Even though its called weight loss, most people I know want to lose fat, not lose weight. If you skip exercise altogether you'll go from being large fat, to average fat, and finally to skinny fat.
Being overweight and having lost 35 lbs this year with plenty to go(I'm still overweight), I would say that you are more likely to work out and be active if you lose weight. That doesn't require much if any exercise, just an intelligent diet.
I'm not anti-exercise and I've worked out a lot in the past, but I've found that being skinnier makes being active easier and more fun. Moving sucks if you're carrying an extra 50-100 lbs. around. Most skinny people don't really get this.
So, I've focused on nailing the diet and that works for me. I basically didn't exercise more than once a week so far this year, but now that I'm down quite a bit, I am naturally finding myself to be more active.
In the long run both exercise and eating right are incredibly important, so if you're overweight and want to be more active, get rid of the extra weight and you might find yourself exercising more by default.
I think of exercise and weight loss as completely separate.
Almost everyone should exercise. Whether you're skinny, normal weight or overweight. Exercise makes you healthy. It also tends to make skinny people eat more and overweight people eat less, though not always. Form a workout plan with fixed amounts of exercise, like 30-90 minutes per day: any extra exercise isn't bad if you want it, but it doesn't really have any more benefits.
If exercise helps you lose weight? Good. If not? Well it still has benefits. It's generally easier to lose weight through diet. If you really don't like exercise, you don't have to exercise much, and you can do workouts you like.
All I know is when I exercise regularly, I'm thinner. Just about everyone I know that exercises regularly is thin (and healthier). There are a few exceptions.
You don't have to exercise, but keep in mind that way you'll go from being fat to being skinny fat. I made that mistake myself and to be honest my body looked better before losing weight.
There are plenty people who are skinny and who don't exercise and are not healthy. Exercise helps you get more healthy, it's not all about how thin you are. Walking/running is great exercise and great for you in terms of your overall health even if they doesn't help you lose weight directly. It does help your mental health.
Ever hear of skinny-fat? That's where someone is at the right weight, but because they do no exercise they have NO muscle tone. It's better to exercise and not have a perfect diet than not exercise and have a perfect diet.
Your point absolutely has merit. I know some, but not many, badly overweight people who exercise regularly. I know some, but not many, skinny people who never lift a finger.
I was mostly trying to address the direct cause-and-effect conclusion the parent comment was making with breathing hard == losing weight
Yeah, that is true, but I hold that being overweight and exercising (real exercise, not the fake gym training programs) is far better for your health and your well being overall. At least you keep a functional body - you can do long walks, runs, climbing, etc. - which is a much better life if you ask me, but that's only my opinion, I repeat, only an opinion.
Edit. Just to be clear, of course being slim and exercising is a better option. I am just saying that for health I would prioritize exercise over weight.
> Contrary to what the exercise industry tells you in ads, you actually can't lose weight with exercise. Diet is almost always required to lose weight.
You can certainly lose weight by doing exercise and keeping your caloric intake constant. It might as well be that out of all people who want to lose weight, only a small % of people have the discipline/volition to follow such a plan. But that's a far cry from "you can't lose weight with exercise".
I used to exercise a lot in high school but since college I've been doing less and less. Still, I seem to be unable to gain weight, its been like this my whole life, and it doesn't seem to matter what my diet is and how much I eat. My excuse for not exercising is that I would be even skinnier then I already am :)
I think he/she means that normal exercise, or rather the typical amount of exercise that people do, is insufficient to burn the calories in a normal diet. So while the exercise you do is healthy, you shouldn't be expecting weight loss, though at the same time you should expect less weight gain (which I wouldn't consider as weight loss).
I'm not arguing that you shouldn't exercise, merely that it probably takes more than exercise alone to lose weight. There are many other great reasons to exercise.
> When faced with the choices "be fat" or "exercise regularly and make good dietary choices to lose and keep weight off" most people choose "be fat".
I think this is where education comes in, because when I was overweight I used to assume exercise had to be painful to be useful, and it really doesn't. Literally anything other than being 100% sedentary counts as meaningful exercise. It's okay to walk slowly with breaks, run slowly with breaks, walk in a pool where your weight is less of a factor, or whatever helps you. It's perfectly fine to exercise at a volume and intensity where you don't feel any pain at all, and "no pain no gain" is a disastrous lie.
As you note, it's hard to make that kind of change twice. I think we do a disservice by discouraging people from exercising, rather than presenting it as an optional but beneficial extra.
> Many of the people in my life are thin and completely sedentary, and they've never battled with their diet or weightloss. I'm sure you know some people like that too
My (at the time new) boss once said "I bet you don't need to worry about this stuff [diet and exercise]" at a time when I was still eating 3000kJ under my TDEE, which was quite funny. But yes, I agree there really are some people who don't need to exercise to be skinny.
The biggest problem I have is with hiding information from people. I agree that exercise isn't necessary or sufficient for weight loss, but I think on the margins exercise does help a considerable number of people succeed who would otherwise fail. That's why I don't like how most weight-related articles that end up on HN have something negative about exercise at the top of the comments.
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