The FastDay Forum

I have long held the belief that food consumption is like a balance scale....on one hand you have the calories you eat, on the other you have the calories burned, either from daily living / and or exercising. Therefor if you burn more than you consume, you lose weight.
I've been very interested in all the posts on here that say you don't have to exercise to lose weight, in fact, that too much exercise can actually slow weight loss.
What are people's thoughts on this please.
I struggle to move about a lot due to multiple back operations and would be mightily reassurred if , in fact, I don't need to feel guilty for not exercising
Looking forward to your replies
Lorna

Hi Lornameg, I'm no expert, but just from my own experience I do agree that weight loss has more to do with what you put in your mouth than how much you burn (unless you are a SERIOUS athlete training for hours a day). That is one of the many reasons I think 5:2 makes so much sense - it focuses on calories taken in over the course of a week and the math makes sense.

That said - I think exercise of some kind, or any kind of movement that you are able to do, is a very very important thing for overall health, muscle tone, and well being if you can do it with a doctor's approval. Our bodies were designed to move, and although it is not necessary to hit the gym 5 days a week or train for a marathon, finding an activity you enjoy and can do is beneficial to your mind and body.

PS I'd like to try this - Tai chi. Anyone do this? I'm on vacation this week so maybe will try it out on the beach!

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/tai-chi/SA00087

That link looks really good, thanks. I live in the countryside in France, so it may not be easy to find a class, but I'll google it and see.
I have a wii machine which I use as often as possible, it means I can exercise whatever the weather...its 34 degrees and roasting here, so I've done my wii with the fan on!
I agree with you that the body needs to exercise for muscle tone etc...after all, the heart is a muscle as well.
All the best

Hi Lornameg I could be so wrong but thought it was in the book or maybe on this forum that you don't'' have '' to exercise at all
I'm sure its basically calories consumed daily/weekly, and for me as I was becoming rather imobile due to health issues I decided ( my-decision)to go for a walk on my 1st fastday probably 1-2miles just to keep myself occupied really, and to my amazement it worked as a suppressant for me I couldn't /can't eat a thing for quite a few hours so now do a walk on each of my 3 fasts (I'm doing 4:3 ) my walks have become longer & quicker plus I'm feeling so much better for it
So for you do what you're comfortable with or not at all, but don't ever push yourself that little bit further no-way Sue

Thanks Sue.Q, once it cools down a bit, I'll try a stroll along the lanes...
Your weight loss is amazing, I feel really encouraged by it.
After many years of yoyo dieting I still find it hard to accept days with no calorie counting...but will persevere

I am in the same boat with exercise as I have a prolapsed disk in my neck that has squished inward and is now crushing my spinal cord. The wrong movement could cause enough movement to paralyse me. So exercise of the 'bouncy, bouncy, swing your arms' type is totally out. I have tried where possible to increase my daily amount of movement, to increase my NEAT levels. But I really long for the day when I can exercise again.

I am waiting for the op, but need to get my BMI below 40 for the anesthatist to be happy.

If you look at my stats you will see that substantial weight loss is possible without exercise. But exercise should be done where possible to tone up and help your health. Also muscles use up more calories than fat but not enough to make a massive difference in weight loss as there is the negative side of muscle damage causing fluid retention to cushion, protect and heal the muscles. I would rather swap 1 lb of fat for 1 lb of muscle and a bit of temporary fluid though.

Lornameg Hi again loads of the members me included don't actually count calories now because we choose few fastday meal favorites and repeat them over & over
Julie is a prime example of the fact that you still lose weight without daily exercising, except she does walk to her shed loads of times daily Lol
We now also purchase bras from same place for in my case smaller boobs in her case Higher boobs Lol. Good Luck Lorna Sue

When I first started 'dieting' in 2011, I weighed 15.2 (212lbs) and had had 6 ops in 10 years, culminating in a new knee.
I was scared to move much, despite having been very active previously. Whatever the surgeon said I shouldn't do, I didn't do.
I lost 2 stones and put one of them back on.
Then I found 5 2. Since Jan this year, I've lost 35/36lb, by being 'careful' about what I eat (and see my signature, which mirrors your thoughts), but not doing any exercise.

However, I'm now fit enough to get back on the treadmill and, though it'll take me a while to build up both stamina and fitness, I'm already feeling so much better.

So, imho, you can lose by just watching what you eat and not exercising.

Good luck.

Hmmm... I think exercise is important since it builds lean muscle mass. Muscles burn fat, therefore drive your resting metabolic rate up. Plus, it has been proved that if you lose weight by exercising and right nutrition you are more likely to maintain your weight than by eating right alone.

So as long as your health allows, do it.

Just thought of something that might help start some gentle exercise and it's how I began, @lornameg.

Google Lesley Sansone on Youtube - she does some gentle walking programmes, which you can do at home; here's a sample - she does various 'distances'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df2gn6-w0dE

I'd look through the 5:2 Lab area for links to the research or watch some of MMs videos on food and exercise for summaries.

Exercise is good for you, no doubt, but it doesn't do much for weight loss in most people. It seems to make folks more hungry and people tend to overcompensate for their "good behavior" of exercising by rewarding themselves with more treats.

More importantly, I would say that your basic assumption, the "calories in and calories out" model is wrong, or at least terribly over simplified. This has been shown in studies where timing of eating is so important, such as the rat study where genetically identical rats fed the same diet but the group that grazed all day gained 26% more weight than the ones who ate the same amount during their 8 active hours a day. The thin, fasting rats weren't more active, but they had better insulin responses and were WARMER (burned more calories through thermogenesis). The point is that other factors such as efficiency and WHEN you eat come into play. It has also been shown in studies of people (twins) where they ask folks to eat extra calories and look at the net gain (far more variability between nonrelated folks plus a tendency for many to fidget away the extra calories).

Anyway, what goes in your mouth (calories in) is the most important part of the puzzle. If you add exercise and build muscles AND can resist the tendency to indulge because of it (or overestimate how many calories you really burned) do it. Exercising on fasting days gives you a double bonus since you are already in fat burning mode!

HTHs!

I'd look through the 5:2 Lab area for links to the research or watch some of MMs videos on food and exercise for summaries.

Exercise is good for you, no doubt, but it doesn't do much for weight loss in most people. It seems to make folks more hungry and people tend to overcompensate for their "good behavior" of exercising by rewarding themselves with more treats.

More importantly, I would say that your basic assumption, the "calories in and calories out" model is wrong, or at least terribly over simplified. This has been shown in studies where timing of eating is so important, such as the rat study where genetically identical rats fed the same diet but the group that grazed all day gained 26% more weight than the ones who ate the same amount during their 8 active hours a day. The thin, fasting rats weren't more active, but they had better insulin responses and were WARMER (burned more calories through thermogenesis). The point is that other factors such as efficiency and WHEN you eat come into play. It has also been shown in studies of people (twins) where they ask folks to eat extra calories and look at the net gain (far more variability between nonrelated folks plus a tendency for many to fidget away the extra calories).

Anyway, what goes in your mouth (calories in) is the most important part of the puzzle. If you add exercise and build muscles AND can resist the tendency to indulge because of it (or overestimate how many calories you really burned) do it. Exercising on fasting days gives you a double bonus since you are already in fat burning mode!

HTHs!

Well, I think with exercise is like with food. Eating 4 snickers a day does not equal having plenty of healthy unprocessed food with the same calorie content.
Analogically, not all types of exercise brings the equal results. The effectiveness of exercise depends on time of the day, length and intensity. Sweating in the gym/on aerobics class for 45mins or longer is much less effective than high intensity exercise lasting 10-15 mins. Also, if you exercise in the morning, you break down glycogen stores in your body straight away rather than burning through fuel flowing in your blood from the meals you've had during the day. Also to make up for the energy lost during the exercise you need to stock up again, but if you chose a banana with some nuts and yoghurt or a grilled meat with salad, you wont be hungry and you will till get benefits of the exercise. Another option is exercising in the evening, which still is better than not exercising at all.

It's a little disappointing to see people's attitude towards exercise and using fasting as a way out of it. Fasting, with all its benefits, won't improve your fitness or muscle tone, flexibility etc. These thing decline with age and if you want to be healthy, you will need to invest in one or other form of physical activity.
You will look slim and have better eating habits but you will still get knackered after walking a flight of stairs. And as muscle mass goes down with age, your metabolic rate goes down with it, you will end up having a slow ass metabolism at 60 and will have to starve yourself on normal days in order to maintain your weight.

It also helps to maintain cognitive performance. Don't deprive yourself of that!

I don't think it's lornameg depriving herself of exercise, so much as it's her multiple back operations. Plenty of people here who have similar issues and 5:2 is helping them lose weight.

I believe that exercise is the single most important thing anyone can do to improve their overall health, exceeding even weight loss by significant degrees.

I also believe (know) that exercise, for the average overweight person, is almost irrelevant in the weight loss process.