Exercise, Diet or both ?

[JuanFitbit]

Hi everyone!

Mostly we all strive to have a better body, for fitness, appeals, health, etc.

The eternal questions are:

Should I make a diet? If so what kind?

I kill myself exercising but I don't see any change, what I'm doing wrong?

If I reduce a lot of calories I should loose a lot of weight, what's wrong with me?/, why do I still look the same?

In my personal opinion, making a diet shouldn't be a sacrifice. 

I'll explain myself, everyone should eat healthy, every day! But by making radical diets, where you avoid proteins/fruits/etc, or they tell you to eat just 1 kind of food, it's a bit contraproducente. There diets aren't covering a lot of the body's needs to function correctly. 

By making diets, we should think as small changes on our eating routine, that will benefit us in some way, but not forgetting that our body still have needs!

If 1 small change helped, then take another small change and so on. 

Also a combination of healthy eating and sport is great to keep us in shape, fit and healthier. 

But if you make sport/exercise, you should also take into consideration, the amount of calories that needs to be covered by your meals. 

I'll love to hear your opinion about this and you all are welcome to share with us your tips and thoughts! 

[SunsetRunner]

I remember they used to tell us in WW - You can’t outrun a bad diet. It takes a balance of both. 

[BASILCHIVES]

I believe you need both a healthy food plan and an exercise routine that is easy to follow and incorporate into your life. I avoid using the word 'DIET' because it has the connotation of being " a temporary, restrictive food plan, that is done until results are acheived or you quit."    I am on the road to get healthy in mind, body, and spirit.   I have developed a healthy food plan that gives me a calorie deficit so I am losing weight, it is one I can sustain long term.   I use my Fitbit to help motivate me to get in more activity .  I practice gratitude and am starting to journal what I am grateful for.  I do the 2 minute meditation with my Fitbit and am trying to make it a regular part of my day.   

I keep my food plan very simple and I have no issues making breakfast and lunch pretty much the same day in day out.  I do not snack,  I drink lots of water, I take a senior multivitamin and extra D3 per Dr recommendation.     I get regular Dr checkups and what is recommended for my age and gender.  Keep it simple,  I am a carb addict so for me, I can't be reasonable with them so for the time being, they are not directly in my food plan.  Except for panko breadcrumbs on some chicken and pork,  I don't have any bread in the house.   Knowing your trigger foods and finding a way to control or eliminate them is important if you are working on losing weight.  

[Heybales]

Some good points all around.

Too many people think the diet is a change merely to get to a goal and then it can change.

And that's why they do it again the next year. And next.

Some people think exercise is by itself a method to lose weight. I blame the sites that give an eating goal based on user selected level of exercise.

Then even if someone eats to goal, but fails to exercise, they don't lose or much slower than expected so they give up.

They miss the fundamental lesson of weight management.

When you do more you can eat more.

When you do less you better eat less.

In a diet or deficit a tad less in either case.

Fitbit is trying to teach that life lesson.

Whereas really exercise has nothing to do with diet but allowing you to eat more compared to not exercising.

That may allow someone to adhere better to eating goal because it's higher eating goal, may not feel as restrictive.

But there again many see the exercise as way to reach an end goal - they don't pick things they enjoy that improves heart health and body function that they can keep doing. Or they allow other priorities that may not really be as important long term to crowd out current exercise.

Same with foods, doing a diet for results but they would never continue to eat that way - so never any real training to change.

"If the rule you followed brought you to this, of what use was the rule?"

If your prior diet and exercise routine lead back to needing to lose weight again, of what use was that routine.

[FiggyU24]

The only way i see results is to eat healthy 95% of the time and regular exercise I try to stay in a calorie deficit most days using my calories over the week rather than over a day that way I leave nothing out of my diet and eat everything in moderation I take time out but being mindful usually over Christmas and for my birthday (I still exercise but relax my diet) this works for me and I don’t miss out on anything.  

[YojanaFitbit]

In my personal experience I can tell that you need a combination of both, combining exercise with a healthy diet is a more effective way to lose weight than depending on calorie restriction alone. Exercise can prevent or even reverse the effects of certain diseases. It also lowers blood pressure and cholesterol, which may prevent a heart attack. 😎

[vcoe]

I wholeheartedly agree with this, and the comments that follow. 

I am having issues with this personally, as I am logging/tracking my daily intake (drink/food) to try and maintain a 500 calorie deficit. I am exercising on average 2-3 times a week. I also work 2 jobs, and both have me on my feet, one more so than the other. I average about 15K steps a day, with days often hitting over 18K and some not quite making 10K. I have the calorie intake goal set as dynamic, as my days often fluctuate. 

I started my health journey by working out in November. I weighed in a 191.6lbs. I am female, 30, 5'5". I am strongly built as well, having a good level of preexisting muscle content. My goal weight is 175lbs. That should put me at a much more lean physique, while still being comfortable. I want to be healthier for my kids. I have very limited unhealthy snacks, and if I do treat myself, its minimal. The issue right now, is I cannot seem to lose any weight. I have been floating around 192 to 194 since the middle of December. I thought it was my eating, so I am calorie tracking. At first, I thought that I was overeating and I was ready to trim my intake. I found that I was not eating enough. I was running a 1500 avg deficit a day. According to the math, my BMR is 1700 cal. So I upped my intake. Its been a few months now, and this morning, I was 193.2lb. 

Any suggestions? 

[Glenda]

@vcoe  I am amazed by you.  Exercise is essential for good health; avoiding all kinds of problems and disease.    Exercise has almost nothing to do with losing weight.  You might be surprised by how many calories you would use just sitting all day.  People on the 600 pound TV show are always put on a 1200 calorie a day diet, 3 meals a day and no snacks.  There is no discussion of calorie deficits.  You would lose weight if you followed their example.  Probably everyone reading this will disagree with me.  Let them speak up.

[vcoe]

It may not be directly related to weight loss, but can aid in the CICO idea. More activity = higher caloric burn. I checked out a few other resources, and with my activity level (with the aid of my FitBit calculations), I should be aiming for an intake of 2300 a day. 

I am thinking, maybe, I am stressing about the weight loss too much and it has created another problem of its own. 

[Heybales]

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@vcoe wrote:

I wholeheartedly agree with this, and the comments that follow. 

I am having issues with this personally, as I am logging/tracking my daily intake (drink/food) to try and maintain a 500 calorie deficit. I am exercising on average 2-3 times a week. I also work 2 jobs, and both have me on my feet, one more so than the other. I average about 15K steps a day, with days often hitting over 18K and some not quite making 10K. I have the calorie intake goal set as dynamic, as my days often fluctuate. 

I started my health journey by working out in November. I weighed in a 191.6lbs. I am female, 30, 5'5". I am strongly built as well, having a good level of preexisting muscle content. My goal weight is 175lbs. That should put me at a much more lean physique, while still being comfortable. I want to be healthier for my kids. I have very limited unhealthy snacks, and if I do treat myself, its minimal. The issue right now, is I cannot seem to lose any weight. I have been floating around 192 to 194 since the middle of December. I thought it was my eating, so I am calorie tracking. At first, I thought that I was overeating and I was ready to trim my intake. I found that I was not eating enough. I was running a 1500 avg deficit a day. According to the math, my BMR is 1700 cal. So I upped my intake. Its been a few months now, and this morning, I was 193.2lb. 

Any suggestions? 

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Good job selecting some reasonable and sustainable goals.

Daily activity burn is estimated on the Fitbit from distance, because formula for pace and weight is very accurate for calorie burn.

Problem could be with that many daily steps, is the distance accurate enough? Small % off on stride length with tons of steps could cause an inflated calorie burn from them. So 500 off an inflated daily burn isn't really 500 deficit.

Have you ever walked a known distance say 1 m at avg daily pace 1.8 mph and confirmed Fitbit got the distance correct?

You want a stride length set for midpoint pace, from grocery store shuffle to exercise pace, so the Fitbit can dynamically adjust and provide best calculated distance.

Have you confirmed there is no auto-exercise logging happening during the work day?

Exercise mode turns on HR-based calorie burn, which on the low end of aerobic exercise is always inflated calories, and if really just daily activity stuff, distance-based would be better anyway.

What is the exercise anyway?

With only about 20 lbs left to healthy weight, you have selected what is normally a reasonable 500 cal deficit. That's good.

Which means there has to be good accuracy on both sides - burning and eating.

Sure your exercise counts as part of your daily burn when done, though it doesn't sound as big a burn as 2 jobs on your feet, but still it should be counted in the math. I'm betting those on the 600 lb show aren't moving as much as you for daily life or exercise - so their experience is rather limited in this regard.

On the food side - that prior and how long 1500 deficit, whether true or not (you would have been losing 3 lbs weekly - did you?) would have been stressful on body unless you had over 200 lbs to lose.

If you weren't losing 3 lbs weekly - your food logging is very suspect, then and likely now.

Are you logging everything you eat by weight since new to logging?

Because calories is per gram, not spoon, cup, or "about 2 servings per package".

Liquids is per volume measure.

That will need to be worked on since when down to last 10 lbs, even smaller deficit is reasonable and less stress on body.

If you think you really had a big deficit before and lost some decent weight fast, my concern is the stress your body was and is under, causing water weight gain. That can hide fat loss on the scale.
Measurements of several spots would show fat loss still happening though.

Enough stress on body to cause that effect isn't good though, and continuing to try to force weight loss will cause body to rebel and adapt even more. If you did lose fast, some adaptation has already occurred.

Just a few things to look at.

[Heybales]

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@Glenda wrote:

@vcoe  I am amazed by you.  Exercise is essential for good health; avoiding all kinds of problems and disease.    Exercise has almost nothing to do with losing weight.  You might be surprised by how many calories you would use just sitting all day.  People on the 600 pound TV show are always put on a 1200 calorie a day diet, 3 meals a day and no snacks.  There is no discussion of calorie deficits.  You would lose weight if you followed their example.  Probably everyone reading this will disagree with me.  Let them speak up.

---

A calorie deficit is merely eating less than you burn daily - that's what it means.

Of course they were in a calorie deficit whether they used that term or not, if they lost fat weight.

And for someone that large and likely not moving much, 1200 is an automatic big calorie deficit - which a body with a lot of fat can handle without being stressed. Though even they have been shown to lose muscle mass - huge bummer since that is so useful later.

In fact for all but small women that are sedentary, 1200 is considered minimum to get in enough nutrients for an average sedentary woman - so for many that are trying to NOT be sedentary and don't want minimum results - 1200 could easily be too much deficit, too low an eating level.

Because frankly as weight is lost, you burn less moving less mass around, daily life and exercise, just a fact. And if already at 1200 and you want to keep losing weight - where exactly is the calorie eating level going to go?

"How low can you go" should not be a mantra for diets - that's called crashing into the ground, since it is a crash diet.

Now - I'd suggest find the study on the Biggest Loser participants - and how their big calorie deficits eating so little and burning so much has effected their base metabolism and daily burn for years after the show ended - and how many were fighting the issues of weight regain years later still.

It's a bad effect that keeps many repeating it year after year, having a harder and harder time losing weight each time.

[vcoe]

@Heybales 

Thank you for your considered and informative reply. 

I am not sure how to calculate my existing, average stride. I was thinking of a tape measure and wet foot prints? Would that work? I did check to see if I had my stats in the back end of Fitbit to make sure that they were fairly accurate, and it looks as such. I don't see any "active minutes" during my usual days of work, unless I was particularly active - lifting product/loading skids/moving reels or if we are really busy at the restaurant. So I would likely figure that the active minutes that I am getting are reasonably active. 

I have not been logging via weight, as I didn't know that there would be much of a difference. Do you use the FitBit logger yourself? What do you think of it? 

I agree with you on the comment about disregarding the 600lb contestants. I am not sedentary, nor am I 600 lbs. 

Lastly, I have never had a significant, quick weight loss. I am not sure if that information matters. I have been weighing myself nearly daily to see how much I fluctuate so I can gain a better understanding of my gains/losses. Its interesting as I am (as of late) +/- 1 lb. 

Weight has always been a struggle for me. I just want to get to a point where I have the level of control to maintain it once its gone as well. 

[Heybales]

Need a longer walk 1/2 or 1 m at 1.8 mph. It will feel very slow and likely hard to do.

Start and end a workout manually.

Now you have a step count shown in that workout, maybe you mentally counted every right foot landing too so double that, and a distance, say 1/2 mile, 2640 ft

2640 / steps = decimal stride length, say 2.2 ft. 12 inches x tenths portion say 0.2 = 2.4 inches, and the 2 ft, are entered into the setting.

If you run should do the same for your normal pace.

Active min as a category used to be and may still be 10 minutes at a sustained calorie burn of 3 x your BMR, so indeed may not see many from work as that can be hard to do sustained in daily activity. I'm sure you are hitting it though maybe just not in a 10 min chunk.

So you have a device that is not going to accidentally auto-create a workout it sounds like - good, no surprises there for inflated calorie burn.

That's good you haven't had fast weight loss. If you weren't really losing 3 lb weekly when you thought you had a 1500 cal deficit - then you didn't have a 1500 cal deficit.

Which means some big inaccuracy appears will be improved, making this easier going forward.

So those tweaks to improve the burning side of the equation are mainly set it and forget it, they are done.

The eating side though, some tweaks to the way things are done can usually be as simple, some may be difficult to incorporate into lifestyle.

Like weighing in many ways is easier than measuring, you can Tare (zero out) a scale and add a new ingredient to a dish and not get spoons or cups dirty, besides accuracy since almost all products give gram serving sizes.

Either use what you'd normal use and take your weight / serving size weight for # of servings - that would be useful for a week to see where the biggest issue may be.

But I can imagine your work setting may make that very difficult - if a lot of your meals is not made by you, makes it very iffy for accuracy. Small egg or large egg, 10 or 16 oz of orange juice, lots of butter on something or not much, ect.

In which case, improving the estimated calories out, will provide a better figure for what should be calories in.

But if unable to get accurate there - it doesn't matter what the figures are.

A week of accurate logging would be interesting, merely to confirm you aren't in an extreme say 1000 cal deficit which could be causing water weight increases from increased stress cortisol.

Measuring some body parts to see if loss is occurring would added to that potential.

Many of those weight trend apps allow logging other figures too, weekly is fine there - like thigh, hips, waist @ navel say.

But in the end, even if you got really good estimate for calories burned, and aren't gaining water weight, and aren't losing fat weight - you are eating what you burn basically.

As a woman it'll take you a month to really discern that of course with hormone fun, and your BMR literally changing through the month, and known water weight fluctuations.

But if it's just not possible to get accuracy on eating level and weight stays the same - find a real weighed amount of food you can remove from your diet that totals up to 500 cal.

Make sure no additional eating replaces it.

If prone to unlogged snacking - you could find a solution there, while unknown calories just not eating what you can't log could remove enough.

I recognize what's ideal for doing this, and I see what situation it sounds like you are in to make that not really easy - unless you have ability to not eat where you work, bring your own food correctly logged and planned (which is good anyway - plan to succeed or don't plan for failure), and try to have decent figures to work off of.

[MaryMac123]

I love this article on different ways to calculate stride. It’s from walking4fun. That’s a site with a huge variety of trails to virtually walk. I find it motivating. The more steps you get, the more photos you see of your progress along a trail.  There are several methods explained about how to easily determine your stride.

/https://www.walking4fun.com/articles/pedometers/how-to-measure-your-stride/ 

[Converse]

So I keep away from the technical aspect of all this and just give what worked for me.
Diet=(Carnivore Diet + OMAD (One Meal A Day)+Fasting)+ Exercising=(Training(Working Out, Walking, EliteFTS Band Work Outs, Jogging in Place Between Every Workout, Tabata Exercises, Core Fundamental Exercise Squats/Push Up & Pull Ups if you can do em if not you work towards doing one.))
      5 months I lost 40 lb.s but overall I lost 90 lb's about year before I started this diet/life style and work out I decided to lose weight but it was slow and fluctuated a lot I was just walking and doing occasional push up's wasn't getting to far as far as I was concerned in the mean time my leg stopped working gave me a big scare so I got a friend who was into fitness and asked if he wanted a Battle Buddy and last 5 months i worked out almost every day 60 days of straight effort 5-7 days of rest 60 days of straight effort rinse and repeat. The Carnivore Life style will provide every thing you need to get healthy & strong I eat Meat some times with some mushrooms some times with some eggs that pretty much it Beef,Pork, Chicken, Fish, maybe an occasional pickle, I only eat dinner at 6 pm i give my self a two hour window but most folks only do a one hour eating window this is every day for life don't get me wrong I am human we will always have a cheat day but that once a month or so. Life Style better term then diet in my opinion diet are something you stop after you reach a goal life style is just how you live life. Fasting is tool to break barriers down you might find your self plateauing out and need to break threw a barrier of weight loss or to get to that lvl of lean mass you want. Fasting also is like a Factory reset for your body & mind I usually do a 2 -3 day fast every other week or some times weekly I have done a 4 day fast it hard one to accomplish at least for me. Exercising/Training is essential it helps kick in those calorie burns get you more motivated for life more mental & physical discipline and confidence in yourself.  It might seem like a lot i was over welmned at first and didn't think I could do long fast i didn't think I could stick to one meal a day I sure as hec didn't believe i could stick to an all meat diet/life style but once i started the omad was easy the carnivore life style was delicious the fasting became self challenges mental achievements. Ohh and Salt & Potassium is your friend when fasting. started at 279 currently at 186.2 lbs Ima stop around 180 then focus souly on gaining mass. Life Style not Diets works.

[YojanaFitbit]

I'd like to add that maintaining physical activity through regular exercise and proper nutrition with a healthy diet can produce extraordinary advantages, including happiness, increased level of energy, improved health, and as well as adding years to your life. I'm sure you've heard the saying "you cannot out exercise/run a bad diet" and it's true. It may take only minutes to consume hundreds of calories that takes hours to burn off (it takes 30 minutes of walking to burn off a 140-calorie, sugary snack). When you look at people who have lost weight and who are managing to keep it off, exercise likely is key to that success.

[Glenda]

Basil Chives,  Since you have no bread in your house, I suggest you would enjoy Magic Pops if they are available in your area.  You might be able to check availability at www.deliceglobal.com  I love the 15 calorie 6" diameter "rice cakes"  that I can spread thinly with light butter and salt.  They are made of wheat flour, rice flour and white corn flour.  They are so good with beans, oatmeal, or chili, etc.

           Also Ole Tortilla Wraps 7.25" diameter only 50 calories, high fiber,  is better than the lowest calorie bread for making a sandwich.  You can fold it like a taco.  I did see a unique way to fold a tortilla that I MIGHT be able to communicate here that I really loved.  Cut the round tortilla from the edge to the center.  Then fold from the cut, 1/4 to the left, AFTER you put some type of sandwich filling on the second 1/4 triangle.  ....say a tomato slice,  maybe some lunch meat on the next triangle and in the last spot, black olives or onion.  This makes a good sandwich.  Only big Walmart has them that I have found.  All the other tortillas are 2 or 3 times as many calories.