Okay, I am exhausted. I just completed a 50 min workout, and my legs are killing me.

I am definitely crabby.

Some days it seems pretty easy, other days it is such a @%&*!$ chore. I probably did not even burn 400, much less 500.

What do you ladies do to meet your calorie deficit? Is it just a matter of sucking it up? Or do you employ any tricks to make it easier?

I restrict my intake, it is so much more reliable than trying to increase my output (which is a less efficient method of calorie control, bar none). My exercise is just a bonus/buffer for my day, I have long since stopped calculating my estimated calorie burn.

It has always been for me - if I exercise, I lose. If I just try to eat reasonably, I lose more slowly. I keep hearing over and over again that it's 80% diet and 20% exercise, but I think for me it's more like 60/40. I think I tend to build muscle and exercising speeds up my metabolism or something. Plus, I feel less hungry and stronger and CARE more about what I put in my body, if I'm exercising.

And exercise doesn't have to be hard to be effective. A brisk walk is great exercise. Gardening is great exercise. And it doesn't have to be all at one time to be a benefit. Walk your kids to school, take a walk midday, walk to pick kids up from school and so on. Fitting it in whenever and where ever. If it feels too hard, then it probably is and if it feels that hard, you won't keep it up.

Although it's nice to see you've burned off X amount of calories, another major benefit you're getting from the exercise is an increased metabolism! I try and focus on this rather than how many calories I've burned or I end up staying there for hours trying to hit new goals

Better to just do a set amount of time there (And 50 minutes is great and very ideal) and keep your metabolism in a good place!

Keep in mind, too, that in exercising like in many things, there are days with and days without. On the days it seems easy, just go with the flow. On the days it's hard, don't blame yourself or whatever. Maybe you'll need to do a little less--if it's the case, be a little more careful with your food on that particular day, and then the next time exercise as usual again?

I make my calorie deficit with diet and the exercise is the bonus. I don't have my calorie allotment set too low though. I keep a comfy range and am satisfied to fall somewhere within it.

Trying to work off 500 calories a day is a lot of working out. If you were to push it that hard everyday to make that calorie deficit, you'd be exhausted and in pain within a week. That kind of exercising needs to be worked up to. I can do long rides on a recumbent bike but if I do it too many days in a row, it experience too much muscle fatigue and joint pain. If you over-exert yourself, you aren't doing yourself any favors. Your body will have pain and you won't get good muscle recovery. Exercise should be building towards your fitness goals, not just burning calories.

ditto above.. i restrict what i eat. i am TERRIBLE with exercise and i acknowledge that. I also know that this will take me a long time but i am ok with it because i am ready for this journey. It has to be realistic and i do not think that even if i lost the weight with exercise, i would be able to maintain the amount of exercise. so i might as well eat used to the amount i can eat now!

I don't focus on the calories burned either. I basically tell myself I'm gonna do the tmill for an hour per day, 5 times per week. Sometimes I absolutely don't want to do it, so I tell myself as long as I get on for an hour, I can walk as slow as I want. After about 20 minutes, I WANT to go faster. I just listen to my body and if I'm not feelin' it, I just go slower.

I get my calorie deficit by what I'm eating (or rather, what I'm not). Exercise just helps me keep my tendons and joints lubricated ("motion is the lotion" for pain), and give me better flexibility, stamina, strength, and balance. I don't even keep track of the so-called "calories burned" when I exercise -- not only because I don't care, but also because those calculations are notoriously inaccurate for anyone as far outside of normal weight as I am.

Gosh

This is a lot of food for thought, ladies! It does have me rethinking my mentality about this calories burning business. I guess I am just really hung up on the number because a deficit of 1000 a day = 2 lbs lost a week, and the thought of 2 lbs. a week is what I have been basing all of my goals on.

I thought a 2 lbs/week loss was VERY reasonable, given I have had a history of severe restriction/fasting to lose weight quickly. 2 lbs seemed positively snail-like!

But maybe I need to revise my mindset again. My calories are already cut -500. So perhaps I ought to resign myself to a pound a week and be happy with the extra change...

Slow and steady wins this race! I don't believe there is any room for desperation in weight loss. The best thing someone who feels overwhelmed can do is pay attention to the anxiety(change causes anxiety, but change can be very good) and work their plan. Day by day will pass and you will start to see and feel the difference. If you eat healthier and exercise for a while, you'll probably start to like the new way you're living. Sometimes we don't get the results we want and have to keep on tweaking but it's very empowering when you can make progress with a reasonable plan. Until you work your calorie deficit for a few weeks,you won't know if it's right for you or not.

You could always give yourself a time frame. Give it a month or so and evaluate what has or hasn't worked for you. Take measurements to back reinforce that you've lost when the scale is being stubborn. You'll see results if you work a reasonable plan.

Exercise is good for many reasons but speeding up the metabolism is not one of them. It is a myth that exercise incereases your metabolism. If you have a really intense session you will experience something calleed EPOC which can last quite a while but this burns very few calories.

It can be argued that if you exercise you will build muscle and it is true that muscle burns caloires but the number is fairly low. Build 10 lbs of muscle and expect to burn about 60 more calories per day. This is offset by losing fat. Fat burns calories to. (ABout 3x less than muscle)

I am another who goes by calorie counting I rely on the number if calories consumed , or not, and any calories burned by exercise is a bonus.

Chiming in to agree with 4star - Slow and steady really DOES win this race!

Something else to consider - instead of "1-2 pounds a week" look at your weight loss trend over the month. A lot of us have noticed that our weight loss isn't linear from week to week. Maybe this is because of hormones/TOM, or water weight, or sore muscles . . . whatever the reason if you don't have a loss in any given week, that doesn't mean that week was "bad." Look instead at the trend over time.

My weight loss graph on Livestrong is wonky. I weigh daily for me, and record the weight every Monday. Some points on the graph jump up, some are the same, some are big losses (whooshes) and some are little losses. But, over the 15+ months I've been doing this, the graph does, indeed, go down.

For me, this time (as opposed to ALL the other times I'd tried to lose weight) it was never about how fast I could get there, it was about making sustainable changes that will keep me here for good.


Oh, and on your original point, I don't keep track of calories burned, either. But exercise helps my mood, food choices, and fitness like crazy!

Jen, I am happy you posted! Your posts in other threads are always interesting to me, and I love hearing about the lessons you have learned along the way. You are one of the ladies on 3fc who really inspire me

From what you and some of the others are telling me, I think I am starting to realize I have not been keeping the bigger picture in mind. I have to remember that on the days when this all seems too difficult!