Can I still lose weight not exercising?

[Alisarosenbaum]

I have been exercising consistently at least three times a week for the past thirteen years. I usually will do high intensity runs, bike, etc. I would say I am okay with my diet. I am good about 70 percent of the time, but love to go out to eat and go have drinks with my friends most nights of the week.

 

About four months ago, my knees just totally gave up on me. The doctor can not find a problem, and I have been going to PT twice a week, which hurts it more. No working out=about a 5 lbs weight gain. I would like to lose about 12 lbs between now and my November 11th wedding, but I am unable to exercise. I have been able to walk at a moderate pace, and I have been doing that for about 60/min a time 3-4 times a week. I have also continued to do upper body weights (no lower body cause of knee). I have been PERFECT with my diet, and still no weight lose without real exercise.

 

Has anyone lost weight without exercising?

[deleted]

Alisa - I know how much you love going out to eat, but I bet if you are REALLY disciplined and totally cut out alcohol and only ate out once a week you could do it. Also you could cut out all "white" foods, meaning processed carbs.

[*JillD*]

I think it can be done, it just may be harder because your body has become accustomed to exercising all this time.

 

Have you tried keeping a food diary of everything you eat. I subscribe to self magazine so I joined the self diet club yesterday and you enter everything you eat in there and it analyzes it for you and everything, its really cool.

 

So what I noticed was that even though over the last few weeks I've been trying to eat more protein and less carbs, I wasn't writing anything down. yesterday I ate stuff that I had been eating on a normal diet day over the past few weeks and I was pretty close to going over what I should have eaten in a day for calories.

 

So even though I felt like I was eating things that were good for me, I was still eating high in calories and I probably would have eaten more yesterday if I hadn't been putting it in the computer and seeing my calories go up.

 

So doing something like this or weight watchers might really help you to be accountable and you may realize that maybe you were eating more than you needed to.

 

oh, also the self diet club thing has you put in your weight and goal, etc... and gives you the amount of calories you should eat to lose 1 or 2 pounds a week.

 

Good Luck!

[jak27]

You can absolutely lose weight without exercising. I lost 30 and didn't hit the gym at all. Not because I didn't want to work out, but I wanted to get my food in check before changing another aspect of my life. It actually has worked really well, and I don't go for the bad habits like before.

 

You just need to be completely committed to what you're eating, and leave very little room for error.

 

Make healthy decisions, and eat 6 times a day, it helps keep your blood sugar in check and you won't get hungry either. Stick to lean protein and fresh veggies and try to avoid anything refined, sodas, etc.

 

Also, you mentioned you are still lifting weights, upper body. You might not see the scale move for a few weeks since your body is adjusting to the new muscle gain, fat loss balance. And remember, muscle doens't weigh more than fat, 1lb=1lb, but if you keep up with the weights, you'll eventually replace the fat w/ muscle and be leaner and therefore smaller.

 

Good luck!!!

[JulieG]

Last year I went on Weight Watchers and I lost 20 lbs without working out much at all. They just show you the amounts of food and calories you should really be eating, and I had no idea that some of the things I ate that I thought were healthy were really really bad for me. Who knew that a Raisen Bran Muffin had like 400 calories and 10 grams of fat in it, not me. So, it helped me out a lot.

[Spazz]

The same sort of thing is happening to me. I used to run 30+ miles a week and lift twice a week, but I now have a stress fracture in my calf and have been in a "boot" since Memorial Day (and it's still not better!!!). All I do is watch what I eat (but really I don't, I just eat like I always have which is pretty healthy) and now I lift upper body 4-5 times a week. Unbelievably I have lost 7 lbs!!! I seriously didn't even want to lose weight, I just wanted to not gain too much. My FI says it's the lifting that's doing it. So, maybe try to keep lifting, for more days and more time with more weight or more reps.

[NYJen]

Most definitely you can!!!

 

I did WW twice in my life and lost a ton of weight both times. Plus I didn't exercise at all. I just joined Nutrisystem and it works. However, I don't like that all the food they send you is pantry food. (Nothing goes in the refrigerator or freezer - weird's me out.) But Jenny Craig is the same idea and I believe that has mostly frozen foods. And you don't "have" to exercise on these plans in order to lose weight.

 

Let me know if you have any questions. I love WW. Nutrisystem - not so much.

[StephanieMN]

Just a note on the excercise- are you doing a treadmill? I have huge issues with my knees when I do too much stuff on a treadmill. I can do a really long walk and not have any trouble but once I get on the tradmill for a few days in a row I can hardlywalk.

 

I have lost weight with out excercising but it will go fast if you can do something low impact like swimming.

[boscobel]

When I was dating an ex a few years ago, I had packed on a few lbs. Just about the only thing we had in common was food, so we ate all the time and ate alot. Almost as soon as we broke up, I decided I needed to get in better shape and I just watched what I ate. No snacks at night, better portion control. I didn't work out at all, cuz I am lazy about that. I lost probably like 15 or so lbs. It took kind of a long time (6+ months?), but it was easy and I felt much better. Perhaps if you took a more involved approach, it wouldn't take so long. I mean, I still ate everything I wanted, just smaller portions. So perhaps if you do the smaller portions as well as cutting out some goodies. Good luck!

[Nrvsbride]

My sister lost 70 pounds without exercising. And she lost it fast too. However, I don't recommend doing what she did b/c she never ate carbs. Literally never. For breakfast she would have soy milk. Then lunch was always a salad. Then dinner she did a lean protein like grilled chicken and fish with steamed vegetables. The pounds would literally fall off her. But I believe that you have to eat everything in moderation. But if you did balance healthier carbs and stayed away from a lot of refined sugars you should be able to lose the weight.