwhelmed by the pressure to be a ‘gym bunny’ it’s not for everyone

You should exercise for your heart health and mobility but walking more is fine if that’s what you can manage or afford and don’t feel like you are less than anyone else as you don’t go to body pump

That’s not quite what I meant though. You can lose weight with a combination of diet and exercise. I’ve seen it and done it. Of course I know toning up isn’t weight loss but it can help if you tone up as clothes and your body can look better undressed and in clothes.

I’m sort of joining this thread but also agreeing with @waistchallenge and others.

I get slightly frustrated with a close friend of mine because I feel like deep down from what she says she’s comfier at a size 18 or even heavier. She’ll often say she’s more her DF’s build (who wasn’t a size 18!) rather than her DM’s build which is under 5ft tall and a size 6-8.

Then there are the excuses as to how/why she can’t exercise (apart from a 1-1 Pilates session and then her doing this every day).

The spirit of this thread is now just bumming out people for making excuses not to do (unspecified) toning exercises to look good in clothes and slagging off your fat friends and fat people making fat thinking excuses?

As this has been completely lost on both of you let’s just let the thread die on it’s own

I hope to god neither of you are in a profession giving this kind of advice to anyone who might be feeling vulnerable and needing gentle support to get going

I agree with those saying you can’t out run a bad diet and food is 90% of the issue. I will say though that a brisk 1 hour walk curbs my appetite. Doing more strenuous exercise makes me hungry but simple walking or being busy doing jobs means I eat less. If you can’t exercise you can still lose weight but it is helpful in so many ways.

Thankyou for your advice and tips.
I thought your thread was very helpful and motivating.
I totally get why you were giving the advice you gave and it has certainly inspired me.
Sorry some posters were negative although they will say they were just putting their views/opinions across but it's how you do that.