I can't maintain unless I exercise. Without regular exercise, my body settles at around a size 6/8. I know that sounds ok, but I'm very short. At my height (5') that size puts me at the low end of "overweight" when going by my BMI. I feel my best when I'm a size 2/4, and I can only maintain the weight that puts me there when I exercise.

I've had a busy semester so have stopped exercising and I've put on about 5 pounds. It's frustrating how quickly it comes back when I stop exercising! I've accepted that exercise is non-negotiable for me, and that I'll just have to sacrifice something else in my life when I'm short on time.

So how about you? You often hear that exercise is for fitness and diet is for weight loss, but with me exercise is necessary for both. Do you also need to exercise to keep your weight in check? Or can you maintain without it?

EDIT: Oops, I meant to post this in "Living Maintenance," thought I was in that folder.

Yes, I believe exercise is an important part of Maintenance and keeping the weight off for good.

I exercise 45 minutes to an hour every morning, I have 2 months of Weight Maintenance under my belt. I do Leslie Sansone 4 miles every morning and I use hand wieghts and do HeavyHands techniques to increase calorie burn

Congrats on your weight loss!

I admire your commitment to daily exercise, especially in the morning!

I'd honestly be happy with doing just 10 intense minutes every day. It's so strange. I love being active when I am, but when I fall out of the habit I become such a sloth. I wish I were more fidgety at least.

I'm on vacation this week so have been exercising every day. I know that's going to be hard to do once Monday rolls around though. I'm up every day from 5:30 until around midnight, and my day is pretty non-stop. I don't want to sacrifice the little sleep I'm getting to exercise, so I'm not quite sure what to do. My semester ends in a month though and my daily schedule will be far more healthy then. I hate this kind of lifestyle and resent that my academic program expects us to live like this. A balanced lifestyle is so much healthier and enjoyable.

I was initially maintaining without exercising but got into the habit of exercising again since end of last year.

My reason was not so much because of weight maintenance since I was maintaining fine but to keep fit. It was such a revelation to me how much my fitness deteriorated during the one year of not exercising. My problem has always been persistence but since joining a hiking group, I've been doing fun stuff which I really enjoy so hopefully, the exercise regime will last longer than all those times of starting and stopping that I was doing before!

magical - A hiking group is a wonderful idea! Once my semester ends, I'll join one.

It's sad, isn't it? I noticed a difference in my fitness after a couple of months.

How long were you maintaining w/o exercise?

Now that I think about it, I did maintain for about 9 months w/o any exercise. I don't know if it caught up with me or if I just started eating a little bit more/drinking too much. I definitely find it easier to eat fewer calories when I'm exercising. Exercise gets me used to feeling healthy and makes me less likely to overeat/snack mindlessly.

It's VERY sad! I maintained for about a year.

Got quite restless after that and this is always the same with me over the years. I start the regime, then stop after a while, get restless, then the cycle starts again.

You should try hiking! Especially in a group. It's great. It's a really hilly area where I live and hiking over 6 hours up and down hills has really built my endurance and fitness. Doing it in a group pushes you even more though it was pretty embarrassing initially when I was not as fit as the rest and was lagging behind. Hey, now, I'm one of the fittest!

I really would love to do that. Gonna look into it, but I think I'd have to drive about 30 minutes to get to a hilly hiking area. I'd have no problem with doing that every Sat. I love hiking, but I've only done it a few times. The first time, I was in Colorado a few years back with some friends. I was really out of shape and definitely the laggard! The next time, I was in Arizona a couple of years after that. I was in killer shape at the time b/c I'd been exercising consistently for a while at that point. One of my friends from the CO group was also in the AZ group and she commented that we'd traded places b/c she could hardly keep up with me. I'm sure I'd have wobbly legs now though!

I'm not maintaining yet but i've been to low weight so many times in the past and i know that if i want to maintain my ideal low weight i will have to do regular exercise BUT,

if i just want to maintain a healthy low weight, i can probably do it without formal exercise.

I am somewhat worried about it but will probably accept a higher than ideal weight eventually because i've never been able to sustain an ongoing fitness program. i always give up despite my good intentions. That's not to say i won't keep looking for something that i can can sustain but its not likely to be running and it certainly isn't the gym because that's not my thing in any circumstances. The best i might be able to do is walking on the beach occasionally and just more gardening which is very physical. I'm not doing much of that at the moment and because i'm such an inconsistent person with activity, i know there'll be long periods of no gardening either.

Exercise hasn't figured prominently in my loss or maintenance; I can get and keep things mostly controlled with what happens in the kitchen. Left to my own devices, I am probably just north of sedentary - I have a desk job, a long commute, and tend to prefer more mind-centered recreation over physical activity. At 46, however, I am finding the subtle changes of middle age are irritating (loss of flexibility, deteriorating balance, distribution of weight), and I am making a greater effort to get moving now.

I exercise daily, partly to relieve stress and allay depression, partly out of a compulsion, and partly to control my weight. I think it's simply become part of my identity. My former identity was "fat girl" and now it's "gym rat." It's strange how, when I was fat, I just wanted to be normal, but once I got to normal, I decided that I wanted to be athletic and fit, and so saddled myself with a lifetime fitness project.

I can maintain without exercising, but I feel a lot better when I do exercise.

I exercise, try for 5x per week. It makes me feel much better, like Krampus and Saef. I've gained back some and am struggling with it now even as I exercise regularly, but it does make me feel more in control and stronger.

I am maintaining without exercising. I don't like the way I get when I do exercise. If I miss a day it's a catastrophe. I just get way too addicted. It's better for me emotionally to maintain with diet only.

I don't know if I can maintain without exercise because I've never tried to, but my common sense tells me that I would gain if I stopped----mainly because I don't think I would be able to cut down my food intake enough to make up for the calories I'm not burning. I do a TON of exercise (1 1/2 - 2 hours, 6 days a week), so I'm assuming that if I were to go from that to nothing, I would gain. To be honest, one of the main reasons I exercise is so that I eat more. I have maintained my weight loss longer this time than any other time in my life (approx. 2 1/2 years), and I attribute that in large part to the fact that I do not usually feel deprived. I regularly treat myself to the types of foods I love, and I can do that and still not gain because I'm burning off so many calories each day. I have not gotten burned out because I incorporate exercise with my work (my husband made me a Tread Desk years ago, and I use it nearly every day because I do lots of work on my computer) and I go to a terrific CrossFit class about 4 x weekly that I really enjoy.

I've been at it for so long, I think at this point, I would feel so guilty not exercising!