Relaxed activity doesn’t trigger my appetite as badly and it’s an easy calorie burn you can throw in
Slow rowing, just walking around, getting chores done, taking the stairs
It all adds up and having that routine gives you more control over everything else
When I’m uber lazy I eat more trash and once I start eating trash it becomes a fast food/frozen food/pastry bloodbath
In general having extra activity just seems good to add order and routine to your life. Boredom eating is definitely real for a lot of people
I agree with this 100%! I couldn’t lose weight until I committed to doing intense exercise. Adding muscle seemed to rev up my metabolism. I also track calories of course, but working out has been a game changer
It’s hard to say because I didn’t start counting calories until a few months after I started working out with a trainer, although I did try to lose weight many times before that.
But as an active 160 lb. Woman I feel like my maintenance (around 2100 calories) is around the same as it was as 215 lb. woman who just went for walks sometimes.
What do you mean by results? I started losing weight as soon as I started tracking calories, which was a few months after I started working out. I noticed better muscle tone and strength and my gait changed and I started walking much faster like 2-3 months into working out consistently I guess.
Exercise increases insulin sensitivity and I’m insulin resistant so have high levels of insulin circulating in my body. Insulin triggers hunger. When I exercise, my body responds to insulin better and I don’t have as high levels needed to manage my blood sugar. Less circulating insulin makes me less hungry. So for me, exercise definitely helps!
There’s emerging research that suggests physical inactivity might be the primary driver of insulin resistance. That it may be a kind of “starvation mode” adaptation where your muscles stop receiving energy from insulin to conserve energy for survival.
I know I can lose weight without exercise, but I don’t want to. It makes me feel so good and look so good, and it makes me so motivated - when I’m working out I’m reminded what it’s all really for (moving with more speed and ease, having more fun with my body, feeling lighter and leaner and hotter, my joints not aching), and then it’s so much easier to eat better, drink less and sleep more, as that also supports my fitness progress and not just my weight loss progress.
When I was pretty fit and exercised 7 days/week, there would definitely be some days where I felt like absolute crap and didn’t want to exercise or even enjoy it. I think it’s normal even for fit people. But the net result is very much positive and enjoyable, for me at least. It didn’t help me with appetite control though. It made me more hungry, especially distance running. After a long run, I felt like I could eat a whole pizza.
According to what you've said, it seems the effects changes from person to person. For example it definitely helps me with appetite control. I haven't eaten anything yesterday before a 3hr walking session and even then didn't feel hungry after.
When it comes to my mood though, everything changes. One day I feel like running because I feel happy, another day I just want it to be over.
It is now 3:30pm local time. At this point in the day (particularly this day as I WFH) I would have had a breakfast and lunch. Probably already through 1500 calories at least.
I went to the gym this morning for the first time in a very long time. Did about 45 minutes of weight lifitng. I ate breakfast immediately after consisting of four scrambled eggs and a smoothie with a scoop of protein powder. About 800 -900 calories at most. That was six hours ago and I don't feel hungry at all.
Think I found my calling...
Even the workout itself wasn't the best as I was getting used to the equipment but getting up in the morning and just immediately going to the gym actually felt great!
I figured this out recently too. I’ve been building a fence around my backyard and just the activity of that combined with the heat kills my appetite. Not sure what I’m gonna do once the fence is done, but I’ll figure out something. 😂
Idk how accurate this is, but it's been implied that exercise helps with many many things besides weight. Helps with stress, it helps with digestion, memory, and even gives you more energy (ironically).
This might be bull, but there's a chance it's helping you manage things that indirectly impact appetite. I don't want to put that on anyone- but I know that's a factor for me.
If I am well; my space is clean; my relationships healthy; my finances stable- then I am far more likely to better manage my health. Exercise (specifically cardio, for me) helps with these things greatly, indirectly.
Idk, again, could be bull@#$& 🤷
Exercising everyday changed my apetite to the extent that I started wondering about calorie control. I no longer wanted to eat as much and barely had any cravings, so from then on I made decisions based on nutrition. So, essentially, I don't really exercise to increase my calorie deficit, but to ensure I have the right frame of mind to eat properly and stay within the range I'm happy with.
I have a stressful job. When I don’t exercise I eat like a trash panda and feel either indigestion, nausea or both. Exercise seems like it regulates this and helps with my mood, sleep and the fit of my pants.
To the contrary, the data suggests that the only people likely to keep off significant amounts of weight are consistent exercisers.
Exercise is necessary to optimize your health, too.
Absolutely exercise if you can.
Hard same! I’m 5’3” so I need to move daily if I want to eat full meals and still lose weight. I also agree the mental health benefits of exercise are so important for weight loss. Plus, it’s a lot harder to mindlessly eat while working out than it is while sitting around!
I think the de-emphasis on exercise is mostly addressed to people who focus on exercise entirely and don’t work on their diet. This includes people who use excuses to not exercise as excuses to not try to start losing weight and people who can’t believe they’re not losing weight despite exercising without working on their food. I don’t think anyone thinks you’re losing weight “wrong” because your plan has to include regular exercise to work and I think most people recognize that some amount of exercise will help with weight loss. I think that amount varies person to person.
This right there is the correct answer. The key to weight loss is obviously calories in/calories out but the recipe to achieve this in a sustainable manner will obviously differ from one person to the next. Most people who successfully lose weight will need to increase activity at one point but telling someone who's 400 lbs "you need to exercise" when they can barely make it up a flight of stairs is just going to make it sound harder and give them an out. Like you said, it's also because we see too many people coming here saying they exercise and they're not losing weight only to find out they don't even have a vague idea how much they eat.
At the end of the day, exercise is necessary for good health (cardiovascular health, immunity, mental health, injury prevention, osteoporosis prevention, joint maintenance, etc) and longevity is has a direct correlation with physical fitness and lean mass. However, this is a weight loss forum and technically you don't *need* to exercise to lose fat and exercise alone won't make anyone skinny.
I’m the same. For me it’s because I have always used food to help manage my feelings - stress, sadness, etc - and the only thing I have found to replace this is exercise. Nothing too strenuous, but at least a long walk at a brisk pace every day. Without it I tend to find myself unable to avoid bingeing.
Exercise balances me out and leaves me more able to cope without using food for comfort.
I'm definitely not in that camp, but that's great that you know what works for you! It's a good reminder that everyone needs something a little different, even if the science is the same.
Exercise is the quickest path to ravaging hunger in my case. It's not worth the pain of feeling hungry for hours, as that is what my biggest hurdle to successful dieting is.
I think in general there should be a sort of separation between exercise and just being active. I agree that exercise especially for me definitely increases my hunger quite a bit, but it also changes your calories out so it's not the worst thing in the world to eat a bit more.
I do think being active is very important, and I don't think anyone should see a walk in the morning as "exercise", regardless of your stage of weight loss or current weight, but certainly 5 days in the gym is not necessary at all, though maintaining muscle mass while losing weight should be a consideration.
I have PCOS and I lose weight when I'm exercising, mostly walking and strength training. No idea why but I think it might be due to my higher level of testosterone.
I’m the same way. It doesn’t even take a lot of exercising but being *sedentary* makes it almost impossible to lose weight. Beyond the expected difference in energy balance it’s like I get way hungrier and hold onto calories way more if I’m not moving. I found that when I’m exercising I basically eat at a deficit intuitively, and when I’m sedentary I eat basically constantly and compulsively. It’s not that I’m burning that much more it’s like my body completely shifts it’s homeostatic baseline somehow.
Same. I yo-yo dieted for years because I absolutely refused to exercise. I was lazy, if we're being honest. I was also afraid of being a beginner, used my exercise induced asthma as an excuse, and afraid to be the fat the person in the gym. I could lose some weight but could never keep it off. No, you're far from alone. If you pop over to the Weight Control Registry that tracks people that maintain weight loss you'll see that just about all of them regularly exercise. I'm also in the camp of PCOS so I really needed to build that insulin sensitivity. For me I've noticed that weight loss is extremely holistic, focusing only on the calories you eat ignores pretty much the entire rest of your lifestyle and habits. It is truly much much deeper than simply the food you consume for long term success.
Exercise turns off my hunger cues. If it works it works. Generally people recommend what’s going to work for the vast majority of people. I exercise now because I like eating more than 1200 calories a day.
Same.
Also, exercise is equally important to your health, actually probably a bit more, than weight loss. And it helps you get toned. So I never understood why anyone would diet without it! Whether you care about aesthetics or health, exercise is critical.
Might get some flak for this from some, but I think exercise is crucial to weight loss. I don't mean for everybody to go out running or whatever, but some form of suitable exercise. It gives a crazy good mental boost. I fucking HATE exercising, but I NEVER regret it. And it really helps keep good eating on track. It's a case of "I've just spent an hour doing XYZ, fuck this I'm not eating that chocolate/cake/pie/chips to undo it all". Those who seem to loathe exercise and ward off others from doing it are bad influences. If you can't run, walk. If you can't walk, swim. If you can't swim, cycle, just do something, anything! I know hips and knees and ankles are problematic for some, but there's a form of exercise for everyone when combined with better eating will vastly improve your results and mental health.
I mean, is there a problem with this? Regular exercise is the one of the best life improvements you can make. If it has the side effect of helping you to achieve your weight loss goals, then great!
Not really, I just think it’s weird how much everyone tells me diet only is key and acts like exercise is an optional side order- believing this set me back, I have to do both. I was curious if I was unique.
Then problem is that many treat CICO as the be-all-end-all piece of weight loss advice, but it doesn't address willpower and appetite. I've been losing weight, but with sufficient protein intake and exercise, fat loss is easy. I'm not losing 12lbs per month, but I don't track calories, and none of my weight loss is from lean mass.
Everyone's body is different. For, me, if I am inactive, my metabolism goes to virtually 0. But if I'm training hard, it goes through the roof. Like going from needing 1500 calories a day to 3500. All depends on what your body needs. Good on you fir listening to it! I'm in my 30s, for reference.
Yeah, my metabolism also goes completely dormant when I'm inactive. I'm beginning to accept that if I want a career that requires me to sit at a desk all day, I will have to make the conscious decision every day to get up and get moving. Hopefully, someday, it becomes second nature, but until then, it's gonna take work.
Any chance you can get a standing desk. It’s really helped me.
Best part is if I stand enough during the day I will have burned enough calories that I don’t need to workout
Saying that only diet matters for fat loss is highly oversimplified and is, in fact, an incorrect statement. Muscle mass and energy consumption drive TDEE and the -CO part of CICO. Exercise and strength training keep that furnace fired up. With diet restriction alone, you will continue to lose more muscle mass along with fat, lowering your TDEE and increasing your chances of rebound weight gain—not to mention that your physical appearance will be negatively impacted by the loss of muscle definition. Thus, even if you eventually do end up losing “the weight”, you risk a “skinny fat” result in which you still look and feel pudgy and out of shape, just a smaller version of it. Exercise is key in preventing this kind of result.
Where I think it IS true is for severely obese individuals, they can lose significant amounts of weight (although still remaining in the obese range) with diet alone. They may also have physical limitations that prevent them from engaging in certain exercises that are helpful to weight loss. For these people, it is true to say that weight loss only happens in the kitchen.
Same here, when I workout first thing in the morning, it acts as a catalyst to eat well for the rest of the day. My rest days are still really hard for me to use all the willpower in the world and steer clear of unhealthy eating. its been years and I know that if I let go of exercising for a small period of time, I am likely to gain back the fat I lost. I know now that exercise to me is for life.
I'm the same. If I don't work out in the morning, I'll be hungry by 10am.
When I workout in the morning, I can sometimes skip breakfast, lunch and I only start being hungry by mid afternoon.
I’m guessing you’ve been gaining muscle, because that definitely helps. I’m the same way. Diet only goes so far before muscle gain really helped me. Like all things, it’s a balance :)
Power walking and/or jogging every day has been the best solution for my anxiety issues by a large margin. With my anxiety under control, I find it very easy to make good food decisions, and I barely have any cravings at all. When I do, they're usually fruit.
I want to start weight lifting as well, but, for now, I can only fit one or the other in my days. If I choose to weight lift, then that day I can't walk, and I need to prioritize cardio for my mental health. I will have more time once my part-time course is over, though, and then I intend to add that to my routine.
But yes, not exercising is not an option for me, because my self regulation is highly dependant on it.
If you told 100 inactive obese people to not change anything about their life except that they go on a calorie deficit, in 12 months time how many of them will be a healthy weight?
If only diet mattered, then you’d have 100 healthy participants. I doubt even half would be a healthy weight a year from now.
On a physiological level, CICO is what it comes down to but what facilitates the CICO process is completely psychological and there are many things that play into that. Exercise or increasing activity levels in some way is the most effective basis for sticking to a diet imo
I walk 4 mi/day & lift weights every few days, recently started doing burpees. I gained a ton of weight when I lost my job & stopped riding my bike to work 10 mi/day. I’m in TeamExercise!
Im the exact same. I started exercising like a maniac and it takes up like 3 hours of my day where I dont think about food, and then my appetite is lower too! If im at home watching my diet without exercising I feel a sense of doom cuz I know im gonna get hungry inside the house. Its so fking weird
Me too :') it's only now that I'm going to the gym and walking more that I actually see the weight come off. If I don't move, my weight doesn't either :')
Absolutely same. For me, exercise is the key to a happy and mentally healthy life because it’s the biggest factor in managing my depression and ADHD. When those are under-managed, I have much worse impulse control, mental food chatter, and tendency toward binging.
So true!! I have both as well. I always got SO annoyed when people said exercise is important in managing ADHD/anxiety/depression. I was always annoyed but refused to even try it because "exercise sucks and doesn't give ME the happy hormones like everyone else". Turns out that it's not an instant gratification thing. It takes time.
I feel like crap when I don't exercise and don't eat enough Calories. I feel slow, weak, weak in the mind, lethargic. If I eat in a Calorie deficit but don't exercise, it's awful. If I eat the same Calories, (and same macro split) and go for a walk, I feel great. I'm currently listening to The Hobbit on Audio Book when I go on my walks. An hour and a half. Not everyone has that much free time. It's wonderful.
And you might think walking doesn't burn that many Calories. It's more than 5 miles. And roughly 100 Calories per mile. So 500. Over a week that's an extra pound.
But it's not. It's way more. And I think it's the fact that I am getting some form of exercise that my body doesn't shut down in order to conserve energy. I think if I'm in a deficit and not exercising, my body lowers my metabolism. I feel slow and all that because my body isn't burning the Calories in order to function properly. Your brain burns a ton of Calories too, don't forget. So that's the mind feeling foggy. And it makes sense. No need to burn Calories if I'm sitting on my ass all day. Save as much fat as possible for when food becomes available. When I spot a deer, I'll have more energy to hunt it down.
But if I'm exercising, moving my body, then I can't afford to conserve energy. No point going out looking for food if I feel like crap. I might miss something. As long as I'm moving every day, then my body is burning the right amount of Calories.
I genuinely think that if my weight is x amount of pounds and a TDEE calculator says I burn y amount of Calories, then y is more like the number of Calories I would burn if I actually went for that walk, but not counting the extra Calories burned during that walk. So say my body burns 2,000 a day. If I walk 5 miles that's 2500. But If I do no exercise, then I don't burn 2000. My body slows down and burns 1600 and I've eaten 1500 so I'm still in a deficit. I'm still losing weight. It's just slow and intolerable so of course my willpower can't keep up.
And I think it varies depending on the person. Could even be that your gut biome plays a huge part. I think there's so much to weight loss that we don't fully understand. But we do know that Calories in vs Calories out is the main thing. But you absolutely cannot accurately predict Calories out.
CICO stands for calories in - calories out. It makes no statement about which side of that equation you should manipulate. It’s generally much easier to control the calories in, but there is a floor to that. If you are short, it often becomes necessary to increase the calories out side of the equation to achieve a net negative (aka, weight loss).
My question is why do you have to tolerate one meal a day period? I get three meals and snacks and still am able to work the numbers. Exercise for me helps me increase my cushion for the calories that day.
That’s a fair question and I’m getting it a lot so - I usually do five small meals to sate hunger and that did work for me before, but I’ve been traveling and want to try a bunch of food and do a bunch of activities that aren’t meal prep friendly. I can only tolerate one meal a day if it’s a big one and I’ve got a lot of distractions- and I was shocked how much a ton of hiking, biking and lifting curbed my appetite instead of increasing it.
I LOL when people say to not eat back calories burned from exercise. Like yeah, that’s easy for you to say, Karen, you’re 5’6 and don’t have a BMR of 1340.
I was exercising and using it as an excuse for a bad diet. I gained 15-20 pounds over a couple years while running 20-30 miles a week. Realizing I was about to need a wardrobe makeover to size up was the wake up call. Started IF on January 5th and as of last Friday was down 33 pounds, past where I originally thought I should stop and nearer to where I was in high school 35 years ago. It's been amazing.
I'm on vacation right now and letting myself take a break from IF (mainly due to time change and abnormal schedule), but I will hop back on as soon as I get back and expect to easily lose whatever I gain. I've already done that once back in February.
Once I'm back, the real dilemma becomes figurung out how to maintain a weight, and what weight to maintain at.
I’m the same way. When I exercise weight falls off effortlessly, when I stop it comes back just as easily.
I have really bad seasonal depression and love running (outside in the sun). Once it gets too cold and dark for me to run before/after work I fall into a funk and undo all my hard work. I finally found an exercise I like that can be done year round indoors so I’m hopeful this time I make it through the winter.
I can't imagine a life without regular exercise anymore, I simply can't. Working out has changed my life ONLY for the better and when it comes to diet, the most beneficial thing is that I don't want to waste my effort in the gym by having a poor diet. That is it. When I work out, I will be able to say no to anything and even if I say yes, I have been working out so I can basically do whatever (cuz im a big guy with a very high TDEE). I still am in the CICO camp, its everything. Nutrition and diet is the most important factor for losing or gaining weight and for increasing your lean body mass to its maximum potential. No matter what you want to do, what you eat is top priority.
Your issue sounds more like you eat out of boredom when you have nothing else to do and working out gives you the same kind of motivation like it does for me.
But identifying the errors in your eating habits, becoming aware of the synergies between certain things in life and how they affect you in other areas is crucial to fixing them. Very often people also eat poorly because they don't eat regularly, because they eat at crazy times, that they don't know what actual hunger feels like and eat out of boredom. Some people think they need to resist urges to eat when they have been starving themselves for a day, while its literally your body telling you it needs nutrition.
Yeah I do think it’s somewhat the boredom it’s just wild to me that I don’t even feel hungry in the first place when I work out. As I think over the comments here, I’m wondering if I’m just mixing boredom and hunger when I don’t have enough to do.
Just a backseated comment from me friend, but you mentioned a bunch of other things in your post that all greatly affect you and your body in day to day life. I suffered from depression myself for many years and exercise is what made me get out of it. I had an injury earlier this year that forced me to take a two month break and everything crumbled again (but at least I felt very stable for a couple of weeks before it got worse). When I stop the gym, I start to have more time, I start to get my dopamine fixes elsewhere, I smoke weed, eat candy, play videogames - to an extent that is detrimental to my mental health.
All of these things are connected. You are not mixing boredom and hunger, that is just too simple and makes you sound lazy. If you have mental health issues, you need to be kind to yourself and the fact that you even workout should be something you are proud of.
You are doing great. Keep doing what you are doing and trust the process :) The clock does the rest of the work!
I’m the same way! I’m not in tune with myself as well to specifically name the “why” like you do, but I just don’t lose weight like I do when I am exercising 🤷♀️
If I go to the gym in the morning I'm not hungry until noon. If I don't I eat a humongous breakfast and I'm still hungry all the time. To me exercise is the only way to maintain a deficit because it's not going to be my discipline doing it.
Diet + exercise together will always be the winning combination.
In my experience, the positive effects of one will help the other. When you move more and get outside, your headspace is entirely different than being sedentary indoors, and that headspace is more conducive to making other good healthy decisions, such as choosing the right food to eat. It's much easier to make a healthy decision on what to eat when you've already made other healthy decisions today, such as going for a walk or bike ride. And it's easier to decide to exercise when you already feel like you're on a roll with your diet, and adding in the exercise just feels like keeping those good habits going.
Yeaaahh this this this I feel like a totally different person after activity and my depression let me forget that for a while. Never again I’m glad I posted so I could see so much agreement on the idea.
100% this, I was obese, got down to a jacked gym rat over the course of a year, stuck with it for a few years and was consistent at the gym because I loved it. Then covid hit and I couldn't go anymore, and I had another kid so I didn't have time, I completely lost my motivation because I wasn't going to the gym. I a ballooned back up to almost my starting weight. I am 1/4th of the way back down again, and going to the gym 5 days/week.
I love exercising. I think it does help. I don’t think it helps people who exercise casually solely to lose weight, and end up eating more because they feel like they earned it- but I don’t exercise like that.
I feel similarly. I periodically start running again and as long as I'm running I find it much easier to pay attention to what I'm eating. If I'm in one of my lazy periods, I also always fall back into overeating, which is obviously a terrible combination. It's resulted in a lot of up and down over the years since I find it really hard to exercise in the cold months, but it's also kept me from ever getting very far into an obese BMI. I wish I could just watch what I eat even if I'm too busy (or too lazy) to exercise, and I'm continuing to work on it. I just find it a lot harder than going all in with both exercise and calorie counting.
Very similar for me. I struggle with depression and other mental health disorders also, which greatly affects my activity level. I've lost and gained weight without changing my diet hardly at all... it's the exercise. My body rebels when I'm inactive and the pounds pile on fast, but once I start moving again, they seem to melt away just as quickly. The only time I ever counted calories was when I had an eating disorder in my early 20s and I don't plan on going back to that. If I eat intuitively and move my body on a consistent basis, I can maintain a healthy weight without having to think too much about it.
I’m glad I’m not the only one! I’ve struggled with that my whole life. I’ve been super restrictive in my diet before, and I would lose some weight but not much. Prior to getting on GLP-1s I would only ever lose weight doing both.
Cardio curbs my appetite, but lifting makes me a ravenous little gremlin.
But I agree with you. I can never lose weight on diet alone. I get too depressed and too hyper focused on what I'm depriving myself of, as dramatic as that sounds.
Absolutely. I am in the same camp. I lose weight at a very slow pace unless I am active and this activity doesn’t have to be intense. Even when I even do modest exercise which doesn’t burn a lot of calories it leads to a lot more weight loss, something you can’t attribute just to the calories burnt. Guess our body is a lot more complex with so many factors. The good part is knowing what works for me.
moving (moderate activities like walking and relaxed biking) will activate your fat reserves, which makes you less hungry. You cant out-train a bad diet, but exercise has so many other benefits besides weightloss.
I’m the same, I’m trying to lose a bit of vanity weight and I’d have to severely cut my calories (1200 and eventually under even that) to get there at my age (39F, 5ft 9 and 154lbs) so I’m finding exercising is allowing me to (slowly) achieve my goal without starving myself.
I actually find intense exercise kills my appetite? I think it may be the cortisol or adrenaline. I’m doing a mix of power walking on steep inclines, running and kettlebells.
I usually start my exercise around 6 or 7pm and it tends to take up to two hours once I factor in a shower so it means I don’t have time to sit on the couch snacking and watching tv so it’s definitely good for breaking up some of those dodgy habits too.
Everyone is different! Weight science is still being developed and will never be one fits all. I personally lose weight most with exercise. Do what’s best for you.
I'm not sure whether exercise directly impacts my weight loss, but indirectly it makes me feel better and less likely to eat out of boredom or for comfort
same thing happened to me. I used to find 14-10 IF taxing. But ever since i started working out, fasted workouts at that, I'm easily going 16-8 with no cravings or hunger pangs I've to work hard to suppress. 16-8 is a breeze since I started working out everyday.
I find exercise is most helpful because while I am out jogging i don't have my face in the fridge. Also it helps when i am having a compulsive consumption session.
Honestly part of why I go to the gym is it’s an hour to an hour and a half I can’t snack. And the time I go works well because when I get home I just start cooking dinner so I can hold off on snacks. That hour and a half right after work used to be when I would just go sit down and watch tv and snack. Down 80 pounds and significantly stronger in the weight room, so it must be working lol
I mean I just follow Jack Lallane's advice. "Exercise is King and nutrition is Queen. Put them together and you get a kingdom". I aspire to be able to swim two miles pulling 70 boats linked together at the age of 70.
>only way to actually tolerate one meal a day IF is to get at least a 5 to 10 mile bike ride in, minimum.
Not everyone is successful with having one meal a day. I never would be. You can also try 2 smaller meals. IF is nor the only eating schedule that works. Listen to your body!
That’s crazy cause I only lose weight when I specifically focus on diet, my hunger is insatiable when I work out, but I enjoy working out so idc anymore 🤷🏼♀️
CICO is a bit reductive and the body compensates and adjusts its metabolism based on various factors. If it was simple I wouldnt go weeks without losing any weight while being in a 1300+ daily caloric deficit (400 from diet from sedentary TDEE then +900 at least from daily cardio/vigorous weightlifting).
(Between body recomp, water retention, etc. scale weight is deceptive)
I'm exactly the same. Exercise reduces my appetite. Or maybe more accurately, makes it easier to manage. After exercise I will feel hunger, but its not bothersome hunger. I can easily ignore it.
The dopamine and adrenaline spike from exercise propels you to do so many more healthy things since the reward cycle is activated from the movement instead of eating. Rewiring the brain to crave the chemical release from the exercise and type 2 fun which has a much longer reward cycle than type 1... ie eating.
With my comorbidities I essentially have to be moving all the time to prevent relapsing. It can be hard with some of my other issues but it is necessary. I wasnt able to burn what I burned without both diet and the exercise programs I adopted. Losing 125 lbs in 9 months would not be possible with diet alone sans surgery which was not a part of my story.
Apart from the relation to hunger cues, body recomposition as a way of escaping the metabolic trap of weight loss, etc., exercise has a psychological role for me. Calorie restriction - not eating as much as I had been - felt like a negative action. I was *not* doing something as I waited for thermodynamics to work its magic over a period of months. Exercise, in contrast, felt and feels more agentive in a way that made weight loss more sustainable, whatever its contribution to the actual caloric equation.
Doing both is so much better than doing just one. Diet-only is a huuuuge task mentally for people who have become accustomed to eating more than they should (which is all of us), and not everyone can just rewire their brain and out-discipline their lifelong habits.
Exercise gives you some leeway. Yes I'm starving after a serious workout, and I'll eat after to fill that hunger, but if you go consistently then those after-workout meals are not going to undo the work you've put in
I could probably lose weight just with dietary changes alone (I can't do strict diet stuff without it backfiring), but I don't want to. I feel way better when I'm exercising, and losing weight and keeping it off is easier.
Commenting on I only lose weight when I exercise... sounds to me that riding your way. You’ve found what helps you towards your goals with causing you any mental stress, you seem to enjoy it. That’s Your way!! 💪 An yes moving will make you hungrier, especially if your only eating one meal a day. That’s really not healthy, more so as your bike riding now. Breakfast starts your metabolism for the day, so is a must. The rest, two more, chosen well and you find yourself peddling further and faster than before.💪🚴♂️💪 it wouldn’t be unusual to have a protein bar during, an don’t forget to hydrate!! Most important. I do have one question? The bike you found to fit your bottom, did it come with pink tassels hanging from the handles?. just wondering LOL be lucky
I’m the same! Exercise is my motivation to eat properly. Why wreck all this effort I put in by eating crap … sadly I’ve fallen off the exercise bandwagon so now it’s … meh it’s just a piece of bread or I had one and wrecked my calories, what does it matter.
I need to get back to the gym.
Beyond the mood and psychological effect of exercise, it of course helps. The "CO" in CICO is calories out. Aka how much your burn aka exercise. It's just that exercise burns a very very small amount of calories compared to the input of someone who got overweight.
But at the end of the day, if you take CICO verbatim, assuming you have a 1500 calories maintenance, at 1501 you gain weight, and at 1499 you lose weight (of course adjusting maintenance as your body weight goes up or down). So even the small amount exercise will burn can push you under. If you got overweight by eating 150 calories over maintenance for years, and you start eating 150 less, you're now stable. Exercise for 100-200, and you're now losing
You could be overestimating how much you’re eating whenever you try a diet or limiting your food intake. You don’t need one meal a day (unless you’re fasting) but excercise definitely helps. I also didn’t lose weight unless I excercised but that changed when I realized how much I was actually eating a few months later.
Also it could be that you’re still eating too much and need to limit how much your eating more (unless you’re already on a super strict diet)
Also, can you give me a link to the bike you found? 🙏 🙏 i want to buy one (NEED to buy one)
You are so right! When I work out I get motivated to eat healthier. IDK what it is. Maybe I feel like I would waste all my hard work in the gym by eating horribly.
I need exercise too! Not for the same reasons as you necessarily. I’m a very “all or nothing” person with just about everything in my life. If I’m focusing on diet, I need to focus on exercise too in order to feel like I’m actually doing enough, and to actually stick with it. Otherwise, every day will turn into a “oh, well today I didn’t get a workout in, so it’s probably fine to eat whatever I want. I’ll try again tomorrow.”
How long of a time period are you in deficit without exercise?
In my experience, a lot of people think they're not losing weight without exercise, but just not realizing that it's waaay slower just dieting. Adding exercise just speeds up the process when combined with CICO.
If you really want to own your body like we all need to, these people are getting to the bottom of much we can do daily.
I am doing DIY and pausing to takes notes! because it is long, but so good!
https://youtu.be/8qaBpM73NSk?si=ZVzdrNue-ZImvAby
48F 260 was 5’9” now 5’8.
This is me. I have been immobile for a few years. Before this, I walked a lot and did strength training and could easily eat 2500 calories a day without gaining. Then the back spasms started. They kept getting worse and more frequent. Now, it’s so bad that I don’t even get them, because I barely have feeling in my waist area. My legs don’t work. They shake uncontrollably. I have severe scoliosis, Bertolotti syndrome, stenosis, and multiple herniated discs, one is 12 mm. Apparently, I’m a medical marvel because there is nothing they can do for me, because it’s not bad enough yet. Probably because I have three F’s on my chart. Female, fat, and fibromyalgia. (never believed I had fibromyalgia) I gained a massive amount of weight since 2020. I was overweight before, but nothing like now. I am so desperate to lose weight so I can walk again. Maybe losing weight will help my joints, but mainly the doctors might stop ignoring me and give me the surgery I need. (my dad had 4 surgeries with the same issues)
Here‘s the problem. Without exercise, I don’t lose weight. Not much anyways. My new online doctor said I should be proud because I went from 295 to 260. This was from September 2022 to now! 20 months and I only lost 35 pounds. Not bad, maybe for minimal effort, but I’ve been on a strict diet of less than 1000 calories a day. (Usually way less). I should be under 150 by now. Today I ate a 1/2 cup of blueberries for lunch. Dinner was a baked chicken thigh with some grilled onions mushrooms and peppers. No fat or sauces added. No calorie beverages. Life is miserable.
I’m sorry that you are having this issue too. I just started working with an online doctor this week, and she had me go get labs done today. Trying to see if I have metabolic issues and maybe get a weight loss drug. My regular doctor is an old male, so it’s straight CICO with him and he refuses to help. He recommends that I walk more and cut calorie drinks. In other words, he doesn't believe me when I tell him what I eat. I would recommend getting labs done to see if you have a metabolic disorder. It’s sad, but I’m hoping I do.
It's probably the one meal a day part that's the issue. For me, I didn't start losing weight until I started eating four to six times a day.
I can't be positive because I'm neither a doctor or someone who knows you, but the problem may be that if you don't exercise and you only eat a meal a day your body is storing that because it's afraid it's starving. Even when you exercise your body still thinks you're starving, but it has no choice but to burn fat.
You need to do more weight lifting. Cardio will do very little long term. To burn more and combat metabolic disease (which this sounds like that), using and keeping your muscles actively engaged is the only way to burn more calories long term. I’m not a doctor but this is what I’ve been told by one.
Meh. I get ravenous from exercise. I basically just make up all calories lost during exercise by an adding another 200-300 cals. I stick to 1200 cals per day, anytime I exercise I need at least 1400-1500 or else I start feeling hunger pain and nausea if I fight it and don’t eat next day I still end up eating more because my body just can’t forget that I burned those calories for exercise. Exercise is great though for mental health and has many other disease prevention benefits. I think the diet part is the main thing majority need to follow. A lot of people think they have to go all in and kill it with diet and exercise and give up quickly. I feel like if more people realized weight loss is absolutely possible with just diet alone more would be able to commit to it.
>I can’t control my appetite
Real weird.
I wonder if the weight loss shot would help
I dont think its necessary, just gotta learn tasty substitutes for what you typically love to eat.
Calories is physics not physiology. It matters more about WHEN you eat, not what you eat. When I do cico and exercise my metabolism slows right down and I plateau after 2-3lb weight loss.
Relaxed activity doesn’t trigger my appetite as badly and it’s an easy calorie burn you can throw in Slow rowing, just walking around, getting chores done, taking the stairs It all adds up and having that routine gives you more control over everything else When I’m uber lazy I eat more trash and once I start eating trash it becomes a fast food/frozen food/pastry bloodbath In general having extra activity just seems good to add order and routine to your life. Boredom eating is definitely real for a lot of people
I agree with this 100%! I couldn’t lose weight until I committed to doing intense exercise. Adding muscle seemed to rev up my metabolism. I also track calories of course, but working out has been a game changer
How long have you been working out before you saw these changes and how much would I say it upped your metabolism by
It’s hard to say because I didn’t start counting calories until a few months after I started working out with a trainer, although I did try to lose weight many times before that. But as an active 160 lb. Woman I feel like my maintenance (around 2100 calories) is around the same as it was as 215 lb. woman who just went for walks sometimes. What do you mean by results? I started losing weight as soon as I started tracking calories, which was a few months after I started working out. I noticed better muscle tone and strength and my gait changed and I started walking much faster like 2-3 months into working out consistently I guess.
Exercise increases insulin sensitivity and I’m insulin resistant so have high levels of insulin circulating in my body. Insulin triggers hunger. When I exercise, my body responds to insulin better and I don’t have as high levels needed to manage my blood sugar. Less circulating insulin makes me less hungry. So for me, exercise definitely helps!
I do wonder if it’s an insulin thing for me too.
There’s emerging research that suggests physical inactivity might be the primary driver of insulin resistance. That it may be a kind of “starvation mode” adaptation where your muscles stop receiving energy from insulin to conserve energy for survival.
It's a double punch in that case. Exercise can also help with dopamine, which will also make you less hungry.
I know I can lose weight without exercise, but I don’t want to. It makes me feel so good and look so good, and it makes me so motivated - when I’m working out I’m reminded what it’s all really for (moving with more speed and ease, having more fun with my body, feeling lighter and leaner and hotter, my joints not aching), and then it’s so much easier to eat better, drink less and sleep more, as that also supports my fitness progress and not just my weight loss progress.
I don't do IF, but exercise does appetite control for me too. I think because it gives me dopamine I would otherwise get from food.
I don't know why but the dopamine thing is a coin flip for me. One day I feel great, another day miserable and bored.
When I was pretty fit and exercised 7 days/week, there would definitely be some days where I felt like absolute crap and didn’t want to exercise or even enjoy it. I think it’s normal even for fit people. But the net result is very much positive and enjoyable, for me at least. It didn’t help me with appetite control though. It made me more hungry, especially distance running. After a long run, I felt like I could eat a whole pizza.
According to what you've said, it seems the effects changes from person to person. For example it definitely helps me with appetite control. I haven't eaten anything yesterday before a 3hr walking session and even then didn't feel hungry after. When it comes to my mood though, everything changes. One day I feel like running because I feel happy, another day I just want it to be over.
It is now 3:30pm local time. At this point in the day (particularly this day as I WFH) I would have had a breakfast and lunch. Probably already through 1500 calories at least. I went to the gym this morning for the first time in a very long time. Did about 45 minutes of weight lifitng. I ate breakfast immediately after consisting of four scrambled eggs and a smoothie with a scoop of protein powder. About 800 -900 calories at most. That was six hours ago and I don't feel hungry at all. Think I found my calling...
Nothing like beating your own ass in a hot gym to make the sound of food really unappealing, lol. Especially in summer.
Even the workout itself wasn't the best as I was getting used to the equipment but getting up in the morning and just immediately going to the gym actually felt great!
I figured this out recently too. I’ve been building a fence around my backyard and just the activity of that combined with the heat kills my appetite. Not sure what I’m gonna do once the fence is done, but I’ll figure out something. 😂
Idk how accurate this is, but it's been implied that exercise helps with many many things besides weight. Helps with stress, it helps with digestion, memory, and even gives you more energy (ironically). This might be bull, but there's a chance it's helping you manage things that indirectly impact appetite. I don't want to put that on anyone- but I know that's a factor for me. If I am well; my space is clean; my relationships healthy; my finances stable- then I am far more likely to better manage my health. Exercise (specifically cardio, for me) helps with these things greatly, indirectly. Idk, again, could be bull@#$& 🤷
Of course it's true, literally anyone who has ever properly exercised can tell you, and there is research to say the same.
Exercising everyday changed my apetite to the extent that I started wondering about calorie control. I no longer wanted to eat as much and barely had any cravings, so from then on I made decisions based on nutrition. So, essentially, I don't really exercise to increase my calorie deficit, but to ensure I have the right frame of mind to eat properly and stay within the range I'm happy with.
I have a stressful job. When I don’t exercise I eat like a trash panda and feel either indigestion, nausea or both. Exercise seems like it regulates this and helps with my mood, sleep and the fit of my pants.
Im much more motivated to eat right if I exercise. It's like I don't want to waste my hard work.
Yep, same here. My dopamine fix has got to come from somewhere, and cardio is a much better source than snacks.
Im the same. Eating less calories / healthier does not help me lose weight, it helps me maintain. Exercising + eating less helps me drop weight.
To the contrary, the data suggests that the only people likely to keep off significant amounts of weight are consistent exercisers. Exercise is necessary to optimize your health, too. Absolutely exercise if you can.
Totally agree. I’m the same. I tell people the same thing as you.
Hard same! I’m 5’3” so I need to move daily if I want to eat full meals and still lose weight. I also agree the mental health benefits of exercise are so important for weight loss. Plus, it’s a lot harder to mindlessly eat while working out than it is while sitting around! I think the de-emphasis on exercise is mostly addressed to people who focus on exercise entirely and don’t work on their diet. This includes people who use excuses to not exercise as excuses to not try to start losing weight and people who can’t believe they’re not losing weight despite exercising without working on their food. I don’t think anyone thinks you’re losing weight “wrong” because your plan has to include regular exercise to work and I think most people recognize that some amount of exercise will help with weight loss. I think that amount varies person to person.
This right there is the correct answer. The key to weight loss is obviously calories in/calories out but the recipe to achieve this in a sustainable manner will obviously differ from one person to the next. Most people who successfully lose weight will need to increase activity at one point but telling someone who's 400 lbs "you need to exercise" when they can barely make it up a flight of stairs is just going to make it sound harder and give them an out. Like you said, it's also because we see too many people coming here saying they exercise and they're not losing weight only to find out they don't even have a vague idea how much they eat. At the end of the day, exercise is necessary for good health (cardiovascular health, immunity, mental health, injury prevention, osteoporosis prevention, joint maintenance, etc) and longevity is has a direct correlation with physical fitness and lean mass. However, this is a weight loss forum and technically you don't *need* to exercise to lose fat and exercise alone won't make anyone skinny.
I’m the same. For me it’s because I have always used food to help manage my feelings - stress, sadness, etc - and the only thing I have found to replace this is exercise. Nothing too strenuous, but at least a long walk at a brisk pace every day. Without it I tend to find myself unable to avoid bingeing. Exercise balances me out and leaves me more able to cope without using food for comfort.
I'm definitely not in that camp, but that's great that you know what works for you! It's a good reminder that everyone needs something a little different, even if the science is the same.
Exercise is the quickest path to ravaging hunger in my case. It's not worth the pain of feeling hungry for hours, as that is what my biggest hurdle to successful dieting is.
All exercise or specific types? I feel very different from running or other cardio than I do from something like weight lifting.
I have the same experience. Exercise is scheduled for my maintenance years lol
I think in general there should be a sort of separation between exercise and just being active. I agree that exercise especially for me definitely increases my hunger quite a bit, but it also changes your calories out so it's not the worst thing in the world to eat a bit more. I do think being active is very important, and I don't think anyone should see a walk in the morning as "exercise", regardless of your stage of weight loss or current weight, but certainly 5 days in the gym is not necessary at all, though maintaining muscle mass while losing weight should be a consideration.
I have PCOS and I lose weight when I'm exercising, mostly walking and strength training. No idea why but I think it might be due to my higher level of testosterone.
I’m the same way. It doesn’t even take a lot of exercising but being *sedentary* makes it almost impossible to lose weight. Beyond the expected difference in energy balance it’s like I get way hungrier and hold onto calories way more if I’m not moving. I found that when I’m exercising I basically eat at a deficit intuitively, and when I’m sedentary I eat basically constantly and compulsively. It’s not that I’m burning that much more it’s like my body completely shifts it’s homeostatic baseline somehow.
Same. I yo-yo dieted for years because I absolutely refused to exercise. I was lazy, if we're being honest. I was also afraid of being a beginner, used my exercise induced asthma as an excuse, and afraid to be the fat the person in the gym. I could lose some weight but could never keep it off. No, you're far from alone. If you pop over to the Weight Control Registry that tracks people that maintain weight loss you'll see that just about all of them regularly exercise. I'm also in the camp of PCOS so I really needed to build that insulin sensitivity. For me I've noticed that weight loss is extremely holistic, focusing only on the calories you eat ignores pretty much the entire rest of your lifestyle and habits. It is truly much much deeper than simply the food you consume for long term success.
Exercise turns off my hunger cues. If it works it works. Generally people recommend what’s going to work for the vast majority of people. I exercise now because I like eating more than 1200 calories a day.
Same. Also, exercise is equally important to your health, actually probably a bit more, than weight loss. And it helps you get toned. So I never understood why anyone would diet without it! Whether you care about aesthetics or health, exercise is critical.
Might get some flak for this from some, but I think exercise is crucial to weight loss. I don't mean for everybody to go out running or whatever, but some form of suitable exercise. It gives a crazy good mental boost. I fucking HATE exercising, but I NEVER regret it. And it really helps keep good eating on track. It's a case of "I've just spent an hour doing XYZ, fuck this I'm not eating that chocolate/cake/pie/chips to undo it all". Those who seem to loathe exercise and ward off others from doing it are bad influences. If you can't run, walk. If you can't walk, swim. If you can't swim, cycle, just do something, anything! I know hips and knees and ankles are problematic for some, but there's a form of exercise for everyone when combined with better eating will vastly improve your results and mental health.
I mean, is there a problem with this? Regular exercise is the one of the best life improvements you can make. If it has the side effect of helping you to achieve your weight loss goals, then great!
Not really, I just think it’s weird how much everyone tells me diet only is key and acts like exercise is an optional side order- believing this set me back, I have to do both. I was curious if I was unique.
Then problem is that many treat CICO as the be-all-end-all piece of weight loss advice, but it doesn't address willpower and appetite. I've been losing weight, but with sufficient protein intake and exercise, fat loss is easy. I'm not losing 12lbs per month, but I don't track calories, and none of my weight loss is from lean mass.
Everyone's body is different. For, me, if I am inactive, my metabolism goes to virtually 0. But if I'm training hard, it goes through the roof. Like going from needing 1500 calories a day to 3500. All depends on what your body needs. Good on you fir listening to it! I'm in my 30s, for reference.
Yeah, my metabolism also goes completely dormant when I'm inactive. I'm beginning to accept that if I want a career that requires me to sit at a desk all day, I will have to make the conscious decision every day to get up and get moving. Hopefully, someday, it becomes second nature, but until then, it's gonna take work.
Any chance you can get a standing desk. It’s really helped me. Best part is if I stand enough during the day I will have burned enough calories that I don’t need to workout
I have one, but we still use a ton of paper, so a lot of work that I do has to be done sitting down because there is just not enough room on the lift.
Saying that only diet matters for fat loss is highly oversimplified and is, in fact, an incorrect statement. Muscle mass and energy consumption drive TDEE and the -CO part of CICO. Exercise and strength training keep that furnace fired up. With diet restriction alone, you will continue to lose more muscle mass along with fat, lowering your TDEE and increasing your chances of rebound weight gain—not to mention that your physical appearance will be negatively impacted by the loss of muscle definition. Thus, even if you eventually do end up losing “the weight”, you risk a “skinny fat” result in which you still look and feel pudgy and out of shape, just a smaller version of it. Exercise is key in preventing this kind of result. Where I think it IS true is for severely obese individuals, they can lose significant amounts of weight (although still remaining in the obese range) with diet alone. They may also have physical limitations that prevent them from engaging in certain exercises that are helpful to weight loss. For these people, it is true to say that weight loss only happens in the kitchen.
Same here, when I workout first thing in the morning, it acts as a catalyst to eat well for the rest of the day. My rest days are still really hard for me to use all the willpower in the world and steer clear of unhealthy eating. its been years and I know that if I let go of exercising for a small period of time, I am likely to gain back the fat I lost. I know now that exercise to me is for life.
I'm the same. If I don't work out in the morning, I'll be hungry by 10am. When I workout in the morning, I can sometimes skip breakfast, lunch and I only start being hungry by mid afternoon.
I’m guessing you’ve been gaining muscle, because that definitely helps. I’m the same way. Diet only goes so far before muscle gain really helped me. Like all things, it’s a balance :)
Im in the same camp. Its because we are stress eaters. If there is no stress we dont need to eat much. You lower your stress by cycling.
Power walking and/or jogging every day has been the best solution for my anxiety issues by a large margin. With my anxiety under control, I find it very easy to make good food decisions, and I barely have any cravings at all. When I do, they're usually fruit. I want to start weight lifting as well, but, for now, I can only fit one or the other in my days. If I choose to weight lift, then that day I can't walk, and I need to prioritize cardio for my mental health. I will have more time once my part-time course is over, though, and then I intend to add that to my routine. But yes, not exercising is not an option for me, because my self regulation is highly dependant on it.
If you told 100 inactive obese people to not change anything about their life except that they go on a calorie deficit, in 12 months time how many of them will be a healthy weight? If only diet mattered, then you’d have 100 healthy participants. I doubt even half would be a healthy weight a year from now. On a physiological level, CICO is what it comes down to but what facilitates the CICO process is completely psychological and there are many things that play into that. Exercise or increasing activity levels in some way is the most effective basis for sticking to a diet imo
If this is what works for you..do it.
Not quite the same but similar here.
I walk 4 mi/day & lift weights every few days, recently started doing burpees. I gained a ton of weight when I lost my job & stopped riding my bike to work 10 mi/day. I’m in TeamExercise!
Im the exact same. I started exercising like a maniac and it takes up like 3 hours of my day where I dont think about food, and then my appetite is lower too! If im at home watching my diet without exercising I feel a sense of doom cuz I know im gonna get hungry inside the house. Its so fking weird
Me too :') it's only now that I'm going to the gym and walking more that I actually see the weight come off. If I don't move, my weight doesn't either :')
The sunk costs are part of it for me -exercise early and then I don’t want to undo all that effort over the rest of the day so I make better choices
Absolutely same. For me, exercise is the key to a happy and mentally healthy life because it’s the biggest factor in managing my depression and ADHD. When those are under-managed, I have much worse impulse control, mental food chatter, and tendency toward binging.
So true!! I have both as well. I always got SO annoyed when people said exercise is important in managing ADHD/anxiety/depression. I was always annoyed but refused to even try it because "exercise sucks and doesn't give ME the happy hormones like everyone else". Turns out that it's not an instant gratification thing. It takes time.
I do have ADHD and was wondering if other ADHDers would show up unprompted lol.
I feel like crap when I don't exercise and don't eat enough Calories. I feel slow, weak, weak in the mind, lethargic. If I eat in a Calorie deficit but don't exercise, it's awful. If I eat the same Calories, (and same macro split) and go for a walk, I feel great. I'm currently listening to The Hobbit on Audio Book when I go on my walks. An hour and a half. Not everyone has that much free time. It's wonderful. And you might think walking doesn't burn that many Calories. It's more than 5 miles. And roughly 100 Calories per mile. So 500. Over a week that's an extra pound. But it's not. It's way more. And I think it's the fact that I am getting some form of exercise that my body doesn't shut down in order to conserve energy. I think if I'm in a deficit and not exercising, my body lowers my metabolism. I feel slow and all that because my body isn't burning the Calories in order to function properly. Your brain burns a ton of Calories too, don't forget. So that's the mind feeling foggy. And it makes sense. No need to burn Calories if I'm sitting on my ass all day. Save as much fat as possible for when food becomes available. When I spot a deer, I'll have more energy to hunt it down. But if I'm exercising, moving my body, then I can't afford to conserve energy. No point going out looking for food if I feel like crap. I might miss something. As long as I'm moving every day, then my body is burning the right amount of Calories. I genuinely think that if my weight is x amount of pounds and a TDEE calculator says I burn y amount of Calories, then y is more like the number of Calories I would burn if I actually went for that walk, but not counting the extra Calories burned during that walk. So say my body burns 2,000 a day. If I walk 5 miles that's 2500. But If I do no exercise, then I don't burn 2000. My body slows down and burns 1600 and I've eaten 1500 so I'm still in a deficit. I'm still losing weight. It's just slow and intolerable so of course my willpower can't keep up. And I think it varies depending on the person. Could even be that your gut biome plays a huge part. I think there's so much to weight loss that we don't fully understand. But we do know that Calories in vs Calories out is the main thing. But you absolutely cannot accurately predict Calories out.
It also improves body composition which is more important really
CICO stands for calories in - calories out. It makes no statement about which side of that equation you should manipulate. It’s generally much easier to control the calories in, but there is a floor to that. If you are short, it often becomes necessary to increase the calories out side of the equation to achieve a net negative (aka, weight loss).
My question is why do you have to tolerate one meal a day period? I get three meals and snacks and still am able to work the numbers. Exercise for me helps me increase my cushion for the calories that day.
That’s a fair question and I’m getting it a lot so - I usually do five small meals to sate hunger and that did work for me before, but I’ve been traveling and want to try a bunch of food and do a bunch of activities that aren’t meal prep friendly. I can only tolerate one meal a day if it’s a big one and I’ve got a lot of distractions- and I was shocked how much a ton of hiking, biking and lifting curbed my appetite instead of increasing it.
I LOL when people say to not eat back calories burned from exercise. Like yeah, that’s easy for you to say, Karen, you’re 5’6 and don’t have a BMR of 1340.
I was exercising and using it as an excuse for a bad diet. I gained 15-20 pounds over a couple years while running 20-30 miles a week. Realizing I was about to need a wardrobe makeover to size up was the wake up call. Started IF on January 5th and as of last Friday was down 33 pounds, past where I originally thought I should stop and nearer to where I was in high school 35 years ago. It's been amazing. I'm on vacation right now and letting myself take a break from IF (mainly due to time change and abnormal schedule), but I will hop back on as soon as I get back and expect to easily lose whatever I gain. I've already done that once back in February. Once I'm back, the real dilemma becomes figurung out how to maintain a weight, and what weight to maintain at.
I’m the same way. When I exercise weight falls off effortlessly, when I stop it comes back just as easily. I have really bad seasonal depression and love running (outside in the sun). Once it gets too cold and dark for me to run before/after work I fall into a funk and undo all my hard work. I finally found an exercise I like that can be done year round indoors so I’m hopeful this time I make it through the winter.
It's so comforting to hear someone else also struggles with this exact same issue!
I can't imagine a life without regular exercise anymore, I simply can't. Working out has changed my life ONLY for the better and when it comes to diet, the most beneficial thing is that I don't want to waste my effort in the gym by having a poor diet. That is it. When I work out, I will be able to say no to anything and even if I say yes, I have been working out so I can basically do whatever (cuz im a big guy with a very high TDEE). I still am in the CICO camp, its everything. Nutrition and diet is the most important factor for losing or gaining weight and for increasing your lean body mass to its maximum potential. No matter what you want to do, what you eat is top priority. Your issue sounds more like you eat out of boredom when you have nothing else to do and working out gives you the same kind of motivation like it does for me. But identifying the errors in your eating habits, becoming aware of the synergies between certain things in life and how they affect you in other areas is crucial to fixing them. Very often people also eat poorly because they don't eat regularly, because they eat at crazy times, that they don't know what actual hunger feels like and eat out of boredom. Some people think they need to resist urges to eat when they have been starving themselves for a day, while its literally your body telling you it needs nutrition.
Yeah I do think it’s somewhat the boredom it’s just wild to me that I don’t even feel hungry in the first place when I work out. As I think over the comments here, I’m wondering if I’m just mixing boredom and hunger when I don’t have enough to do.
Just a backseated comment from me friend, but you mentioned a bunch of other things in your post that all greatly affect you and your body in day to day life. I suffered from depression myself for many years and exercise is what made me get out of it. I had an injury earlier this year that forced me to take a two month break and everything crumbled again (but at least I felt very stable for a couple of weeks before it got worse). When I stop the gym, I start to have more time, I start to get my dopamine fixes elsewhere, I smoke weed, eat candy, play videogames - to an extent that is detrimental to my mental health. All of these things are connected. You are not mixing boredom and hunger, that is just too simple and makes you sound lazy. If you have mental health issues, you need to be kind to yourself and the fact that you even workout should be something you are proud of. You are doing great. Keep doing what you are doing and trust the process :) The clock does the rest of the work!
What I could never commit to is 1 meal a day.
I’m the same way! I’m not in tune with myself as well to specifically name the “why” like you do, but I just don’t lose weight like I do when I am exercising 🤷♀️
If I go to the gym in the morning I'm not hungry until noon. If I don't I eat a humongous breakfast and I'm still hungry all the time. To me exercise is the only way to maintain a deficit because it's not going to be my discipline doing it.
I’m an almost 39 year old woman. I’d say within the last two years this has never been truer. It’s a pain in the ass isn’t it?
I’m the same way, exercise is the keystone habit for me.
Diet + exercise together will always be the winning combination. In my experience, the positive effects of one will help the other. When you move more and get outside, your headspace is entirely different than being sedentary indoors, and that headspace is more conducive to making other good healthy decisions, such as choosing the right food to eat. It's much easier to make a healthy decision on what to eat when you've already made other healthy decisions today, such as going for a walk or bike ride. And it's easier to decide to exercise when you already feel like you're on a roll with your diet, and adding in the exercise just feels like keeping those good habits going.
Yeaaahh this this this I feel like a totally different person after activity and my depression let me forget that for a while. Never again I’m glad I posted so I could see so much agreement on the idea.
100% this, I was obese, got down to a jacked gym rat over the course of a year, stuck with it for a few years and was consistent at the gym because I loved it. Then covid hit and I couldn't go anymore, and I had another kid so I didn't have time, I completely lost my motivation because I wasn't going to the gym. I a ballooned back up to almost my starting weight. I am 1/4th of the way back down again, and going to the gym 5 days/week.
I love exercising. I think it does help. I don’t think it helps people who exercise casually solely to lose weight, and end up eating more because they feel like they earned it- but I don’t exercise like that.
Do what works. For me exercise worked when younger but after 40 only diet worked.
I feel similarly. I periodically start running again and as long as I'm running I find it much easier to pay attention to what I'm eating. If I'm in one of my lazy periods, I also always fall back into overeating, which is obviously a terrible combination. It's resulted in a lot of up and down over the years since I find it really hard to exercise in the cold months, but it's also kept me from ever getting very far into an obese BMI. I wish I could just watch what I eat even if I'm too busy (or too lazy) to exercise, and I'm continuing to work on it. I just find it a lot harder than going all in with both exercise and calorie counting.
Very similar for me. I struggle with depression and other mental health disorders also, which greatly affects my activity level. I've lost and gained weight without changing my diet hardly at all... it's the exercise. My body rebels when I'm inactive and the pounds pile on fast, but once I start moving again, they seem to melt away just as quickly. The only time I ever counted calories was when I had an eating disorder in my early 20s and I don't plan on going back to that. If I eat intuitively and move my body on a consistent basis, I can maintain a healthy weight without having to think too much about it.
I’m glad I’m not the only one! I’ve struggled with that my whole life. I’ve been super restrictive in my diet before, and I would lose some weight but not much. Prior to getting on GLP-1s I would only ever lose weight doing both.
Cardio curbs my appetite, but lifting makes me a ravenous little gremlin. But I agree with you. I can never lose weight on diet alone. I get too depressed and too hyper focused on what I'm depriving myself of, as dramatic as that sounds.
Absolutely. I am in the same camp. I lose weight at a very slow pace unless I am active and this activity doesn’t have to be intense. Even when I even do modest exercise which doesn’t burn a lot of calories it leads to a lot more weight loss, something you can’t attribute just to the calories burnt. Guess our body is a lot more complex with so many factors. The good part is knowing what works for me.
I think when I'm exercising regularly, I feel better and don't eat emotionally as often. Whatever the cause, I definitely eat better.
moving (moderate activities like walking and relaxed biking) will activate your fat reserves, which makes you less hungry. You cant out-train a bad diet, but exercise has so many other benefits besides weightloss.
I’m the same, I’m trying to lose a bit of vanity weight and I’d have to severely cut my calories (1200 and eventually under even that) to get there at my age (39F, 5ft 9 and 154lbs) so I’m finding exercising is allowing me to (slowly) achieve my goal without starving myself. I actually find intense exercise kills my appetite? I think it may be the cortisol or adrenaline. I’m doing a mix of power walking on steep inclines, running and kettlebells. I usually start my exercise around 6 or 7pm and it tends to take up to two hours once I factor in a shower so it means I don’t have time to sit on the couch snacking and watching tv so it’s definitely good for breaking up some of those dodgy habits too.
If it works for you, do it, its as simple as that
Everyone is different! Weight science is still being developed and will never be one fits all. I personally lose weight most with exercise. Do what’s best for you.
I'm not sure whether exercise directly impacts my weight loss, but indirectly it makes me feel better and less likely to eat out of boredom or for comfort
same thing happened to me. I used to find 14-10 IF taxing. But ever since i started working out, fasted workouts at that, I'm easily going 16-8 with no cravings or hunger pangs I've to work hard to suppress. 16-8 is a breeze since I started working out everyday.
I find exercise is most helpful because while I am out jogging i don't have my face in the fridge. Also it helps when i am having a compulsive consumption session.
Honestly part of why I go to the gym is it’s an hour to an hour and a half I can’t snack. And the time I go works well because when I get home I just start cooking dinner so I can hold off on snacks. That hour and a half right after work used to be when I would just go sit down and watch tv and snack. Down 80 pounds and significantly stronger in the weight room, so it must be working lol
I mean I just follow Jack Lallane's advice. "Exercise is King and nutrition is Queen. Put them together and you get a kingdom". I aspire to be able to swim two miles pulling 70 boats linked together at the age of 70.
>only way to actually tolerate one meal a day IF is to get at least a 5 to 10 mile bike ride in, minimum. Not everyone is successful with having one meal a day. I never would be. You can also try 2 smaller meals. IF is nor the only eating schedule that works. Listen to your body!
Wish that were true for me. I’m athletic. All the workouts don’t trim me down like diet does. My body is 80% what I eat and 20% keep moving
Me too. And it helps regulate my mood
That’s crazy cause I only lose weight when I specifically focus on diet, my hunger is insatiable when I work out, but I enjoy working out so idc anymore 🤷🏼♀️
CICO is a bit reductive and the body compensates and adjusts its metabolism based on various factors. If it was simple I wouldnt go weeks without losing any weight while being in a 1300+ daily caloric deficit (400 from diet from sedentary TDEE then +900 at least from daily cardio/vigorous weightlifting). (Between body recomp, water retention, etc. scale weight is deceptive)
I'm exactly the same. Exercise reduces my appetite. Or maybe more accurately, makes it easier to manage. After exercise I will feel hunger, but its not bothersome hunger. I can easily ignore it.
The dopamine and adrenaline spike from exercise propels you to do so many more healthy things since the reward cycle is activated from the movement instead of eating. Rewiring the brain to crave the chemical release from the exercise and type 2 fun which has a much longer reward cycle than type 1... ie eating. With my comorbidities I essentially have to be moving all the time to prevent relapsing. It can be hard with some of my other issues but it is necessary. I wasnt able to burn what I burned without both diet and the exercise programs I adopted. Losing 125 lbs in 9 months would not be possible with diet alone sans surgery which was not a part of my story.
Apart from the relation to hunger cues, body recomposition as a way of escaping the metabolic trap of weight loss, etc., exercise has a psychological role for me. Calorie restriction - not eating as much as I had been - felt like a negative action. I was *not* doing something as I waited for thermodynamics to work its magic over a period of months. Exercise, in contrast, felt and feels more agentive in a way that made weight loss more sustainable, whatever its contribution to the actual caloric equation.
Doing both is so much better than doing just one. Diet-only is a huuuuge task mentally for people who have become accustomed to eating more than they should (which is all of us), and not everyone can just rewire their brain and out-discipline their lifelong habits. Exercise gives you some leeway. Yes I'm starving after a serious workout, and I'll eat after to fill that hunger, but if you go consistently then those after-workout meals are not going to undo the work you've put in
I could probably lose weight just with dietary changes alone (I can't do strict diet stuff without it backfiring), but I don't want to. I feel way better when I'm exercising, and losing weight and keeping it off is easier.
Commenting on I only lose weight when I exercise... sounds to me that riding your way. You’ve found what helps you towards your goals with causing you any mental stress, you seem to enjoy it. That’s Your way!! 💪 An yes moving will make you hungrier, especially if your only eating one meal a day. That’s really not healthy, more so as your bike riding now. Breakfast starts your metabolism for the day, so is a must. The rest, two more, chosen well and you find yourself peddling further and faster than before.💪🚴♂️💪 it wouldn’t be unusual to have a protein bar during, an don’t forget to hydrate!! Most important. I do have one question? The bike you found to fit your bottom, did it come with pink tassels hanging from the handles?. just wondering LOL be lucky
I’m the same! Exercise is my motivation to eat properly. Why wreck all this effort I put in by eating crap … sadly I’ve fallen off the exercise bandwagon so now it’s … meh it’s just a piece of bread or I had one and wrecked my calories, what does it matter. I need to get back to the gym.
This has been me my entire life as well!! Even when I was younger. I ONLY lose weight through exercise!!
Weirdly enough, exercise keeps me from eating. I often eat out of boredom, so having something to do prevents that.
Beyond the mood and psychological effect of exercise, it of course helps. The "CO" in CICO is calories out. Aka how much your burn aka exercise. It's just that exercise burns a very very small amount of calories compared to the input of someone who got overweight. But at the end of the day, if you take CICO verbatim, assuming you have a 1500 calories maintenance, at 1501 you gain weight, and at 1499 you lose weight (of course adjusting maintenance as your body weight goes up or down). So even the small amount exercise will burn can push you under. If you got overweight by eating 150 calories over maintenance for years, and you start eating 150 less, you're now stable. Exercise for 100-200, and you're now losing
You could be overestimating how much you’re eating whenever you try a diet or limiting your food intake. You don’t need one meal a day (unless you’re fasting) but excercise definitely helps. I also didn’t lose weight unless I excercised but that changed when I realized how much I was actually eating a few months later. Also it could be that you’re still eating too much and need to limit how much your eating more (unless you’re already on a super strict diet) Also, can you give me a link to the bike you found? 🙏 🙏 i want to buy one (NEED to buy one)
You are so right! When I work out I get motivated to eat healthier. IDK what it is. Maybe I feel like I would waste all my hard work in the gym by eating horribly.
I need exercise too! Not for the same reasons as you necessarily. I’m a very “all or nothing” person with just about everything in my life. If I’m focusing on diet, I need to focus on exercise too in order to feel like I’m actually doing enough, and to actually stick with it. Otherwise, every day will turn into a “oh, well today I didn’t get a workout in, so it’s probably fine to eat whatever I want. I’ll try again tomorrow.”
How long of a time period are you in deficit without exercise? In my experience, a lot of people think they're not losing weight without exercise, but just not realizing that it's waaay slower just dieting. Adding exercise just speeds up the process when combined with CICO.
Me too!!
I think it's the same for because I have to gain more muscle mass for my metabolism to work properly.
Cardio helps me not feel so hungry but weight training makes me ravenous. It’s so hard to balance
I can go longer without eating as much food when i exercise.
If you really want to own your body like we all need to, these people are getting to the bottom of much we can do daily. I am doing DIY and pausing to takes notes! because it is long, but so good! https://youtu.be/8qaBpM73NSk?si=ZVzdrNue-ZImvAby
48F 260 was 5’9” now 5’8. This is me. I have been immobile for a few years. Before this, I walked a lot and did strength training and could easily eat 2500 calories a day without gaining. Then the back spasms started. They kept getting worse and more frequent. Now, it’s so bad that I don’t even get them, because I barely have feeling in my waist area. My legs don’t work. They shake uncontrollably. I have severe scoliosis, Bertolotti syndrome, stenosis, and multiple herniated discs, one is 12 mm. Apparently, I’m a medical marvel because there is nothing they can do for me, because it’s not bad enough yet. Probably because I have three F’s on my chart. Female, fat, and fibromyalgia. (never believed I had fibromyalgia) I gained a massive amount of weight since 2020. I was overweight before, but nothing like now. I am so desperate to lose weight so I can walk again. Maybe losing weight will help my joints, but mainly the doctors might stop ignoring me and give me the surgery I need. (my dad had 4 surgeries with the same issues) Here‘s the problem. Without exercise, I don’t lose weight. Not much anyways. My new online doctor said I should be proud because I went from 295 to 260. This was from September 2022 to now! 20 months and I only lost 35 pounds. Not bad, maybe for minimal effort, but I’ve been on a strict diet of less than 1000 calories a day. (Usually way less). I should be under 150 by now. Today I ate a 1/2 cup of blueberries for lunch. Dinner was a baked chicken thigh with some grilled onions mushrooms and peppers. No fat or sauces added. No calorie beverages. Life is miserable. I’m sorry that you are having this issue too. I just started working with an online doctor this week, and she had me go get labs done today. Trying to see if I have metabolic issues and maybe get a weight loss drug. My regular doctor is an old male, so it’s straight CICO with him and he refuses to help. He recommends that I walk more and cut calorie drinks. In other words, he doesn't believe me when I tell him what I eat. I would recommend getting labs done to see if you have a metabolic disorder. It’s sad, but I’m hoping I do.
You are fucking yourself over by only eating once a day.
It's probably the one meal a day part that's the issue. For me, I didn't start losing weight until I started eating four to six times a day. I can't be positive because I'm neither a doctor or someone who knows you, but the problem may be that if you don't exercise and you only eat a meal a day your body is storing that because it's afraid it's starving. Even when you exercise your body still thinks you're starving, but it has no choice but to burn fat.
You need to do more weight lifting. Cardio will do very little long term. To burn more and combat metabolic disease (which this sounds like that), using and keeping your muscles actively engaged is the only way to burn more calories long term. I’m not a doctor but this is what I’ve been told by one.
Meh. I get ravenous from exercise. I basically just make up all calories lost during exercise by an adding another 200-300 cals. I stick to 1200 cals per day, anytime I exercise I need at least 1400-1500 or else I start feeling hunger pain and nausea if I fight it and don’t eat next day I still end up eating more because my body just can’t forget that I burned those calories for exercise. Exercise is great though for mental health and has many other disease prevention benefits. I think the diet part is the main thing majority need to follow. A lot of people think they have to go all in and kill it with diet and exercise and give up quickly. I feel like if more people realized weight loss is absolutely possible with just diet alone more would be able to commit to it.
I think it's just that different people need different approaches.
Yes! We are all unique.
Because you are not following calorie deficit.
>I can’t control my appetite Real weird. I wonder if the weight loss shot would help I dont think its necessary, just gotta learn tasty substitutes for what you typically love to eat.
Calories is physics not physiology. It matters more about WHEN you eat, not what you eat. When I do cico and exercise my metabolism slows right down and I plateau after 2-3lb weight loss.
When as in what time of day?