Before I have anything to say about losing weight and exercise I would like to say this.
You should exercise, it is good for the body, mind, muscles, balance, strength, and weight maintenance.
But, do you need to exercise to lose weight?
The answer is
NO.
Should everybody exercise even if they hate it, have bad knees, or legs, hips , etc.
NO.
If you have health issues complicated from weight should you be jumping around to lose weight?
NO.
Exercising is great and should be done, but don’t use that as an excuse to not lose weight.
Never say I can’t lose weight because I can’t exercise.
Say this instead,
I will exercise after I lose the weight or get close to goal or my injury heals. Never let some super skinny bronzed exercise guru tell you that you can’t lose weight and get healthy unless you exercise.
The best way to lose weight without exercising is to keep track of what you eat. It is funny how some people would rather risk serious injury at the gym trying to burn off the cheesecake than keep a record of their food intake.
Keeping track of your daily calories and nutrients is the single most important thing you can do for yourself, even if you don’t want to lose weight.
You absolutely need to know what is in the food you are putting in your body. Period.
Look for a quality, free online calorie and nutrient program like the cronOmeter. After using it for a month or so you will begin to see what your body needs in vitamins and nutrients. It is then easy to either add the foods or if you can’t do that supplement them.
You should never let yourself get hungry. Eating a protein for breakfast and lunch will keep you going for several hours during the day. If you get hungry have a snack, make it a good choice preferably fruit.
I would stay away from foods like yogurt with fruit, it has far to much sugar plus it just isn’t filling. Cottage cheese is a better choice, if you still want something sweet add some fruit to it with a bit of stevia.
So we now know you can lose weight and not exercise, now we need to know how to do that.
How many calories should you be eating.
Your body needs lots more calories to stay fat, so if you are already tracking your calories and no lying, you know how many you’re eating. Reduce that by 500 calories a day. But there is another way, the one that worked for me and will work for anybody that wants to give it a try.
- Keep food records
- Count calories
- Analyze the data
- Exercise when you can or when you want to.
To lose weight you must know how many calories your body needs to be slim.
You can get your chart weight from a height and weight chart search. A 5′6″ female should weigh between 118-158. That is a big difference from bottom to top weight. I would pick somewhere in the middle.
Lets make it 135.
Remember this figure, and who couldn’t if you want to lose weight, that figure should sound fantastic to you.
Find an online calorie calculator and enter your age,height, sex, activity level, and your want to be weight.
For activity level choose sedentary, unless your are already exercising and intend to exercise everyday or already are.
If you plan to exercise please use the sedentary selection, this is a must. You may be wanting to exercise, this is different from actually doing it. Duh.
For a 5′6″ 25 year old female with a sedentary lifestyle your will need 1765 just to maintain that weight. If you’re eating more than this a day you will be adding fat to your body.
To lose weight reduce the calories by 20 to 30%. This figure should be around 500 calories per day. For the example women 30% would be 522 calories less with 1243 to consume. I would try to never go below 1200.
You could do this flip flop plan 3 days on 3 days off, that is, if you exercise. If you don’t as I do, make the calories less all the time.
There are millions of people that will tell me I am wrong for not exercising. I might be, but it is my choice and isn’t that what life is all about anyway.
I say you can lose weight without exercising and get very healthy. I am living proof of it.
My teen and young adult life was not active, I have never liked sports of any kind. I am deathly afraid of dogs and won’t walk the neighborhood because I have been chased by to many of them. I never figured out how to use the gears on a bicycle, although I have a very nice bike.
I have a very bad back and can’t walk for very long before I have to find a place to sit, not because I am out of breath, my back hurts.
I had to lose weight. I knew I was becoming unhealthy and packing on pounds. I was actually afraid to lose weight. I didn’t want saggy skin. What a dumb excuse, I had more. I wanted to eat anything I wanted, when I wanted. I felt deprived.
I got into a bad habit of buying the frozen meals and not paying any attention to anything on the label but the calories. I bought organic as much as possible. Lots of it.
I still gained weight.
I never looked at myself in a mirror. I rarely got a hair cut. I didn’t go to a Dr because they would weigh me and tell me how unhealthy I was.
I was having a hard time thinking clear. My skin was a mess. I had dark circles around my eyes. I was miserable. I always had a stomach ache and many times I couldn’t get a deep breath.
I had tried most if not all of the weight loss trends. Memberships, meetings, food plans, all of them and some of my own.
None of them worked and I never stayed on any of them more than a few months.
Then one day I remembered seeing an interview of a couple that were living a calorie restriction life. When I saw it I thought that was a great idea but I wasn’t ready at the time.
Now, I am ready.
I searched the internet for blogs and information about it. I read enough to know it was exactly what I needed in my life.
I paid little attention to the scientific mumbo jumbo and pros and cons, I knew this was for me.
And it was and is.
I tried the no carb deal and knew it was never going to work for me. CR is similar to it but we don’t count carbs. That is the beauty of it. You learn so much about the food your putting into your body you tend to stop eating the foods that don’t give you the nutrients it needs. That being those nasty processed carbs. I sorta knew I was addicted to them, and that they are trigger foods for me to eat more. They created the bottomless pit for me.
I haven’t had a meal of carbs in over a year. While that isn’t enough time to say I am over the addiction it is enough time for me to have lost over 80 pounds.
I no longer have food cravings. I sometimes still stand in front of the open fridge looking for something to eat and believe me, if there was some bread or pasta in there I would eat it. I have piece of fruit and move on.
In conclusion:
To lose weight reduce the calories by 20 to 30%. This figure should be around 500 calories per day.
Once you have this figure you can now start thinking about the quality of food and amounts.
It is very important to know what you’re putting into your body. You need quality foods that are high in energy, whether it is meat or vegetarian.
I am not vegetarian so I can’t speak for their protein choices.
Proteins are the energy, the calories your body needs.
I have been living this way for almost 2 years, have lost 90 pounds and have a very healthy diet and lifestyle. I now exercise 3 days a week. I feel fantastic.
