Can you lose weight with exercise alone?

I know in theory that the answer to this question is yes... if you burn enough calories you'll lose weight... but I wanted to ask if anyone out there has experienced significant weight loss just by changing their exercise habits alone. While I am not in out-of-control-binge mode, I'm also not on an eating plan, but I'm working out 5 times a week at a high intensity for 30-45 min a day (where I was not working out AT ALL before).

Has anyone else tried just exercise and seen results? I'm hoping this works out for me cuz dieting has become REALLY tough for me, and I'm trying to lose about 10 more pounds.

The stat I usually see is "it's 80% diet, 20% exercise." I think you're probably MORE likely to do it with diet alone than exercise alone. Personally, I've always exercised, and I got up to 290 lbs. Because the exercise I was doing was not nearly enough to negate what I was eating. When I lived in Australia and didn't have a car, I had to walk everywhere. That turned out to be enough exercise to stop me from gaining (until I moved back to the States and put on 50 lbs), but still not enough to start losing.

I do it with diet alone, I don't exercise at all...I just haven't found the time or the motivation..and it's something I'm working on because I know it will be healthier for me...but I've lost all the weight so far with no exercise.

I think the only time you could do it with exercise alone is if you were already close to GW, and you normally ate healthy foods...and then you could lose a bit...

I don't know for sure though, especially since I don't exercise at all..lol

My personal belief is no.

I have always been active and for years I tried to do it with exercise alone and absolutely nothing happened until I fixed my diet. The calorie deficit created by exercise was never enough to counteract the calories I was consuming. For me, it was much easier to cut out the excess calories than to burn them off (actually, it would be near impossible to exercise off the calories I was consuming).

Don't get me wrong, exercise has its place for many, many reasons, but it just didn't happen for me until I fixed my diet.

I managed to lose weight without dieting, but it took an awful long time! I wasn't actually planning to lose any weight, I just didn't have a car for a year. I lost about 2 stone (28lb) in that time, which I know isn't a huge amount, but is quite good considering I had chips and pizza all the time! The only change I can think of was that I started walking everywhere, which I wasn't used to.

Hopefully it will work for you, and even if you don't lose much weight, I'm sure your body will thank you for the extra exercise and you'll have much more energy, etc. I'd keep an eye on what you're eating anyway though - it's never to good to not think about what's going in your mouth!!

Good luck!!

About two years ago, I started exercising without dieting. Unfortunately, I wasn't weighing myself, but I know I was losing weight because my family and friends were going on about how much weigh I was losing.

But it does work. Plus, exercise alone will make you, usually, choose to eat healthier options because, at least for me, it feels kind of gross eating something greasy or unhealthy just after working out.

To maximize results, you gotta do both. But doing one or the other is so much better than doing nothing!

Interesting.

Over the summer, there was a month or two where I was jogging almost daily AND regularly biking thirty minutes to work. I lost maybe seven pounds, though it got in gear, and with calorie counting, I lost more weight without too much difficulty.

In my mind, if you're going to make the effort of the exercise, why not try to eat right? It will make weight loss for effective, theoretically, and be more motivating.

Just exercising will always be beneficial, and is wonderful if you love it for what it is Results would just be significantly slower.

You burn a lot less calories than you think you should after exercising (or at least that's what I think! 300 calories after running 3 miles??? please, give me like 1000 lol). How I used to try to lose weight was by doing both - eating healthy foods and exercising. I would get hungrier from the extra exercise, and I would still consume enough to maintain (or even gain) weight. And I don't want to lie to you because I want you to be successful... but 30 - 45 mins of high-intensity activity really isn't that much, especially considering you're not changing your eating habits.

If you really just want to exercise, you should include some weight lifting to build muscle and increase your metabolism, on top of your cardio. But I really think you'd make the best progress if you modified your diet, even a little! Good luck!

I think in theory its definitely possible to lose weight by exercising like crazy and not watching what you eat. BUT, in my opinion, it's not very practical. When I eat like crap, I don't have the energy to work out. And when I work out, I feel so good that it makes me what to eat healthfully! So, for me, the two go hand in hand .

I did it about 3 summers ago! But I just finished cheering competitively in college and moved home w my parents. The only thing that changed about my diet was I was eating more home cooked meals. I also like to take in the fact that I was 24 yrs old my metabolism was still high and I was running up to 7miles almost 6 days a week. I tried to do that now...lose weight with out exercise and my body laughed at me. I didn't see results until I started tracing my calories and watching what I put in my mouth. I would say take some small steps in ur diet and change some things here and there....it will all fall into place

My sister in law lost 70 pounds, and she claims up and down it was by exercise alone.

In the beginning, it was. She started running and didn't change her diet one bit. She started losing weight, simply because she was burning more calories. But it was SLOW. Then, she started training for a marathon and began to lose a little more weight. But, she still didn't change her diet.

However, at some point while training for marathons she slowly made healthier choices because her body reacted better to them. So she did make the dietary changes eventually, but not because she was "on a diet" but because her body started craving other things.